Vatican City – This morning the Holy See released a motu proprio signed by Leo XIV on 19 November 2025, with which the new Pontiff amends the Fundamental Law of the Vatican City State of 13 May 2023, intervening directly in the composition of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. The provision published today repeals Article 8, §1, replacing it with language that allows the President to be chosen from members appointed by the Pope who are not necessarily cardinals.
Although technically a legislative adjustment, in substance it confirms what Silere non possum had been reporting since January: the appointment of Sister Raffaella Petrini as President of the Governorate did not comply with the law then in force. It now becomes clear that the amendment attributed to Francis — announced by the Press Office on 25 February, as the Argentine Pontiff was entering and leaving the Gemelli Hospital — never existed.
The 15 February appointment: an act incompatible with the law in force
On 15 February 2025, one month after Bergoglio had announced the appointment live on television during Che Tempo che fa, the Holy See declared that Francis had named Sister Raffaella Petrini President of both the Pontifical Commission and the Governorate. Yet Article 8 of the Fundamental Law required that the President be a cardinal. Appointing a religious sister to that office was juridically impossible.
Silere non possum, standing alone, demonstrated that this was a violation of the rule of law, another institutional rupture carried out by a Pontiff governing as a despot. The response was silence — especially from those journalists on the Santa Marta payroll, the same ones Francis welcomed to sign books, grant exclusive interviews, and offer other media courtesies. The Secretariat of State reacted hastily, crafting the 25 February communiqué in an attempt to “cover” the act. Today it can be said without hesitation: that communiqué was false.
The 25 February communiqué: an announcement without a legal text
On 25 February 2025, the Press Office claimed that Francis had amended the 2023 Fundamental Law and Law No. CCLXXIV of 2018 and announced the appointments of Msgr. Emilio Nappa and Avv. Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi as Secretary-Generals of the Governorate, granting Sister Raffaella Petrini — described as the new President — the power to assign competencies. The communiqué was clear in tone, but lacked what mattered: the law itself. No such amendment was ever promulgated, published in the Cortile San Damaso, printed in L’Osservatore Romano, or entered into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. As Silere non possum stated the very same day: without publication, a law does not exist.
No one else wished to address the issue — unwilling to disturb the powerful. What has unfolded in recent hours is indicative. Some voices in the para-Vatican media — among them Franca Giansoldati, who claims to be suffering from cystitis whenever criticism exposes her lack of professional accuracy — once made their way up to the third floor of St Peter’s Fabbrica to celebrate Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, producing articles tailored to his needs. Today, however, those same circles have suddenly become uncomfortable places, and those who once praised them now keep their distance. Such is the destiny of journalism that bends to whoever holds power: when the powerful change, the dog turns around and bites you. One can only hope that Giansoldati recovers soon — and with recovery, also regains a measure of professional clarity.
Today’s motu proprio: Leo XIV forced to repair an irregularity
The motu proprio signed by Leo XIV on 19 November — published only today — intervenes directly on Article 8.
The previous text stated: «1. The Pontifical Commission is composed of Cardinals, including the President, and of other members appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.
2. In the absence or impediment of the President, the Pontifical Commission is chaired by the first of the Cardinal Members in order of seniority of appointment and then of age.»
The new wording for §1 now reads: «The Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State is composed of Cardinals and of other members, including the President, appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.»
This single sentence settles the matter: under the previous law, the President had to be a cardinal. If the norm must be amended today, it means the appointment was juridically irregular. And here lies the political-ecclesial issue: in recent months Leo XIV has been forced to intervene repeatedly because he inherited a landscape of legal inconsistencies. Some corrections are made public; others are adjusted discreetly to avoid further media shockwaves. It is a sober style, one the media class resents simply because it offers them no profit or visibility. We will return to this in the coming hours.
The formal confirmation of the denunciation: the law never existed
Individuals close to the dying Pope had already told Silere non possum that neither the signature nor the law existed. This detail casts an unsettling light over the entire pontificate of Francis, marked by motu proprios signed and then hidden, by informal channels around Santa Marta that enabled anything to be approved without oversight. This is the context in which the figure of Stefano De Santis emerges — involved not only in gathering dossiers on priests and bishops for the Pope, but also in circulating documents whose signatures enabled the Gendarmerie and the Promoter of Justice to act without limits. The pattern repeated itself with Renato Tarantelli, who brought documents to Francis for signature, and the Pope — without reading them — signed. Overnight, appointments shifted, administrative structures were altered, transfers and envelopes of cash moved. Santa Marta operated in structural disorder, fuelled by improvisation, opacity, and the absence of real controls. Today, with Leo XIV’s motu proprio, the confirmation becomes public: the Holy See Press Office issued false information on 25 February in an official document. This is extremely serious: not a clerical mistake, but an attempt to present as valid a non-existent norm to justify a despotic act of the Pontiff.
The rubble to be cleared
Leo XIV, a canonist with sound judgement and discernment, inherits an institutional system that in recent years has operated with criteria far removed from legal logic. And those complaining today about the return to normality — carefully prepared texts, measured words, sober meetings, moments of prayer, minimal media exposure, no theatrical communication — are precisely those who had benefited from the previous climate of opacity, in which corruption, manipulation, and pressure influenced papal decisions, risking the stability of the Holy See and the wider Catholic Church, shaken almost daily by improvised acts and spontaneous public interventions. The motu proprio is not merely a normative intervention: it represents another major step in the cleanup initiated by Leo XIV. And the fact that the Pope signed it “out of necessity”, solely to correct an inherited error, is evident from his decision not to repeal §2. Leo XIV has a precise understanding of the distinction between holy orders, baptism, and religious life; he knows the hierarchical structure of the Church, respects it, and has no intention of overturning it.
Leo XIV has begun to put the pieces back in order. But what emerges — amid false communiqués, missing acts and journalistic cover-ups — is the picture of a governance that had chosen arbitrariness over transparency. And Prevost knows well: if this is the machinery that surrounded Bergoglio, then it is time to replace it. Without delay.
f.E.P.
Silere non possum