Thursday, January 26, 2006

Assisi Diplomacy

No appointments may have been announced today, but an op points out that something interesting did happen in the Audience department....

Benedict XVI received this morning in rapid succession Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, the new bishop of Assisi, and Fr. José Rodríguez Carballo, the minister-general of the Order of Friars Minor (Observants).

You'll remember that back in November, on the same day that the Pope appointed Sorrentino -- then-secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship -- as head of the Italian diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, a motu proprio was released giving the bishop of Assisi authority over the pastoral activities of the Assisi basilicas of St. Francis and St. Mary of the Angels. Until that time, their administration was exclusively under the aegis of the the respective Franciscan branches (Conventuals and Observants, respectively) to which they were entrusted.

Sorrentino has not, of yet, taken office -- he'll be installed at Assisi on 11 February. But today's meetings seem to indicate that, among the players, the changes still need some smoothing out.

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