Vatican seeks to assure Caritas that papal firings were necessary, not a criticism of work

A top Vatican cardinal said Friday that Pope Francis’ “drastic” leadership firings at Caritas Internationalis were essential for employee wellness and not a criticism of its performance.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, whose development office oversees Caritas, explained Francis’ November decision to remove the elected leadership, install a temporary administrator, and change the laws. Francis’ newest use of the papacy’s full power stunned Caritas, one of the world’s largest aid organizations.

Czerny addressed a weeklong conference in Rome of the global confederation of 162 national Caritas chapters, the first since Francis’ intervention, without equivocation. The assembly will elect a new leadership team on May 16.

Czerny told the crowd, “I am sure that all of you were surprised and disturbed by this,” according to his prepared remarks. “Appointing a temporary administrator was an act of love and care, not a denunciation… It was important to rebuild and fine-tune a vital church body.”

Francis fired Caritas secretary-general Aloysius John, its president, Filipino Cardinal Antonio Tagle, Tagle’s vice presidents, the treasurer, and ecclesiastic assistant in November after an outside investigation found “real deficiencies” in management that affected staff morale at the Rome secretariat.

Financial and sexual impropriety were absent. Former employees said John intimidated, harassed, and ridiculed them. Several abandoned their lucrative, tax-free Vatican jobs to escape oppressive situations.

John wrote a stinging open letter to Caritas representatives on the eve of the assembly to elect new leaders, calling Czerny’s office a “brutal power grab” and racializing his dismissal. According to a letter received by The Associated Press, French citizen of Indian heritage John said the wealthier donor countries from the “North” had never desired a Caritas secretary general from the “South” and intended to force their will on the confederation.

Czerny argued that the firings were necessary and acceptable and did not criticize Caritas or its work providing emergency aid and development assistance to the needy worldwide.

The personnel complaints inquiry “revealed patterns of workplace relationships and processes that prevented the general secretariat from operating properly and undermined staff wellbeing.” “They risked Caritas Internationalis’ and all Caritas’ operations, name, and reputation,” Czerny stated.