Is Cardinal Gugerotti the Plan B if Cardinal Parolin is not elected?

Seeing Cardinal Parolin succeed Pope Francis despite his lack of experience leading a Diocese or simply in terms of listening, his management of the Secretariat of State which could be improved upon, the abandonment of Chinese Catholics to the Communists as welkl as other diplomatic and doctrinal failures, does not please everyone. However, Cardinal Parolin may have another card up his sleeve to pull the strings, even without being on the front line. This would be another diplomat from the Curia, a more discreet one, Cardinal Gugerotti.

"To fully understand Cardinal Pietro Parolin's strong left-wing roots, it is necessary to emphasize his closeness to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, one of the leading thinkers of the previous pontificate. As secretary of the group of cardinals tasked with preparing the reform of the Curia, Semeraro was instrumental in preparing the Synods on the Family and the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, alongside key figures such as Fr. Spadaro, former director of La Civiltà Cattolica and now Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture, Victor-Manuel Fernandez, and Lorenzo Baldisseri.

In La Repubblica of April 22, Marcello Semeraro played his role as guardian of the Temple by recalling that the recently deceased Pontiff had sought, until the very end, to "tear down walls and barriers." However, it can be noted that the keynote address delivered by the Secretary of State on 14 November 2017, in Washington, D.C., at the Catholic University of America, sometimes repeated word for word statements by Semeraro, who was clearly the author of Parolin's text. This was a maximalist interpretation of Vatican II as understood, according to Parolin/Semeraro, by Pope Francis, an "irreversible" interpretation sealed by the introduction of synodality.

The Secretary of State, in these days of the General Congregations, must withstand attacks from two determined adversaries: Cardinal Becciu, whose trial was increasingly flawed by numerous irregularities and who, against Parolin's advice, fully intends to participate in the Conclave; and Cardinal Zen, who criticizes him for the Holy See's disastrous agreement with the People's Republic of China, signed on 22 September 2018, renewed in 2020, 2022, and 2024, which grants the appointment of bishops to the Communist power, which is the active persecutor of the Church.

Parolin the "Chinese"? Informal ties exist between him and the former Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, of the M5S (Five Star Movement). They had jointly presented the book edited by Father Spadaro, Essere mediterranei. Fratelli e cittadini del "Mare Nostro" (Being Mediterranean. Brothers and Citizens of the Sea Nostrum) (Ancore, 2020). During his presidency, Conte had pledged to Xi Jinping to officially support China's Belt and Road investment program, which Giorgia Meloni quickly rescinded. It is clear that Parolin is not the papal candidate after Donald Trump's heart.

More worrying for him: it is not certain that he will succeed in convincing two-thirds of the cardinal electors to vote for him, especially since Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, President of the CEI, also has many supporters. But Pietro Parolin and his supporters have a Plan B: the candidacy of Claudio Gugerotti, soon to be 70, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches and a cardinal since 2023. Gugerotti, like Parolin, was once part of the inner circle of Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, leader of the left-wing Curia for decades. Pietro Parolin joined the Holy See's diplomatic service in 1986, when Achille Silvestrini was Secretary for Relations with States. Claudio Gugerotti joined the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in 1985, of which Silvestrini became Prefect in 1991. He made Gugerotti Undersecretary of the Congregation in 1997, who himself became Prefect of the Dicastery after a diplomatic career. Achille Silvestrini sponsored a charity, Villa Nazareth, a university college west of Rome run by two associations, of which Pietro Parolin is now President (and whose funding is overseen by Bishop Celli, the main negotiator of the agreements with China).

Claudio Gugerotti arrived in this "walled garden" in the 1980s, where he immediately won the affection and trust of Cardinal Silvestrini, who had him incardinated into the Pious Society of Don Nicola Mazza. Gugerotti was all honey and smiles, according to his companions at the time, who nicknamed him Don Stambecco (stambecco = the Alpine ibex) because of his climbing abilities. Will Don Stambecco ascend to the throne of Peter?

Source

Cathcon:

He also has good English from his time at Papal Nuncio in the UK, which would be an important factor for his dealings with America.  He also had dealings with Pope John Paul II around the time of the fall of the Soviet Union as can be heard in this lecture.  More details here. More recently, he has been involved in the Ukraine war.

It can be argued that a diplomat was elected in the aftermath of the disaster of Vatican II and the Cardinal would be elected as a diplomat in the aftermath of the disaster of the embodiment of Vatican II, Francis.