Original Coverage & Source Attribution: dianemontagna.substack.com
VATICAN CITY, 18 October 2026 — Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is facing scrutiny after suggesting that Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate might need to be “recalibrated.”
On Thursday, Cardinal Parolin said it was too early to predict how the Pope’s hospitalization might affect his pontificate. With only two days having passed since Pope Leo’s admission to hospital, he said, it remained to be seen when the Pope would return, in what condition, and what the doctors would advise. Only then, he suggested, could the Pope decide whether to “recalibrate” his pontificate.
Parolin subsequently clarified that his remarks referred specifically to papal travel, including the upcoming trip to Latin America. As ANSA reported on Friday, he said he was referring to the possibility of adjusting the Pope’s travel plans rather than to a broader reassessment of his pontificate.
Nevertheless, Parolin’s remarks have provoked considerable unease within the Vatican, Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni reports. Writing in the Sunday edition of Il Giornale, Spuntoni examines the controversy surrounding the Cardinal’s comments and the wider challenges and defeats he has faced in recent months.
What follows is an English translation of Spuntoni’s article, published with his kind permission.
Nico Spuntoni
Pope Leo XIV’s earlier-than-expected discharge from Gemelli Hospital came as a relief to the Roman Curia. The past 48 hours, however, have been turbulent for Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who has found himself at the center of a storm after suggesting that the pontificate might need to be “recalibrated.” The ill-judged remark was made on Thursday evening on the sidelines of an event at an embassy and unleashed an uproar at the Vatican, forcing Parolin to clarify that he had been referring to the trip to Latin America. The clarification came just hours after the first post-operative images of Leo XIV were released and news emerged of the telephone call he had made to Vladamir Putin on his own.
Nevertheless, among prelates and Vatican insiders, there is unanimous agreement that the use of the verb “recalibrate” was ill-advised. There is surprise that the Secretary of State, known for his prudence, should have been the one to make such a misstep. Within the Vatican’s hallowed halls, he has come under fire for his excessive public profile at conferences and presentations, and for his habit of “talking too much to journalists.”
It has been an inauspicious period for the Venetian-born cardinal, who, eighteen months after the conclave, has nevertheless remained in his post at the Secretariat of State. During previous changes of pontificate, his two predecessors, Angelo Sodano and Tarcisio Bertone, had already been shown the door. Parolin, however, carries the unmistakable mark of defeat in the conclave, while Prevost is not the sort of man to inflict humiliations. But the two have never quite hit it off.
During the current pontificate, Parolin has had to swallow several bitter pills. In late August, it was Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and a good friend of the Pope, who was dispatched to Russia on the delicate mission. In 2017, by contrast, it had been the Secretary of State himself who travelled to Moscow.
Things have fared no better on the domestic front, where another “setback” came with the leasing of the Domus Paulus VI, which is now in the process of closing following the selection of a new tenant. According to Il Giornale, Parolin had strongly opposed the deal, which will turn the property on Via della Scrofa into a hotel. Last February, he reportedly tried to put the project on hold, but Leo XIV, as Francis had done before him, ultimately gave it the green light once it became clear that the move would benefit the Vatican’s finances by reducing maintenance costs.
The latest disappointment came last week with the election of Luis Antonio Tagle as Dean of the College of Cardinals, a position Parolin had already aspired to in 2025, but which Francis had denied him. One source tells us that, when the decision was made, it was the outgoing dean, Giovanni Battista Re, who conveyed the preference from on high to the cardinal bishops: “no one over eighty.” Those who had considered Parolin for the post, however, were reportedly reminded that “he has too many commitments.” That left Tagle as the sole remaining candidate, although he is already a prefect.
Now that he has been discharged from hospital, Leo will meet with the Secretary of State again, and the two may have an opportunity to clear the air over “recalibrate-gate,” as happened after a similar misunderstanding between Paul VI and Cardinal Giuseppe Siri—two men who were never particularly close.
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