Italian financial Police officers talk, in front of St. Peter's square at the Vatican. The Vatican is being besieged by near-daily leaks of confidential documents and tabloid-style reports about alleged money laundering at the Vatican bank, and in news reports Saturday Feb. 11, 2012, some conspiracy theorists highlight the upcoming crowning of 22 new cardinals, who will be partly responsible for electing the successor to the Pope himself. Photo: Angelo Carconi / AP
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Money laundering at the Vatican bank. Corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts. Even a purported plot to kill Pope Benedict XVI.
The Vatican is being besieged by near-daily leaks of confidential documents and tabloid-style reports of alleged financial mismanagement, political infighting and gossip about who might be the next pope — all coming out at an exceedingly delicate time for the Holy See and Benedict himself.
The frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace have been buzzing about the leaks, which have emerged as the pontiff prepares for the ceremony next week to crown 22 new cardinals — the princes of the church who will elect his successor.
Such ceremonies always breed unseemly speculation about a future pontiff since they provide a rare chance for cardinals new and old to size one another up. But the Feb. 18 consistory has taken on greater gravitas since the 84-year-old Benedict is showing signs of slowing down.
Conspiracy theorists reading the Italian media of late might also point to another looming date as reason for why the Vatican's dirty laundry is being aired now: In June, a European commission will decide whether the Holy See has abided by tough international anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance laws.
Compliance would mark a key step in the Vatican's goal of joining the so-called "white list" of countries that share financial information — a designation the Vatican hopes will forever dispense with its reputation as a scandal-plagued, secrecy-obsessed tax haven.
The flurry of articles and television news programs seemingly seeking to reinforce that reputation — regardless of whether it's deserved — certainly can't help the Holy See's bid.
All of which explains why the Vatican has been aggressively shooting down the reports with an unprecedented array of detailed, line-by-line refutations and sarcastic jabs at the journalists reporting them in a bid to set the record straight.
Almost lost in the shuffle is that the Vatican in recent weeks has done more to come into compliance with international financial norms than perhaps at any time in its history. It has ratified three major U.N. conventions, rewritten its law on money laundering and, separately, scored a legal victory in the U.S. concerning its embattled bank, the Institute for Religious Works or IOR.
The most explosive story to hit newsstands came on Friday: reports that the Vatican had received a confidential letter last month from a top Vatican official describing how an Italian cardinal visiting China had spoken about a presumed plot to kill Benedict this year. The document also said the pontiff was grooming Milan's archbishop as his successor.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, dismissed that report as "so completely beyond reality and hardly serious that I don't even want to consider it."
But Lombardi has taken the other reports alleging financial mismanagement far more seriously, warning of possible legal action against the media outlets responsible.
Veteran Vatican correspondent Andrea Tornielli said the reports showed a clear power struggle is under way inside the Vatican, "the outcome of which is uncertain yet devastating," concerning both the fate of the pope's deputy, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and any future conclave to elect the next pope.
Another Vatican commentator who has been highly critical of Bertone's leadership, Sandro Magister, put it this way in a recent column: "The secretary of state is increasingly alone, in a curia he does not govern and with a pope he does not help."
No comments:
Post a Comment