VATICAN CITY
National Post (Canada)
By Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere
VATICAN CITY • A “plot” to kill Pope Benedict XVI disclosed Friday is only the latest in a series of rumours, leaks and corruption allegations in what experts believe is a bitter power struggle in the Vatican.
The Holy See’s press office has been forced into overdrive in recent days against multiple reports in Italian media centred mainly on the activities of the Vatican bank and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State.
On Friday, the Vatican dismissed as “delirious” the writings of a cardinal who said he had heard of an unspecified assassination threat on the Pope and also described increasingly confrontational ties between the Pope and Cardinal Bertone.
The document — allegedly written by a Colombian cardinal and quoting declarations reportedly made by Italian cardinal Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo, during a visit to China — was also dismissed by Cardinal Romeo himself as “absolutely without basis.”
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