VATICAN CITY
The Guardian
Lizzy Davies in Rome
theguardian.com, Monday 2 September 2013
The Italian prelate who was Pope Benedict’s righthand man in the Vatican during his scandal-dogged papacy has defended his much-criticised record, insisting he “gave everything” to the job despite the activities of “vipers” in the Roman curia.
Speaking a day after Pope Francis named a Vatican diplomat as his new secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone appeared defiant as he was asked about his time in office.
“I see the record of the past seven years as positive. Of course, there were a lot of problems, especially in the last two years,” he said, according to the Ansa news agency, hitting out at “a combination of crows and vipers”.
“But this should not cloud what I consider to be a positive record,” he added. The Italian word corvo (crow) is used pejoratively to describe informants or people who leak secrets.
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