ROME
Gazzetta del Sud
Rome, November 5 – Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the former Vatican secretary of state, on Thursday rejected allegations contained in a book in the middle of the new Vatican leaked-documents scandal that he paid for renovations to his ‘top-floor’ apartment with money from a foundation linked to a children’s hospital in Rome. The allegations are contained in Avarice by L’Espersso journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, which is out in Italy on Thursday. In an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper Bertone described the allegations as “slander”. “It is shameful, I don’t know how to defend myself, it is almost impossible to defend oneself from slander,” he said. Cardinal Bertone insisted that he had paid for the 300,000-euro renovations out of his own pocket even though the apartment belonged to the Vatican governorate.
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