VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
Interview with Church historian Alberto Melloni, successor of late Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Alberigo: “The Pope’s private correspondence is concordatory material”
Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City
“I don’t think there is anything new here. The problem is, who is pouring fuel on the fire and who is fanning the flames? They certainly cannot attribute this to their right to freedom of expression….” This is how Alberto Melloni Professor of History at the University of Modena, Italy and director of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna summarised the Vatileaks case that has been causing so much mayhem in the Holy See. Here, the hunt is on for the moles who stole number of documents, notes and letters, sending them to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of “Sua Santità. Le carte segrete di Benedetto XVI” (His Holiness. Benedict XVI’s secret letters)
What do you make of the “Vatileaks” saga?
In my opinion it is an attack against the Pope by those who wish to tell him: you were wrong in your choice of Secretary of State and you were wrong not to substitute him…”
Are there any previous cases that bear a comparison to this one?
“No, I don’t think so. I must say that the book does not reveal anything massively new; they are not “secret letters” at all, it’s just private internal correspondence: it is clear that the aim is to prove that there is no surveillance, that anything can get out and that the archives are not properly looked after.”
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