Former Vatican editor sees polarization after ‘absolutist’ papacy

April 23, 2025

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CWN Editor's Note: In an essay for the Italian newspaper Domani, Giovanni Maria Vian—the former editor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, writes that Pope Francis was an autocratic leader, whose “absolute exercise of papal power” will now prompt urgent calls for a reform of the papacy.

Vian—who was editor of L’Osservatore Romano from 2007 to 2018—also told La Nacion that Francis had been an “absolutist” Pontiff, and that largely due to his management, the College of Cardinals is highly polarized as it approaches the conclave.

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• Posted by: feedback - Apr. 23, 2025 5:56 PM ET USA

  No need to "reform the papacy." The need is for the Cardinals to elect a man who sincerely loves Christ and His Church according to the 2000 years of Apostolic Tradition. No pachamamas, secret China deals, or Luther's birthdays.