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Vatican Allegations in Full

By Nick Squires
The Telegraph
June 6, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9314792/Vatican-allegations-in-full.html

Pope Benedict XVI is apparently unable to prevent poisonous feuds and vendettas between rival groups of cardinals, according to "His Holiness - The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI".

Several of the documents cast in a particularly bad light Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is the Pope's right-hand man and effectively the prime minister of the world's smallest state.

1 The most sensational allegation is Cardinal Bertone conspired with the editor of the Vatican's daily newspaper in a dirty tricks campaign against a rival.

Gian Maria Vian, the editor of L'Osservatore Romano, allegedly leaked false documents which purported to show that Dino Boffo, the editor of another Catholic newspaper, L'Avvenire, had had a homosexual affair, forcing Mr Boffo to resign from the editorship.

The Vatican has jumped to Mr Vian's defence and that of Cardinal Bertone, saying they had nothing to do with the saga.

2 Letters and memos used in the book appear to show that Cardinal Bertone tried to thwart efforts to target corruption, nepotism and cronyism within the city state.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a senior member of the Vatican administration, discovered that it was wasting millions of euros in overpaying for goods and services.

He found, for instance, that the Vatican had paid an exorbitant 550,000 euros in 2009 for the traditional Nativity figures that are set up in St Peter's Square at Christmas, when they should have cost around half that.

Despite his efforts to reform the Vatican administration, Cardinal Bertone had him removed from his post.

3 Cardinal Bertone was also accused of impeding efforts to improve transparency within the Vatican's bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion.

He was reportedly instrumental in having the head of the bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, removed from his post in May.

Mr Gotti Tedeschi's mission was to get the Vatican onto a "white list" of financially transparent states, but tensions grew after Cardinal Bertone reportedly resisted the reforms and pushed for a new transparency law to be watered down.

 

 

 

 

 




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