Friday 10 February 2012

Who Really Leaked The Letter Of Vatican Corruption?


Here is an interesting take on the private letters, from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò to Pope Benedict XVI, that were leaked to the press and which have led to reports of alleged corruption in the Vatican. It is titled “That 33% chance …”.


That 33% Chance
"Agnosco stilum Curiae...", a play on words meaning ‘I recognize the style of the Roman Church’ but also ‘I recognize the dagger of the Roman Church.’ Well, this time it seems  rather more like an axe than a dagger and  not even a well concealed one.

If everything we have heard and read about the letter attributed to the current Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., Carlo Maria Viganò, was true, that it was given to the Pope and the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and that it  included an assortment of figures and accusations (some specific and some quite vague and generic), one would naturally wonder  who gave that letter to the journalist. There are three people who had a copy of it, the person who wrote it and those who received it. It would therefore be feasible to say that for each of them there was a 33% chance of being responsible for leaking said document to the press. An epistle in which  every word was steeped in rancour and bitterness, all because of a desired nomination to cardinalship that didn’t happen and perhaps now never will.

It is unlikely that either Benedict XVI or Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone gave such a serious and confidential document  to a television network. But maybe they got distracted and left it lying around after having read it, since they had so many other matters to think about.

There is however a 33% chance that it was actually the Nuncio himself, who,  livid about the promotion he did not receive, was directly or indirectly responsible for the infamous leak. That 33% chance is enough to lead us to believe that maybe Benedict XVI did the right thing by not answering the letter with a nomination to cardinalship.[i]

The Vatican has been quite vocal in repeatedly denying that there is any truth in the corruption allegations. Could this article be cutting to the bone of what lies behind these allegations?

(You can read a copy of the letter of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in my post titled “With deep sadness”.)


[i] Vatican Insider, That 33% chance, Jan 27, 2012

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