After fifty days, Pope Leo’s gentle revolution has begun—not with fanfare, but with the precision of a scalpel. Some centers of power, such as the Community of Sant’Egidio, have already been significantly scaled back. Meanwhile, Francis has become a distant echo, with dwindling numbers of faithful attending Santa Maria Maggiore. The wind has shifted—and perhaps even gusts toward Venice. In this context, Cardinal Prevost may favor the return of Pietro Parolin to the lagoon. After years as Secretary of State, during which he had to navigate Bergoglio’s excesses, Parolin could now be headed for a graceful exit: he is in pole position for the Patriarchate of Venice. A “serene” farewell, fostered by his strong personal relationship with Leo.

However, if in the past one became Pope after serving as Patriarch of Venice, today, it seems, one finds oneself Patriarch after having been an ‘almost Pope’. If tradition is respected, Prevost is reportedly considering Monsignor Gabriele Giordano Caccia, a Milanese and current permanent observer of the Holy See at the UN, as Parolin’s replacement. With Parolin’s departure, the Pontiff can begin to redesign the Curia and Secretariat of State—long undermined by Francis, who appointed cardinals, nuncios, and prefects based solely on their Bergoglian credentials.

On May 24, during his first meeting with Vatican employees, Leo XIV remarked: “Popes pass, the Curia remains.” In line with this thinking, and perhaps also to ease the considerable workload of Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, Pope Leo intends to end the vacancy left after the forced removal of Georg Gänswein, Pope Ratzinger’s shadow man, from the role of Prefect of the Papal Household. The likely appointee is Archbishop Petar Raji?, 66, Apostolic Nuncio to Italy, born in Canada to Bosnian parents.

In the coming weeks, Pope Leo will have to address other sensitive matters. First among them is the leadership of the Dicastery for Bishops, where a new Prefect is expected. According to internal sources, leading candidates include Monsignor Luis de San Martín—an Augustinian like Leo and current undersecretary of the Synod—and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who would leave vacant his post as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

From discussions during the General Congregations—encouraged by two of Leo’s key electors, Cardinal jurists Burke and Versaldi—Prevost has gathered several pressing appeals. Chief among them: a return to stringent transparency in Vatican justice. This would effectively signal a de profundis for the chaotic and opaque management of the Becciu trial, where dames, investigators, and secrets became entangled under a now-tired and vulnerable pontificate. The appeal against Becciu’s conviction is scheduled for September 22, and anything remains possible.

On more earthly matters, the Vatican Gendarmerie officers who led the investigations into Becciu will, so to speak, “regain their freedom” outside the Walls. Among them is Commissioner Stefano De Santis, now at the center of a potentially explosive internal investigation.

Another request from within is for quiet transparency regarding current expenditures, with Castel Gandolfo serving as a painful symbol. Once the Pontiffs’ private residence—a spiritual haven, a place of prayer, death, and salvation—it has, in near silence, become a hybrid of museum, commercial vineyard, and refuse depot. The vineyard of the Popes, cultivated for centuries in harmony with history, has been uprooted to plant a new, larger, more profitable one—at the cost of historic gardens, forests, and native wildlife.

The Restart

Castel Gandolfo was not merely a place—it was a geography of the Church’s soul. It is where Pius XII and Paul VI died, and where, during the Nazi occupation, thousands of Jewish families were sheltered. Pius XII even turned his own bedroom into a delivery room to save lives from Nazi extermination. In their rhetoric, they preached a return to the essential; in practice, they pillaged memory.

Those responsible have names: Cardinal Fabio Baggio; Sister Alessandra Smerilli, nicknamed “the Tsarina”; and the Laudato Si’ Foundation. Sister Smerilli, a linchpin in the Vatican’s financial network, also heads the fundraising commission led by Monsignor Roberto Campisi, a staunch Bergoglian and controversial figure. Together—Smerilli in her luxury apartment and Campisi from Syracuse—they are jokingly referred to as “the odd couple.”

They are joined by Spanish layman Maximino Caballero Ledo, head of the Secretariat for the Economy, who is often criticized for his managerial approach seen as at odds with Christian values. Meanwhile, the long shadow of Jesuit Juan Cruz Villalón still looms—architect of many of the past decade’s most controversial appointments, from Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira to Ilson de Jesus Montanari.

Leo XIV inherits a suspicious and fragmented Curia, dominated by cliques and “Santa Marta hitmen” elevated on the basis of personal loyalty. Can he sever these entrenched ties? The Dicastery for Evangelization, still officially presided over by the Pope, is divided into two non-collaborating sections: one led by Cardinal Tagle and the other by Monsignor Rino Fisichella. Tagle was demoted from Prefect of the former Propaganda Fide to Pro-Prefect, while Fisichella, now Pro-Prefect for the Section for the New Evangelization, received his Jubilee 2025 assignment three years ago directly from Francis.

However, the Jubilee, once meant to be the great ecclesial event of the year, now risks turning into a boomerang. The Italian government, breaking its promise to the Holy See, failed to appoint Giancarlo Cremonesi, former president of the Chamber of Commerce, as Extraordinary Commissioner. Inside the Vatican, unease is growing over the meteoric rise of Renato Tarantelli Baccari, Vice-Gerent of the Vicariate, whose administrative decisions are raising eyebrows and discontent among Roman clergy.

But this is not just a matter of names. At stake is the credibility of the Church—and Leo XIV’s opportunity to restore the Curia to its original vocation of service. If indeed “popes pass and the Curia remains,” then those who remain must relearn how to serve. And those who lead must finally dare to govern.

*Italian daily Il Tempo