Cardinal Damasceno sought to resign as Pontifical Commissioner of the Heralds of the Gospel. Sr. Simona Brambilla refused – amid typing errors and a major canonical mistake.
Newsroom (26/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) A public disagreement between Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis and Sister Simona Brambilla, Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL), has laid bare serious dysfunction in the handling of the six-year-old commissariat of the Heralds of the Gospel.
Sources close to the matter confirm that Cardinal Damasceno, 85, who has served as Pontifical Commissioner of the Brazilian-originated private association of the faithful since 2019, formally tendered his resignation earlier this autumn, citing Canon 187 which permits resignation from ecclesiastical office for just cause.
The cardinal’s decision followed the submission of an exhaustive 60-page final report – accompanied by extensive documentation – that reportedly recommended closing the commissariat, having found no substantive grounds to prolong the intervention.
Instead of accepting the resignation and bringing the long-running process to a conclusion, Sr. Brambilla issued a letter – co-signed by DICLSAL secretary Sr. Tiziana Merletti – postponing acceptance “for a few months.”
Observers note that the brief official reply contained multiple linguistic and typographical errors. The word commisario (in Italian) is written with two ” m “s; pontificio does not have an accent in that same language (one might think it was Portuguese, but even so, “comissário” would lack an accent); and, moreover, segretario is spelled as in Spanish, not as in Italian.
More gravely, it misclassified the Heralds of the Gospel as a public rather than private association of the faithful – a canonical error that, critics argue, echoes similar flaws found in earlier commissariat decrees and could render them invalid.
The Dicastery’s refusal to grant Cardinal Damasceno a personal audience in Rome – delegating a secretary instead – has deepened the perception of strained relations. Multiple attempts by the cardinal and representatives of the Heralds to discuss the final report, delivered over six months ago, have reportedly gone unanswered.
The Heralds of the Gospel, founded in Brazil in 1999 and granted pontifical recognition as a private association of the faithful in 2001, were placed under commissariat in June 2019 after allegations – never formally proven – of irregularities. The intervention has been heavily criticised in conservative Catholic circles for alleged lack of due process and transparency.
While the Dicastery has not issued an official statement on the latest developments, the episode has intensified questions about administrative coherence under Sr. Brambilla, the first woman to lead a Vatican dicastery. Her leadership style has been compared by some commentators to that of her predecessor, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, who initiated the commissariat.
In a press release, issued by the Heralds of the Gospel, described Cardinal Damasceno’s report “The document accounts for all the points raised during the intervention, whether regarding the financial sector, with opinions from Monsignor Nereudo Freire Henrique – at the time Treasurer of the CNBB –, or the legal sector, with opinions from Dr. Hugo José Sarubbi Cysneiros – legal advisor to the Commission, who also holds the same position with the CNBB and the Apostolic Nunciature of Brazil –, or, finally, other matters concerning the Commission, such as the request for the ordination of deacons, among others.”
The standoff now leaves the elderly Brazilian cardinal – a former president of the CNBB and participant in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis – in limbo, while the association he has overseen for six years remains in extraordinary administration.
Whether Sr. Brambilla will ultimately receive the cardinal’s report and grant the requested resignation remains unclear.
The controversy now places DICLSAL under rare public scrutiny at a moment when another voice – that of Pope Leo XIV – has called Catholics to a different standard. In his Jubilee audience of 22 November 2025, the Pontiff declared:
“The peace that Jesus brings is like a fire and demands much of us! Above all, it asks us to take a stand. In the face of injustices, inequalities, where human dignity is trampled upon, where the weak are deprived of their voice: to take a stand. To hope is to take a stand! … This too is the good fire of the Gospel!”
Whether the Dicastery will finally receive Cardinal Damasceno, examine his conclusions, and allow the elderly prelate to step down with dignity remains an open and pressing question. For the members of the Heralds of the Gospel – and for many observers – the answer will reveal whether the Dicastery is willing to let that “good fire” burn away years of perceived injustice, or whether the current impasse will simply be prolonged.
- Compiled by Raju Hasmukh with files from gaudiumpress.org (Thiago Corrêa)
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