Readers will remember the concerted attempt (now abandoned) to portray Bergoglio as an intellectual –  beginning with the ‘Pope Francis Lexicon’ and culminating in the eleven slender volumes of ‘The Theology of Pope Francis’. They will also recall Pope Benedict’s elegant put-down by refusing, at Mgr Dario Vigano’s invitation, to endorse the enterprise,

Vigano, then supremo of Vatican communications, refused to take ‘no’ for an answer, doctoring Benedict’s letter in so flagrant a manner that it sparked widespread condemnation and his own resignation. But now – proof positive that cronyism rules in the Court of Francis I – Dario has re-emerged as second in command and Vice-Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, with a specific competency in the area of communication.

You just can’t keep a sycophant down.