VATICAN CITY
First Things
Thursday, June 7, 2012
William Doino
Nothing so excites the press than does a Vatican scandal. The recent firing of the head of the Vatican’s Bank, amidst charges of wrongdoing, and the arrest of the pope’s private butler, accused of leaking papal documents, have provoked an international media frenzy. For all the media’s demands for Church “reform,” however, one wonders whether they would welcome it, if it actually led to an increase in holiness, and offered much less material for them to write lurid headlines about.
None of which is to excuse the Vatican. If it turns out that better oversight, organization and background checks could have prevented these scandals, Catholics should be the first to broadcast that finding, and hold those responsible accountable. Self-examination and moral purity should be constant demands for any believing Catholic. The faithful do the Holy See no favors when they remain silent about suspected corruption, or prudential errors from the highest quarters of the Church. Of course, even if the Vatican overhauls its entire system, with exacting and efficient standards, that won’t guarantee against additional scandals, since temptation and sin can never be eradicated from the human heart.
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has acknowledged the need “for truth and clarity, for transparency” in investigating what happened. In his first public comments on the scandals, Pope Benedict was both humble and sensible, saying they “brought sadness” to his heart, while affirming his faith they would be overcome, and rebuking the “entirely gratuitous” speculation of the media which was presenting a “completely unrealistic image of the Holy See.”
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