Through Years of Scandal, Has the Vatican Learned Nothing? by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Jul 17, 2025

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.  See full bio.

Twenty years of scandals, and the Vatican—to be more specific, the Vatican Secretariat of State—has learned nothing.

A priest who was convicted of child pornography has been quietly restored to a senior post at the Secretariat of State, in what one official describes as “an act of mercy.” Mercy? Not mercy toward the teenagers who were exploited by perverts to provide the images that were found in Father Capella’s extensive collection. Not mercy toward the faithful Catholics who, doing their best to uphold the honor of the Church against increasingly caustic critics, have found themselves once again defending the indefensible.

Father Capella served a prison term after his conviction by a Vatican tribunal, so in that sense he has (to use the old expression) “paid his debt to society.” As Christians we believe in redemption, so we pray that his repentance is genuine and he has amended his life. But to put him back in position of responsibility is something more than a failure of judgment; it is a clear indication that the cancer of corruption that was exposed by the sex-abuse scandal is still growing inside the Vatican walls. …

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