The "how" and the "what" of the pontificate: Purcaro, Parolin and Giordano's editorial

After Pope Leo XIV's lung surgery, two different voices have framed the future of the pontificate. On one side, his Augustinian friend Arthur Purcaro, who tells the National Catholic Reporter of a possible change in the "how", not the "what". On the other, Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, who said on 15 October that the Pope will reshape his pontificate "if it is necessary to reshape it" (ANSA, our translation): a remark that Mario Giordano criticised yesterday in an editorial in La Verità with the line "You cannot put a Pope under administration" (our translation).

Purcaro's interview. Arthur Purcaro, an Augustinian, served as a missionary in Peru in the 1980s with the young Robert Prevost and later worked with him in Rome for six years, when the future Pope led the Order. Interviewed in Rome by Justin McLellan for the National Catholic Reporter, he answered a question about possible changes to the pontificate after the diagnosis:

"Maybe the how to, but not the what. He knows what he's called to do and how to do it" (NCR, 19 October).

On the pace of work: "I hope we'll see a little bit of a slowing down in the pace, but other than that, I'll be surprised if there were any change in the velocity of the change in personnel" around the Vatican. Our earlier coverage: the Purcaro flash.

In Fatima, the prayer. On Sunday 18 October, while the Pope prayed the Angelus in Rome, about 18,000 pilgrims in Fatima attended the Mass at which the Archbishop of Évora, Francisco Senra Coelho, asked them to pray for the Pope's health, the shrine reports (Fatima.pt).

Parolin's words. On 15 October, on the sidelines of an event at the Embassy of Iraq to the Holy See, while the Pope was in the Gemelli, Pietro Parolin told journalists that the Pope will "reshape his pontificate, if it is necessary to reshape it" (ANSA, our translation). The next day he clarified that he meant travel. The full picture: "Readjusting the pontificate".

Giordano's editorial. On 19 October, in La Verità, Mario Giordano published an editorial under the headline "Dear Parolin, you cannot 'replace' the Holy Father" (our translation). It is opinion, not news. In the piece Giordano addresses the Secretary of State and writes: "Non si può commissariare un Papa" ("You cannot put a Pope under administration", our translation; La Verità). Our earlier coverage, with the Rai ratings for the Angelus: the flash.

Two readings, one set of facts. Neither Purcaro nor Giordano speaks for the Holy See. The first describes, as a friend, a pontificate that would remain unchanged in substance; the second argues, as an editorialist, with those who spoke of "reshaping". The convalescence and the return to engagements remain the ground of the facts: we follow them in the live blog.

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