A week after the appointment of the former PRO deputy, Francisco Sánchez, as Secretary of Worship in the government of Javier Milei,
the position remains formally vacant
.
And it remains vacant because the procedures for his designation to be formalized
did not advance in the Foreign Ministry
as should be necessary for it to later be made official by a presidential decree.
Sánchez's candidacy remains
as complicated as it was during his appointment,
despite the fact that the leader already occupies the office of the head of the Secretariat of Worship and maintains arduous meetings.
Sánchez has statements from the past in which he criticized the Pope and the different faiths and had to apologize.
But his relationship with Foreign Minister Diana Mondino
is under tension
due to a series of events, as
Clarín learned.
His very candidacy is so questioned that, with the excuse that “there is no money”, the Casa Rosada and the Chancellor now
do not want to add him
to the trip that President Javier Milei will make in February to the Vatican, where an audience has been specifically requested. with Pope Francis.
In that exchange there was even a hint of resignation, which at an official level no one confirms.
It happens that Mondino and Sánchez are still in talks to support the designation.
The thing is that they would not give him what he had originally asked for: also managing, from the Secretary of Worship, the relationship between the Chancellery and the provinces, which would be a national direction.
High sources told
Clarín
that Sánchez is willing to pay for his own trip to Rome to accompany the presidential delegation to see the Pope on February 11, the day the Pontiff is going to canonize the Argentine saint Mama Antula.
The trip that Milei plans is part of the same tour in which he will be received by the Italian premier Georgia Meloni.
And part of the one that will take him to Jerusalem, Israel.
Clarín
knows
that just a few days ago the outgoing ambassador to the Vatican, Fernanda Silva, did her job and formally requested an audience for Milei with the Pope.
That is the way, together with the management of Mondino in Buenos Aires with the Apostolic Nuncio.
The tensions with the Pope and the Vatican that Milei himself was involved in due to his criticism of Bergoglio a few years ago and in the first stage of his electoral campaign, continue to also be echoed in the Vatican.
The government has not yet appointed an ambassador to the Vatican and Sánchez's case did not go well.
They categorically affirm to this newspaper in the Government that
Mondino wants a career diplomat and not a political one in the Vatican
.
The thing is that his campaign promise was to appoint career diplomats but until now he has only appointed politicians.
However, some names of politicians came up,
the former deputy Cristina Guzman,
who has direct contact with all faiths and was the architect of one of the meetings between Guillermo Francos and bishops and archbishops of the interior in the hours prior to Milei's letter to the Pope .
The other leader who is heard is Paula Bertol, former deputy and former ambassador to the OAS of Mauricio Macri.
But they are not the only ones, but the advantage would be for a diplomat.
Her Chief of Staff, Federico Barttfeld, and Vice Chancellor Leopoldo Sahores, continue interviewing candidates, and Silva herself, as anticipated by
Clarín
, proposed "cutting down" travel costs by staying at the Vatican embassy herself.
She has no chance even though she went from being a fervent ultra-Kirchnerist of the Instituto Patria to being a defender of the Libertarian.
There would also be no willingness to grant Sánchez the powers he requested within the Foreign Ministry, such as adding the national directorate of provinces under the wing of Worship, which is the link between the ministry and the interior.
Complicated by his statements
The emergence of the Neuquén deputy from Patricia Bullrich's team in the campaign, and who in the Lower House became friends with Javier Milei and his running mate, Vice President Victoria Villaruel, greatly surprised when he was appointed by Mondino in a hypersensitive position for relations with the Vatican and with all the faiths of Argentina.
And it was surprising because as his name became known, a statement of his that was more controversial than the other appeared, starting with one against the Pope himself, for which he regretted and for which he apologized, according to what he himself said in an interview with
Clarín.
It happens that, wanting to criticize the former judge of the Supreme Court, the ultra-Kirchnerist Eugenio Zaffaroni, Sánchez - until then known only for his controversial project in deputies to impose the death penalty and apply it to Cristina Kirchner - wrote in a
tweet “case for scholars to find a Pope who has done so much harm.”
Then he had expressions that
hurt both the Jewish and Muslim communities.
If his appointment to succeed the now former Secretary of Worship, Guillermo Oliveri, left the Church “stunned,” the institutional silence and the lack of photos with the creeds do not help Sánchez at this time.
His future will be decided upon the return of Mondino, who since Tuesday
has participated in a Mercosur summit and a series of bilateral meetings in Paraguay.
-I am a practicing Catholic and it is not difficult for me to repent.
When I make mistakes, I can accept them, I recognize them and confess them and it is not difficult for me to do so.
I apologize every time I have to apologize.
I have not done it publicly in all cases, but of course, to every person I have offended without meaning to do so, I apologize, Sanchez said in the interview with
Clarín
a week ago, in which he was very kind and open to dialogue. .
-You tried to do "so much harm" to Pope Francis and that has caused a lot of discomfort in the Church, he was asked
-About the Pope I am absolutely sorry.
It was a very serious mistake.
Sometimes the situation, the political circumstances, the political moment, and above all the confusion in which this rift between Kirchnerism and the rest of the Argentines engulfed us all made us confused, and I personally did so in that case very badly. , offending the Holy Father.
That's what I would say is a giant degree of regret on my part.
Because, I repeat, I involved a local issue that has to do with the appointment of someone who is not sympathetic to me and to many Argentines (the former Supreme Court judge and ultra Kirchnerist, Eugenio Zaffaroni) and I confused it with a theological issue.
And for a faithful person that is very serious.
It was pointed out to me by very close people, but also by family.
In that regard I clearly regret it.