Pope names Australian as Vatican’s chief legal expert
Pope Leo has appointed an Australian bishop to head the Vatican office that oversees the Catholic Church’s comprehensive legal system, adding global diversity to the pope’s close team of advisors in his second major Vatican appointment.
Anthony Randazzo, bishop of Broken Bay near Sydney, will be the first Australian to lead a Vatican office since the late Cardinal George Pell became the Church’s finance tsar from 2014 to 2019.
The Australian canon lawyer was given the title of archbishop on Wednesday and named prefect of the Dicastery of Legislative Texts, one of the most important positions in the Vatican.
The office is responsible for writing and interpreting the internal laws of the Catholic Church and also provides legal advice on other matters, including the Vatican City State.
At 59, Randazzo is relatively young to run a Vatican office.
He may hold this position for a period of ten years or more, being responsible for codifying and interpreting the church’s system of law.
His predecessor was Italian Archbishop Filippo Iannone, whom Leo appointed in September to head the Vatican office responsible for electing Catholic bishops worldwide.
Before his appointment as bishop, Randazzo studied canon law at the Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University and worked for five years at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The office handles, among other things, clergy sexual abuse cases around the world.
As a young bishop working in the parish office, Randazzo was in a position to deal with the effects of the abuse crisis, including when the Australian Royal Commission conducted an in-depth investigation into decades of cases in which priests raped children and bishops covered it up.
The pope is also a canon lawyer, and it is perhaps significant that an English-speaking legal expert who knows the serious shortcomings of the church’s mishandling of the abuse crisis is appointed.
Although Leo gave no indication that he intended to make changes, canon lawyers, victims and outside experts faulted the canonical system and the way it was used as part of the problem.
On closer inspection, the recent Vatican financial case involving a cardinal also revealed the limitations of the city-state’s outdated criminal and procedural laws.
In a statement on his Facebook page Wednesday, Randazzo said he was grateful for Leo’s trust.
He said he would stay in Australia for the next three months before moving to Rome.
with AP
