The Spanish government of Pedro S\u00e1nchez has finally unblocked the appointment of Archbishop Piero Pioppo as the Holy See\u2019s new Apostolic Nuncio to Spain, following months of diplomatic delay.<\/p>\n
The Council of Ministers is expected to confirm the 64-year-old Italian archbishop at its first post-summer meeting, ending a five-month freeze that had strained relations between Madrid and the Vatican, reports <\/a>The Objective, a Spanish digital newspaper founded in 2013. <\/p>\n The nomination of Archbishop Pioppo, currently the Vatican\u2019s Nuncio to Indonesia, had been on hold since March. For months, the Spanish government withheld its approval, coinciding with growing tensions between S\u00e1nchez\u2019s cabinet and the Spanish Bishops\u2019 Conference. <\/p>\n Those tensions peaked in June when the bishops openly echoed opposition calls for early elections following a corruption scandal involving S\u00e1nchez and his party. <\/p>\n In response, Minister of the Presidency F\u00e9lix Bola\u00f1os wrote angrily <\/a>to the president of the bishops’ conference, Archbishop Luis Arg\u00fcello, accusing the prelates of \u201creproducing exactly the petitions and arguments of the two main opposition parties\u201d and departing from \u201cthe most elementary institutional respect\u201d.<\/p>\n At the time, the stalemate appeared to be a direct consequence of this clash. The prolonged delay in granting Archbishop \u00a0Pioppo agr\u00e9ment had alarmed the Vatican. Many speculated in July that Spain had effectively imposed a veto on his candidacy, while some suggested the Vatican was having to consider alternatives. <\/p>\n Yet in recent weeks the situation shifted. A series of episcopal interventions directed against Vox, Spain\u2019s populist right-wing party, appeared to soften the government\u2019s stance. <\/p>\n