Infighting in the Roman Curia?

The Pope's encyclical yet available in Latin? A Vatican-watcher's explanation.

Andrea Gagliarducci notes that Magnifica Humanitas is not yet available in Latin, although the Latin translation, when it becomes available, will probably become the official Vatican version of the encyclical: the editio typica.

As Gagliarducci tells the story, the text was closely guarded, for fear of premature leaks, and only entrusted to the Office of Latin Letters when it was published. Thus, he concludes, “Magnifica Humanitas is a document by experts, but not a collegial document of the Roman Curia.”

Well, no. Magnifica Humanitas is a papal encyclical. It’s no secret that papal documents are regularly drafted by experts, and for that matter that they are not drafted in Latin. Still Gagliarducci has a point, insofar as there is abundant evidence that this draft was not circulated among the offices of the Roman Curia before publication. So the fact that it’s not available in Latin, while noteworthy in itself, points to a more general lack of teamwork, which itself suggests a lack of trust among Vatican offices.

This, too, is not entirely new; there have been intrigues within the Vatican bureaucracy since time immemorial. But the Vatileaks scandal during the pontificate of Benedict XVI revealed conflicts more severe than the usual office politics. Pope Francis did not resolve the problem. On the contrary he exacerbated it: both by frequently taking actions and issuing statements without consulting the offices involved, and by creating a climate of tension and outright fear among curial officials.

So Gagliarducci sees the absence of a Latin translation as evidence that “the Curia inherited by Leo XIV is still deeply divided.”