Vatican City - Inside the Dicastery for Communication, a peculiar mix of instincts has been on display in recent months. On one side are those familiar figures who owe their positions not to merit, but to friendships and backroom dealing; on the other, that equally familiar and rather warped breed of self-styled Catholic who feels an irresistible need to ingratiate himself with whoever happens to be in power.
For months now, Massimiliano Menichetti has been trying to show the Pope - and the new prefect, Maria Montserrat Alvarado - just how good he is at his job. He appears to have forgotten one detail, however: Alvarado, too, has watched what has been going on inside that Dicastery over the years, albeit from the other side of the fence. And one really has to wonder whether these people genuinely think she can be taken in by their dazzling smiles, sham initiatives and all those supposed changes for which Menichetti is so eager to act as spokesman. Projects designed to change everything, disrupt the ordinary working lives of many, and ultimately change nothing.
Menichetti now needs to find a new ally in Alvarado, otherwise he risks being shown the door. For years he was Paolo Ruffini’s standard-bearer; now that the communist with the Rolex has been removed, he has to reposition himself quickly. The strategy is fairly obvious: persuade Alvarado that everything in the Dicastery that still works bears his imprint, and that without him those projects would simply fall apart. If he pulls it off, he will once again have turned a carefully manufactured aura of indispensability into the means of securing himself a place under the new prefect.
At the Meeting in recent hours, Menichetti rather oddly interviewed an archbishop emeritus entirely on his own. By now, even Tornielli appears to have little use for him, especially after everything Silere non possum has published. And Menichetti was not simply stumbling over his words: it was obvious that he did not even know what he was talking about.
In 2024, Saint Augustine was nowhere to be seen on Vatican News. They did not even seem to know who he was. As for Saint Monica, they did not even know when her liturgical memorial was observed. Today, by contrast, we find Tiziana Campisi in something approaching a frenzy, trying to catch even the Pope’s eye through articles that go so far as to drag the Augustinians into the affair. Let us not forget that the Pontiff does not read Vatican News. The Augustinians are exasperated and have had enough of this ‘woman who has now latched on to members throughout the entire Order’.
When grey matter is in short supply, this is how things are done: roughly, haphazardly, trying to please one person one day and somebody else the next. Yesterday they were running him down; today they are singing his praises. The hypocrisy that killed Jesus Christ himself remains the one true tradition we have never abandoned.
Meanwhile, yesterday, some bright spark blessed with remarkable media foresight decided it would be a good idea to repost a year-old video showing Leo XIV praying before the remains of Saint Monica, with the result that many people were left asking: ‘But did the Pope go to Saint Monica today?’
No. It was simply another of Massimiliano Menichetti’s inspired ideas, as he somehow manages, day after day, the remarkable feat of finding someone exceptionally sharp to bring on board.
