http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/vatileaks-investigation.htm
Vatican
insiders are abuzz this week following news that Pope Benedict XVI's butler,
Paolo Gabriele was arrested by magistrates as the source behind leaked
documents, the so-called Vatileaks scandal that has plagued Rome since 2011. The
same experts are quick to speculate that at least one Cardinal may be operating
behind the scene with the butler likely a pawn in a deeper, internal power
struggle, the words "'scapegoat', 'plot' and 'conspiracy' tripping off
their tongues." [1]
[xi]
Elisabetta Povoledo, “Transfer of Vatican Official Who Exposed Corruption
Hints at Power Struggle,” The New
York Times, January 26, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/world/europe/archbishop-viganos-transfer-hints-at-vatican-power-struggle.html.
May
30, 2012
RNN
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
| Pope's Butler and Vatileaks is tip of iceberg, investigation alleges; |
| Real story involves Cardinals dirt-digging to position for Benedict's successor |
By
Donna Anderson
Vatican
insiders are abuzz this week following news that Pope Benedict XVI's butler,
Paolo Gabriele was arrested by magistrates as the source behind leaked
documents, the so-called Vatileaks scandal that has plagued Rome since 2011. The
same experts are quick to speculate that at least one Cardinal may be operating
behind the scene with the butler likely a pawn in a deeper, internal power
struggle, the words "'scapegoat', 'plot' and 'conspiracy' tripping off
their tongues." [1]
According
to confidants, at the center of this crises and Machiavellian conspiracy is one
man in particular—the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a
priest who has enjoyed solidarity
with Pope Benedict for many years.
After
being elected pope in April, 2005 and taking his place as successor of John Paul
II as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and leader of the Roman Catholic
Church, Ratzinger as “Pope Benedict XVI” quickly appointed Cardinal Bertone
to replace Angelo Sodano as the Cardinal Secretary of State. On April 4, 2007,
Benedict also appointed Bertone as his Camerlengo to administrate the duty of
the Pope in the case of a vacancy of the papacy. Benedict has since made
decisions that indicate Bertone could be (or once was) his choice for successor,
and both men have at times appeared to be stacking and massaging the Red Hats in
Bertone’s favor for the next conclave. This was noted in the May 13, 2011 National
Catholic Reporter article, “A Triptych on Benedict’s Papacy, and Hints
of What Lies Beyond,” when NCR Senior Correspondent John L. Allen Jr. spoke of
the shake-up inside the Roman Curia (the Curia is the administrative apparatus
of the Vatican and, together with the pope, the central governing body of the
Catholic Church) in which Italian Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu was
appointed the Substitute for General Affairs by Pope Benedict XVI. Becciu, who
replaced Archbishop Fernando Filoni for the job, seemed at first an odd
selection to Vatican insiders. “Given how difficult it is to master the role
[of Substitute], many observers found it curious that Filoni would be shipped
out after less than four years, to be replaced by someone in Becciu who has no
previous experience at all working inside the Vatican,” observed the NCR. [2]
But then the nail may have been hit on the head when the news service added,
“When the dust settles, the most obvious beneficiary of these moves would seem
to be Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, who will not
have to be concerned about the new substitute forming a rival center of power.
” [3]
The
job of the Substitute for General Affairs has been described as the most
complicated and demanding responsibility in the Roman Curia due to the
staggering amount of concerns the Substitute must carry on a daily basis.
Roughly compared to a White House Chief of Staff, the Substitute meets with the
Pontiff usually once per day to administer Vatican affairs and also regularly
reports to the Cardinal Secretary of State (currently Cardinal Bertone). The
organizational “success or failure of a papacy often rests on his
shoulders,” added the NCR. And those who have handled the office well over the
years “have been the stuff of legend: Giovanni Battista Montini, for instance,
was the substitute under Pius XII from 1937 to 1953, and went on to become Pope
Paul VI; Giovanni Benelli, who was Paul’s own substitute from 1967 to 1977,
was widely understood to be the power behind the throne”. [4]
But
if positioning a Vatican novice in the role of Substitute in order not to
challenge future papal possibilities for the Italian Cardinal Bertone was
telling, Pope Benedict even more-so aligned the group-type from which the next
pope will come, when on January 6, 2012 he named twenty-two new cardinals, most
of them Europeans, primarily Italians already holding key Vatican stations. By
elevating these advisors to the Sacred College of Cardinals at a February 18th
ceremony in Rome, the German pope certified that “Europeans will now number
over half of all cardinal-electors (67 out of 125), and nearly a quarter of all
voters in a conclave will be Italian.” [5] As a result, Benedict seemed to put
his definitive stamp on an Italian successor and lined up those who could give
Bertone the so-called apostolic chair of Saint Peter. Evidently this wasn’t
Benedict’s idea alone, as careful observers “put the large number of Italian
appointments down to the influence of the Pope’s deputy, Vatican Secretary of
State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, whose hand in these nominations, they say, is
clearly visible.” [6]
Also
interesting in lieu of recent reports regarding Pope Benedict’s diminishing
health was the February timing of the consistory for the new cardinals to
receive their red hats, rings, and titular assignments in Rome. Of course the
scheduling around the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter could be cited, but some
who work with the pope had been pushing him for a June (Feasts of St. Peter and
Paul) or November (Feast of Christ the King) consistory, and more often than not
Benedict has held consistories in November (2007 and 2010). So what was the
hurry this time around? If Pope Benedict is considering a 2012 departure as some
Cardinals have speculated
and
the Pope himself has argued for,
the date and timing in February made perfect sense as a final opportunity to
stack the deck in Bertone’s favor.
Having
stated these facts, one could think with some certainty that Bertone may be a
shoo-in for the next pope. But as we move through 2012, cracks have appeared in
the foundation and not everybody in the Curia—including Pope Benedict XVI,
himself—may wind up as eager to support him as they once were. As the pope’s
health weakens, the sharks smell blood, and claims of mismanagement have been
increasing from competing factions in the Church that are more than happy to
seize opportunity to cast aspersion on Bertone in order to elevate their own
standing among the College of Cardinals. This may include Archbishop Vigano,
whose personal letters to Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bertone concerning his
reassignment as Nuncio were partially broadcast by an Italian television news
program in January 2012, evidently routed to them from the pope’s butler
through a middle-man. The letters, confirmed by the Vatican as authentic,
exposed a blistering relationship between himself and Bertone involving
political jockeying and financial deal making including charges of
“corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to
contractors at inflated prices.” [7] One of the letters to Cardinal Bertone,
dated March 27, 2011 (eight days before the letter to Pope Benedict), complained
of Bertone removing him from his post and of Bertone “breaking a promise to
let the archbishop succeed the then-president of the commission, Cardinal
Giovanni Lajolo, upon the latter’s retirement. According to the letter,
Cardinal Bertone had mentioned unspecified ‘tensions’ within the commission
to explain Archbishop Vigano’s reassignment, but [Vigano] suggested that a
recent Italian newspaper article criticizing the archbishop [Bertone] as
incompetent had contributed to the decision.” [8] Most Vatican sources agree
that an internal campaign involving Machiavellian manipulation and
maneuverings—what Phillip Pullella for Reuters called “a sort of ‘mutiny
of the monsignors’” [9]—is playing out behind the scenes against the
pope’s right-hand man, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The same
sources say “the rebels have the tacit backing of a former secretary of state,
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, an influential power-broker in his own right and a
veteran diplomat who served under the late Pope John Paul II for 15 years.”
[10] If Sodano was behind the pope’s butler with a campaign to undermine papal
possibilities for Bertone, suspicions deepen that he may have aspirations
himself for the conclave to elect Benedict’s successor, if he isn’t arrested
by Vatican magistrates in the meantime. And was it just coincidence that the
Vatican Bank ousted its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi this past Thursday as
well? Whatever the case may be, the January 26, 2012 headline at The New York Times said it all: “Transfer of Vatican Official Who
Exposed Corruption Hints at Power Struggle,” [11] and echoed the fact that,
just like in American presidential politics, today’s rising star at the
Vatican can all-to-soon become crushed under the juggernaut of ambitious and
motivated men if one does not vigilantly maintain every bit as much cunning as
their challengers.
And
as Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press observed, Church officials, sensing
an increasingly weak and aging pontiff, “are
already preparing for a conclave.”
Murder,
intrigue, and a mysterious prophecy lay at the heart of the current crises in
Rome?
Read
all 17 parts in this special RNN investigation (below) in which the shocking truth behind
the Vatileaks scandal is revealed as a predicted crises of government between jockeying
cardinals positioning themselves for the role of Pope Benedict XVI's successor.
[ii]
John L. Allen, “A Triptych on Benedict’s Papacy, and Hints of What Lies
Beyond,” May 13, 2011, http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/triptych-benedict%E2%80%99s-papacy-and-hints-what-lies-beyond.
[iii]
Ibid.
[iv]
Ibid.
[v]
Edward Pentin, “Naming of New Cardinals Prompts Speculation about New
Pope,” Newsmax, January 10, 2012, http://www.newsmax.com/EdwardPentin/Cardinals-Pope-Benedict-Successor/2012/01/10/id/423629.
[vi]
Ibid.
[vii]
"Monsignors' Mutiny," revealed by Vatican leaks, Philip Pullella |
Reuters – Mon, Feb 13, 2012.
[viii]
Francis X. Rocca, “Vatican Downplays Charges of Financial
‘Corruption,’” Catholic News Service, January 26, 2012, http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1200336.htm.
[ix]
"Monsignors' Mutiny" revealed by Vatican leaks, Philip Pullella |
Reuters – Mon, Feb 13, 2012.
[x]
Ibid.
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