Francesco Coccopalmerio (6 March 1938) is an Italian cardinal. He was president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts from his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 15 February 2007 until his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on 7 April 2018. He spent his early years in the Archdiocese of Milan and became an auxiliary bishop in 1993. He moved to the Roman Curia in 2000.
He held positions in the archdiocese of Milan until 1994. He was professor of canon law at the Faculty of Theology in northern Italy from 1966 to 1999. Since 1981, he has been a professor of canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
On 15 February 2007, he was given the personal title of archbishop and appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.[2] Since 2008, at the direction of Pope Benedict,[3] one of his principal responsibilities has been the revision to procedures for handling clergy sex abuse and the applicable punishments. In 2014, he explained: "We want to make this delicate material more accessible, more understandable and easier for bishops to apply." At issue is "Book VI: Sanctions in the Church".[4]
Coccopalmerio was reported to have been one of the senior prelates who, in preparing to announce the lifting of the excommunications of four leaders of the Society of Saint Pius X in January 2009, failed to take account of recent reports that one of them, Bishop Richard Williamson, was a Holocaust denier.[5]
At the Synod of Bishops on New Evangelization in October 2012, Coccopalmerio argued that ecumenical efforts to further unify Christians across sectarian lines could play a pivotal role in countering the ongoing "de-Christianization" of Europe by presenting "an extraordinary sign to Islam" of Christian solidarity.[9]
2013 Papal Conclave
In the meetings of cardinals that preceded the papal conclave of March 2013,[10] Cardinal Coccopalmerio proposed to create a moderator of the Curia, a prelate who would identify inconsistencies and devise methods of ensuring consistency among departments of the Roman Curia that sometimes contradict one another.[11] The idea was widely appreciated by some cardinals but some were wary that such an appointment would act as a "vice-pope" that would effectively set Vatican and Curial policy[12] or duplicate the already considerable authority of the Substitute in the Secretariate of State, who already fills the role of the Pope's "chief of staff".[13]
In advance of that conclave, he said: "It's time to look outside Italy and Europe, in particular considering Latin America."[14] He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis, and was mentioned in the Italian press as a possible pope.[15] According to one report, he received more votes in the conclave than any other Italian cardinal because of his proposal for reform of the Roman Curia.[10]
Synod on the Family
On 27 August 2014, Pope Francis named him to a working group tasked with speeding up the process for assessing the nullity of a marriage. Its work resulted in changes implemented by Francis in September 2015, which eliminated obligatory appeals, eased the dismissal of appeals in certain instances, and instituted a shorter process in some cases.[16][a]
Following the first session of the Synod on the Family held in October 2014, he expressed disappointment that not all the participants addressed the pastoral needs of those "who are suffering through problems connected to their relationships" and instead "showed that they simply wanted to reaffirm the doctrine". He provided an example:[17]
We have both doctrine and people to consider. Let's consider a very problematic topic, extremely current: the topic of homosexual couples. If I meet a same-sex couple, I observe right away that their relationship is illicit: That is what the doctrine says, and I reaffirm that with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, if I stop at doctrine, I don't see the people anymore. But if I observe that two people really do love each other, say they practice charity towards the needy...then I can also say that, while their relation remains illicit, in those two people there emerge positive elements. Instead of closing my eyes to those positive aspects, I want to underline them. It is a matter of being objective and recognizing, objectively, the positive points in a given relationship, that is illicit in itself.
He also endorsed the idea of access to the Eucharist for some Catholics in irregular marital situations. He offered the example of a woman who lives with a man who has three small children by a wife who abandoned him. He imagined her coming to Communion "during her father’s funeral Mass, or the day of one of the children’s confirmation". Fearing the consequences of asking her to abandon the man and the children, he asked: "So would it really be totally impossible to admit her to communion? In admitting her to communion, would I be going against the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage? I really don’t think so: In fact, this has to do with a case of exception."[17]
Roman Curia work under Pope Francis
In January 2015, Pope Francis named Coccopalmerio to a new board of review within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that reviews appeals from clergy found guilty of sexual abuse of minors.[18]
In 2015, Cardinal Coccopalmerio questioned the scope of the authority given to the Secretariat for the Economy and its prefect Cardinal Pell. These questions involved not the demand for transparency in all financial operations, but the consolidation of management under the Secretariat for the Economy.[19]
In 2017, he said provisions of Amoris Laetitia allow people in irregular marriage access to the sacraments only if they recognize their situation is sinful and desire to change it. The fact that such a couple also believes changing the situation immediately by splitting would cause more harm and forgoing sexual relations would threaten their current relationship does not rule out the possibility of receiving sacramental absolution and Communion.[20]
Resignation
A month after Coccopalmerio's 80th birthday, Pope Francis accepted his resignation and named Filippo Iannone to succeed him.[21]
On 4 March 2022, he was elevated to the rank of cardinal priest.[22]
Affairs and allegations
The Capozzi affair
In June 2017,[23] news surfaced that at some point during the month,[24] Msgr. Luigi Capozzi, the private secretary to Cardinal Coccopalmerio, had been arrested by Vatican Gendarmerie after illegally using cocaine at a gay orgy party at Capozzi's Vatican apartment.[23][24] He was afterwards hospitalized at the Roman Pius XI clinic so that he could detox.[24][23] After that, he had a short period of retreat at a nearby monastery and then spent time at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.[24][23] Despite the fact that Capozzi resided in the apartment, the apartment was owned by Coccopalmerio.[25] Prior to the arrest, Coccopalmerio had also recommended having Capozzi appointed as a Bishop.[26] An article dated 24 July 2019 on The Jerusalem Post revealed that following his arrest, Capozzi was ordered to undergo drug rehabilitation therapy and was no longer in the Vatican, but rather a spiritual retreat somewhere in Italy.[27]
The Inzoli affair
In the October 2018 issue of the German Catholic journal Herder Korrespondenz, Benjamin Leven, a German theologian and editor of the said journal reported that, according to his own sources, it was Cardinal Coccopalmerio who approached the Pope in favor of the child abuser Don Mauro Inzoli in order to have him partially reinstated as priest. Leven also alleged that Coccopalmerio is known in Rome for generally opposing the removal of culprit priests from the priesthood, which for him is akin to the "death penalty".[28]
Dialogue with Freemasonry
On 16 February 2024, in the premises of the Ambrosianeum cultural foundation in Milan, he participated as a speaker (together with Mario Delpini and Antonio Staglianò) in the conference on the history of relations between the Catholic Church and Freemasonry, organized by the three greater Italian Masonic obediences. Coccopalmerio was the first cardinal to propose the creation of a permanent dialogue table between the Church and Freemasonry.[29]
Notes
^At a press conference discussing the question of nullity, Coccopalmerio mentioned other issues that remained to be addressed: "Take one case, among the more simple ones: In legislations where homosexual couples can adopt, how should one proceed if a homosexual couple wants a child baptized? How does one, for example, register the baptism?"[16]
