VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
It is open season on the “moles” who disclosed confidential documents. But behind the scenes there is a no-holds-barred fight between different factions
Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City
It is open season on the Vatican moles who released (and continue to release) confidential letters and documents, one week after the explosive episode of “The Untouchables”, an Italian investigative journalism program, conducted by Gianluigi Nuzzi, which was aired on Italian television channel LA7. Last Wednesday, the video revealed some confidential letters sent by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò (currently Nuncio to the U.S. and previously Secretary of the Vatican Governatorate) to the Pope and to Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone. The letters contain weighty revelations against some clergy and laity in the Holy See, who had been accused of stealing, and against some laypeople in Bertone’s entourage.
The poisonous atmosphere has intensified over the last few days following new developments: in the Italian daily Il Giornale, Mgr. Viganò was strongly disparaged for a legal dispute with family members over the management of an enormous family wealth (€30 million) which he shares with a brother priest. The prelate wanted the brother to be declared incapable of managing said wealth, because he had allegedly been manipulated by a sister. A year ago, Il Giornale published a series of anonymous articles praising the current Secretary of State, calling him “admiral” of the “fleet of Benedict XVI,” with words that were so excessively laudatory as to be embarrassing to him. The same anonymous author also wrote and published articles against Mgr. Viganò in the same paper, predicting his expulsion and calling attention to his nepotism (the prelate had indeed called for his nephew, a priest, to take up a post in the Secretariat of State). Last Saturday, the same newspaper again attacked the former Secretary of the Governatorate with an anonymous article (along with one mentioned above on Viganò’s family problems) in which the prelate was accused of being behind the leaking of the letters to the media in the United States, presenting him as having betrayed the Pope.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.