|
Benedict made his first direct comments on the scandal inoff-the-cuff remarks at the end of his weekly general audience. Helashed out at some of the media reports about the scandal, sayingthe exaggerated and gratuitous rumours had offered a falseimage of the Holy See. The Italian media have been in a frenzy ever since the pope sbutler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested last week after Vaticaninvestigators discovered papal documents in his Vatican Cityapartment. He remains in detention and has pledged to co-operatefully with the investigation. Rumours have been flying in the press about possible cardinalsimplicated in the probe, pending resignations and details of theinvestigation that even Mr. Gabriele s lawyers say they haven theard. The Vatican spokesman has spent much of his daily briefingsin recent days shooting down the various reports. The scandal represents one of the greatest breaches of trust andsecurity for the Holy See in recent memory given that a significantnumber of documents from the pope s own desk were leaked to aninvestigative journalist. The Vatican has denounced the leaks ascriminal and immoral and has opened a three-pronged investigationto get to the bottom of who was responsible. The events of recent days about the Curia and my collaboratorshave brought sadness in my heart, Benedict said at the end of hisaudience. But he added: I want to renew my trust in andencouragement of my closest collaborators and all those who everyday, with loyalty and a spirit of sacrifice and in silence, help mefulfill my ministry. Few people think Mr. Gabriele worked alone, and his promise toco-operate with the investigation has fuelled speculation thatothers might be arrested soon. The motivations for the leaks remain unclear: Some commentators saythey appear designed to discredit Benedict s No. 2, the Vaticansecretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Others say they reaimed at undermining the Vatican s efforts to become morefinancially transparent. Still others say they aim to show the85-year-old Benedict s weakness in running the church. The scandal is playing out in a remarkable way, due in great partto the uniqueness of the institution in which it s occurring andthe players involved. Mr. Gabriele is an employee of the Holy See, a citizen and residentof the Vatican city state. He is being held by Vatican police whohave accused him of stealing the pope s personal papers in aterrible breach of trust. His lawyers are Italian legalprofessionals, but they are communicating to the media via theVatican spokesman a conflict of interest that the Rev. FedericoLombardi has acknowledged but tried to downplay by saying he wasmerely offering a service to release information to the media. Rev. Lombardi refers to Mr. Gabriele as Paolo and hasrepeatedly expressed sadness for what has happened. At the sametime, though, the Vatican undersecretary of state, ArchbishopAngelo Becciu, lashed out at what he called an unprecedented, brutal attack on the pope that the leaks represent. In an interview Tuesday with the Vatican newspaper L OsservatoreRomano, Archbishop Becciu said the stolen papers didn t justconcern matters of internal church governance but represented thethoughts of people who in writing to the pope believed they wereessentially speaking before God. It s not just that the pope s papers were stolen, but thatpeople who turned to him as the vicar of Christ have had theirconsciences violated, Archbishop Becciu was quoted as saying. The scandal broke in January when Italian journalist GianluigiNuzzi revealed letters from a former top Vatican administrator whobegged the pope not to transfer him for having exposed allegedcorruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in highercontract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is nowthe Vatican s U.S. ambassador. The scandal widened over the following months with documents leakedto Italian journalists that laid bare power struggles inside theVatican over its efforts to show greater financial transparency andcomply with international norms to fight money laundering. Therewas even a leak of a memo claiming that Benedict would die thisyear. The crisis reached a peak last weekend, when Mr. Nuzzi published anentire book based on a trove of new documentation, includingpersonal correspondence to and from the pope and his privatesecretary, much of which paints Cardinal Bertone in a negativelight. The Vatican has warned of legal action for those who stole,received and disseminated the documents. Mr. Nuzzi, who in 2009published a book on leaked documents from the Vatican bank, hasjustified the publication as an act of transparency and saysthere s not a word against the pope or the church in the book. More related to this story Mystery deepens around Vatican scandals. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Dimmable GU10 , LED Downlight for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Dimmable E27.
Related Articles -
Dimmable GU10, LED Downlight,
| 
