SANCTIFYING OFFICE
Given that Cardinal Gugerotti has never served as a diocesan bishop or as a seminary rector but spent almost his entire career either in the Vatican or as a papal nuncio, his exercise of the sanctifying office can perhaps best be seen in his promotion of the liturgies, devotions and saints of the Eastern Churches.
Catholic Syro-Malabar Liturgy
As apostolic nuncio to Great Britain then-archbishop Claudio Gugerotti preached at the concluding liturgy of the Year of Saint Joseph in December 2021.
In his homily, he extolled the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain which he said was trying, in the context of a crisis of faith in the country, “to search for the lost glory of the Catholic Church, its ancient traditions, and engaging in a serious attempt to regain and relive all of them today, in this almost secularized and relativized Western context.”
Speaking in the context of a liturgy which, with traditional Syrian chant, was celebrated at Saint Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, the Apostolic Nuncio urged the faithful “to be aware” that recovering “the glorious Christian roots” is “simply a Grace of God.”
The Traditional Roman Rite
No evidence exists of Cardinal Gugerotti publicly weighing in on the controversies surrounding Traditionis Custodes and its restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass. However, in June 2024 reports emerged that he had been supportive of the drafting of a new document further restricting the old Mass, something the cardinal later denied.
His alleged opposition to the old Mass aside, Gugerotti did attend very traditional and reverent versions of the Novus Ordo with traditional priests during his brief tenure in the UK. On the solemnity of Corpus Christi in June 2022, he celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass, followed by a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament around Covent Garden. The Mass closed the London Eucharistic Octave 2022, an annual observance to honour the Eucharist in the heart of Britain’s capital.
In his homily, he recalled how the Eucharistic procession “is the sign of our journey to heaven, preceded by Jesus, present and lover in the monstrance we carry.
“Corpus Christi, true Body of Jesus Christ, God made man, let us not resist being transformed in your image on the way to the Kingdom where there will be no more war, no more sickness, no more sense of our uselessness,” he said. “The Kingdom where you will be the light which, like blind people, we have groped for all our lives. Christ, who gave yourself with your Body and your Blood, be you the strength that saves us. Amen.”
Warning Against Liturgical Novelties
In 2005, the cardinal wrote a book on liturgy and modern man. Called L’Uomo Nuovo Un Essere Liturgico (‘The New Man: A Liturgical Being’), the book dealt specifically with the Eastern liturgy and liturgical novelties. Gugerotti warned against radical liturgical changes and attempts to make the symbolic language of the liturgy more understandable. His main concern, noted a reviewer,1 Sergii Sannikov, Leading Research Fellow of the Eastern European Institute of Theology in Lviv, Ukraine “is that a modern person should live the liturgy and does not need explanations, so attempts to restore new gestures or translate the liturgy into an understandable language, with all due respect, do not satisfy the modern person.”
Marian Devotion
In his work as nuncio and as prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Gugerotti has also promoted Marian devotion.
In July 2023, Pope Francis sent Gugerotti to represent him at the 25th anniversary of the coronation of the Madonna of Budslau in Belarus. The icon, which is housed in the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and dates back to the sixteenth century, is of great significance for Catholics in Belarus.2During his homily, Archbishop Gugerotti recounted the coronation of the icon in 1998, a momentous event initiated by Pope John Paul II carried out by Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek. He spoke of Cardinal Swiatek’s unwavering faith and resilience, even in the face of imprisonment, and how Pope John Paul II elevated him to the esteemed rank of cardinal within the Holy Church. … He addressed the Mother of Budslau, hailing her as the Queen of Love. He portrayed her as a humble girl who willingly accepted the challenges presented by God. … Under the cross, she received her Son’s final breath. Alongside the Apostles, she embraced the victorious Holy Spirit, conquering the world and its afflictions.”
As nuncio to Belarus in 2014, Gugerotti had presided over the 400th anniversary celebrations of the miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Budslau at her National sanctuary in Belarus. Drawing on the example of Pope John Paul II, he encouraged Catholics of Belarus not to be afraid, and praised their great forbearance, telling them: “Today Our Lady is looking at you and She is saying: do not let your arms weaken. You have a future, people of Belarus. There is a way before you, even if you cannot see it. God has intended this way for you. Your God is now among you in this Eucharist, and His Mother’s protection is also with you.”
Extolling Armenia’s Saint and Human Solidarity
In April 2015, under Cardinal Gugerotti’s predecessor as prefect for the Eastern Churches, Pope Francis elevated the tenth-century Armenian monk, poet, mystical writer, St Gregory of Narek (951-1010) to the dignity of a Doctor of the Church. His is celebrated in the General Roman calendar on February 27. Known for his commentaries on the Book of Job and the Song of Songs, St Gregory of Narek’s most celebrated work is the Book of Lamentations. Composed of 95 chapters of prayers and meditations, it is recognized as an “encyclopedia of prayer for all nations”, has been translated into over 30 languages, and has been compared to St Augustine’s Confessions for its introspective nature.
Three years later, Francis presided over the blessing of the statue of St Gregory of Narek in the Vatican Gardens, strengthening relations between the Holy See and Armenia and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Commemorating his feast with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in 2023, Cardinal Gugerotti said that, amid today’s “enormous individualism” and “ferocious” aggressiveness which sometimes “seem invincible,” St Gregory of Narek addresses these evils “with a brilliant spiritual vision, precisely insofar he wanted to take upon himself the sins of all, as Jesus did.
In Armenian, Gugerotti read this prayer from Narek’s works: “I take upon myself the sins of the whole world because I am personally guilty of the sins of all. And I present them to you, Lord, that you may have mercy on all.”
It is “very rare in the history of Christianity to have such an attitude, but deeply persuasive,” the cardinal said. “That cry is the cry of so much suffering, of so many wounds, of so many deaths, of so much persecution. A cry presented as a poem that snatches from God’s hands the salvation of the people so that they may be beatified and gratified by God’s vision.”
In his homily, Gugerotti noted that Gregory of Narek is called the “prayer-bearer” of all humanity “not because he is generous, but because he is deeply in solidarity with all humanity. He takes on the tragedy of everyone. This is the attitude that would be able to respond to such great individualism,” he said.
Highlighting St Gregory of Narek’s desire to be conformed to Christ by forgiving his enemies, Cardinal Gugerotti insisted: “This is not a matter of a melting or sugary spirituality that simply serves to console people. There is a strength of belonging to humanity here that is so strong that it leads us to say: everyone will be saved, or everyone will perish.”
Exclusively pursuing our economic interests, our industries, our country, at the expense of others “gets us nowhere,” he said. “This is the lived Gospel, the rest is a cosmic selfishness that is the opposite of the love of God who ended up on the cross, He who had created the world.”
GOVERNING OFFICE
Cardinal Gugerotti did not have a very public role in the Roman Curia before late 2022, and nearly his entire career has been spent either in the Vatican, or as a papal nuncio.
Both his curial experience and his work as a nuncio have been almost entirely focused on the East and the Eastern Churches. His expertise as such is mostly in political, ecumenical and diplomatic matters. In common with a small minority of Vatican diplomats, he never had formal diplomatic training which normally takes place at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.
Diplomatic Successes
Gugerotti’s own diplomatic career has generally been successful. In particular, he managed to improve relations between the dictatorial government of Belarus and the local Catholic Church, paving the way for John Paul II to visit in 2002. He was also one of the few people there able to visit political prisoners. Years later, he managed to secure the return of an exiled archbishop: in 2020 Gugerotti negotiated the return to Minsk, the Belarus capital, of the exiled Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who had been barred from returning to the country for several months.
His Approach to the Ukraine War
Gugerotti has consistently advocated for reconciliation and peace, reflecting the Vatican’s diplomatic stance. His knowledge of Russian and Ukrainian contexts has been crucial in these efforts.
During a meeting with journalists ahead of the consistory at which he was created cardinal in 2023, the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches called the Russian war in Ukraine “a slaughter” and “a barbaric war.” According to a transcript of this meeting, he also defended Pope Francis’ attempt at a balanced engagement with both sides to the conflict.
Asked about the war given his experience as former nuncio in Ukraine, the then soon-to-be cardinal said the people were “wonderful, but for historical reasons there have been a lot of divisions: East and West; Latin and Greek Catholic, among the Catholics; the Orthodox are now two Churches; government, one government comes after the other with very different perceptions and visions.”
The main problem of Ukraine, he added, “is to find unity, within itself. Of course, the disunity is not only their fault; it is something that was well-planned and ordered.”
Paradoxically, he said, the war was helping to unify the nation: “It is uniting Ukrainians because they have to fight against a single enemy, so there is no space for quarreling inside.”
Gugerotti also said the “falsification of the media” was “one of the fundamental problems” and “so, in these countries, what you do doesn’t matter, what matters is what they say you do.”
Given his background in the East and Ukraine, commentators on some Catholic news-sites such as The Catholic Heraldexpected Cardinal Gugerotti “to play a pivotal role in the Holy See’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.” But it is unclear what influence he has had on Pope Francis in that regard. Francis’ choice of Gugerotti as prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches is believed to have been because the Pope wanted to signal to Russia he was appointing a known nuncio who was not considered hostile.3Gugerrotti has consistently called for a Russian-Ukrainian reconciliation that goes beyond politics and political needs. Vatican analyst Andrea Gagliarducci has observed that his ability “to see competing perspectives is also due to his excellent knowledge of the Russian language and made him a candidate to hold the position of prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.”
Relations With Ukraine’s Local Churches
As nuncio to Ukraine from 2015 to 2020, Gugerotti earned a good reputation for upholding good relations with the local churches. He is generally viewed positively by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC).
His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the UGCC, congratulated Cardinal Gugerotti on his elevation to the College of Cardinals, recognizing the Pope’s special attention to the Christian East through this appointment. Shevchuk expressed appreciation for Gugerotti’s service to the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples, highlighting the Cardinal’s role as an associate of the Bishop of Rome and acknowledging the Pope’s love for those whom Gugerotti serves.
Gugerotti’s tenure as nuncio in Ukraine from 2015 to 2020, during which he actively engaged with the challenges posed by the conflict in the Donbas region, has likely contributed to his favorable perception. His diplomatic approach to the Ukraine War tends to align with the UGCC’s efforts to navigate complex relations with the Vatican and the broader geopolitical context.
Gugerotti has played peacemaker before with regards the Ukrainian Greek Catholics. In response to their criticism of the Pope’s joint declaration with the Patriarch of Moscow in Havana in 2016, he said. “I ask you to be patient. Not always can all parties say what they want to say. Sometimes it is necessary to find a compromise … What people will remember is their embrace, and the embrace is a holy thing.”
Views on Vatican Diplomacy
Gugerotti himself is under no illusions about how helpful Vatican diplomacy can potentially be in such conflict situations. He has remarked that Vatican diplomacy is needed to offer mediation in the world’s “desert of moral figures.”
The goal of the Holy See, he said, “is always to be an extreme possibility when all other choices have expired.”
Gugerotti was effusive about Pope Francis’ decision to send Cardinal Matteo Zuppi has his peace envoy to Ukraine, saying that the “brilliant thing” about it was that it “finally brought together those fighting on the ground and the great powers on which the war largely depends.”
As for his own role, Gugerotti relishes the fact that the dicastery he leads presents many opportunities for peace-making and diplomacy, and that as cardinal he can draw attention to trouble spots. “My dicastery deals with the many of the most ‘unfortunate’ situations in the world,” he said shortly before receiving his red hat. “Almost all these Churches are found in territories of great difficulty, in situations of war, destabilization… The cardinalate means bringing to the world’s attention these situations.” He said there are “a hundred wars besides the one between Russia and Ukraine that we never talk about.”
In the same interview with Vatican News, Gugerotti explained that the Holy See was carefully in handling another conflict situation he knew well, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He believes such conflicts also have repercussions not only for the nations involved but the West, too.4“We have to understand first of all that there is a history of pain there that begins from time immemorial, and then that if a game of powers that are foreign to the Western bloc and its interests is unleashed there, it is the Western bloc itself that will pay. That is the point.”
“Since today it is important to talk about things you need, not ideals, because unfortunately these are bought and sold today, like weapons, the key thing is to understand that we are the ones at stake. Not just these poor people who find themselves in these conditions.”
In another 2023 interview Cardinal Gugerotti expressed how he feels a heavy responsibility, because his Dicastery encompasses not only the Middle East, but also Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ukraine, areas experiencing bloody conflicts.5“All areas, or almost all of them, that are currently experiencing particularly bloody events, which not by chance concern them in the sense that the Christian East has always been a reservoir of fidelity to Christ to the point of martyrdom. Let us think of what the great Eastern Churches were, which are now reduced to very few people. And not by chance, but because the violence of men and cultures has led to their almost disappearance. Therefore, it is almost in the DNA of the Eastern Churches this very deep bond with martyr witness. On the other hand, let us bear in mind that many of the Eastern Churches were born in a context very close to Palestine. Our reference is to the one who is Lord and Master and who shed his blood for us, Jesus Christ. We are the representatives of a religion that is born from the blood of its founder, unlike many others. And this is also the reason why Christianity aroused so much astonishment, both in the imperial religions, and then also in the other monotheistic religions, precisely because of the extreme rawness of the fate of the one who was the object of veneration. We do not have a victorious prophet who founded a state, we are not a people who have an earthly city; we are the followers of someone making a pilgrimage through history to the heavenly Jerusalem.”
Affinity With Armenia
Cardinal Gugerotti has an attachment to Armenia, having been part of a humanitarian delegation to the country after it suffered an earthquake in 1988.
The visit, which he credits in part to then-Secretary of State Cardinal Casaroli and Casaroli’s controversial Ostpolitikdiplomacy, made a great impression on the then young priest. 6Caritas Italiana, an Italian Church charity, decided to travel to the Northern region of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia, after a devastating earthquake to help the victims. The impact of the catastrophe made a huge impression on the young priest. He also witnessed there St. Teresa of Calcutta in prayer with some of her sisters.
In a 2022 Vatican lecture, Gugerotti recalled how he became part of this delegation: “The courageous delegation just heard that there is an Italian priest who has studied Armenia, namely me, and asks for me to join the group,” he recalled. “Cardinal Casaroli, then Secretary of State, informs me that the departure is scheduled for the next day. I believe only the ongoing emergency allowed a young man from the Roman Curia, lacking the high diplomatic experience that characterized those who were sent from Rome to the Soviet Block in those days, the days of the ‘Ostpolitik’, to be allowed to leave.”
The events that followed in Armenia, a country to which he later would become a nuncio, also formed the background for his first meeting and lasting relationship with then Pope John Paul II. With great gratitude Gugerotti recalled the deep influence Saint John Paul II had on his life. “For me it will be the beginning of an unexpected and unprecedented relationship which will accompany me until the pontiff’s death and which will deeply mark my life,” he said.
He views the future of the Church there as it resurfaces after 70 years of oppression. “For years, there were no overt signs of Catholicism,” he has observed. “The Soviets suppressed the Armenian Catholic Church completely.”
Middle East
Gugerotti has also had a focus on the Middle East. In a 2023 speech in Nicosia, Cyprus, the cardinal apologized for the West’s “responsibility in destabilising conditions in the Middle East with our tendency to export our culture and to ask its peoples to conform their lives to it.” He also expressed his concern about Christians leaving the Middle East due to the “current tragic situation which profoundly affects their daily lives.”
Relations With the Reformed Churches
Cardinal Gugerotti has not been involved in important ecumenical contacts with Lutherans or other Protestants but, as part of his mission to further the dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans, he briefly interacted with an Anglican delegation of the Scottish Episcopal Church during his brief stint as papal nuncio in the UK. He also preached at an Anglican Eucharistic celebration.
TEACHING OFFICE
Claudio Gugerotti has been reticent to weigh in on controversial debates, and so his views on such topical issues as priestly celibacy, ordaining female deacons or same-sex blessings are unknown.
However, his connections with such figures as Cardinal Achille Silvestrini are revealing. Silvestrini played a crucial role in the Vatican’s international relations, especially during the Cold War. He was also a leading proponent of Ostpolitik, a diplomatic strategy that aimed to ensure the survival of the Catholic Church in communist countries, but which critics say did so at high cost, including undermining the Church’s moral authority and effectiveness in advocating for human rights and religious freedoms, and allowing Communist intelligence agencies infiltrate the Vatican.
Silvestrini was also one of the leaders of the progressive wing of the Church in the post-conciliar era, a controversial figure who was a leading member of the ‘Sankt Gallen group’ that opposed the election of Pope Benedict XVI.
Gugerotti worked with Silvestrini for several years at the Vatican and was aided and mentored by the late cardinal but he has yet to speak or write critically of Silvestrini. Instead, in October 2023 he wrote a glowing tribute to him that appeared in a biography on the late cardinal’s legacy.
Gugerotti praised Silvestrini’s “passion for culture” and history, and how his work extended beyond diplomacy becoming a mission of outreach and engagement with all people, regardless of their faith or political stance. “[An] evangelical root that motivated his entire existence, but without involving any element of sectarianism or clericalism,” Gugerotti said.
Questions Over Ties to Silvestrini
In Gone with the Wind in the Vatican, a 1999 book written under the pseudonym “I Millenari” (“The Millenarians”), criticisms began to emerge over Gugerotti and his alleged close ties to Silvestrini. The book reportedly created a furor in the Vatican and purported to expose corruption, nepotism and homosexuality in the Curia. Monsignor Luigi Marinelli, a retired priest who had worked for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches was revealed to be an author. He claimed there were nine to ten co-authors, but this has never been verified. The book was heavily criticized for inaccuracies and being filled with unsubstantiated gossip.
Proximity to Parolin
Gugerotti is sometimes viewed as close to Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, partly because both men have been opposed to what is perceived as the Pope’s relatively pro-Russian stance, which continues to offend the Ukrainian Church. Together with Parolin, Gugerotti met with the Ukrainian bishops in September 2023, after a new controversy over Pope Francis’ remarks regarding the war.
Both Parolin and Gugerotti were disciples of Silvestrini, which also suggests an alliance of ideas and visions, as reports of their similar thinking on the traditional Latin Mass seems to prove. However, Gugerotti’s general reticence to speak about matters of doctrine means that his teaching is largely unknown and subject to speculation.
- 1Sergii Sannikov, Leading Research Fellow of the Eastern European Institute of Theology in Lviv, Ukraine
- 2During his homily, Archbishop Gugerotti recounted the coronation of the icon in 1998, a momentous event initiated by Pope John Paul II carried out by Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek. He spoke of Cardinal Swiatek’s unwavering faith and resilience, even in the face of imprisonment, and how Pope John Paul II elevated him to the esteemed rank of cardinal within the Holy Church. … He addressed the Mother of Budslau, hailing her as the Queen of Love. He portrayed her as a humble girl who willingly accepted the challenges presented by God. … Under the cross, she received her Son’s final breath. Alongside the Apostles, she embraced the victorious Holy Spirit, conquering the world and its afflictions.”
- 3Gugerrotti has consistently called for a Russian-Ukrainian reconciliation that goes beyond politics and political needs. Vatican analyst Andrea Gagliarducci has observed that his ability “to see competing perspectives is also due to his excellent knowledge of the Russian language and made him a candidate to hold the position of prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.”
- 4“We have to understand first of all that there is a history of pain there that begins from time immemorial, and then that if a game of powers that are foreign to the Western bloc and its interests is unleashed there, it is the Western bloc itself that will pay. That is the point.”
“Since today it is important to talk about things you need, not ideals, because unfortunately these are bought and sold today, like weapons, the key thing is to understand that we are the ones at stake. Not just these poor people who find themselves in these conditions.” - 5“All areas, or almost all of them, that are currently experiencing particularly bloody events, which not by chance concern them in the sense that the Christian East has always been a reservoir of fidelity to Christ to the point of martyrdom. Let us think of what the great Eastern Churches were, which are now reduced to very few people. And not by chance, but because the violence of men and cultures has led to their almost disappearance. Therefore, it is almost in the DNA of the Eastern Churches this very deep bond with martyr witness. On the other hand, let us bear in mind that many of the Eastern Churches were born in a context very close to Palestine. Our reference is to the one who is Lord and Master and who shed his blood for us, Jesus Christ. We are the representatives of a religion that is born from the blood of its founder, unlike many others. And this is also the reason why Christianity aroused so much astonishment, both in the imperial religions, and then also in the other monotheistic religions, precisely because of the extreme rawness of the fate of the one who was the object of veneration. We do not have a victorious prophet who founded a state, we are not a people who have an earthly city; we are the followers of someone making a pilgrimage through history to the heavenly Jerusalem.”
- 6Caritas Italiana, an Italian Church charity, decided to travel to the Northern region of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia, after a devastating earthquake to help the victims. The impact of the catastrophe made a huge impression on the young priest. He also witnessed there St. Teresa of Calcutta in prayer with some of her sisters.
