"Monsignors' mutiny" revealed by Vatican leaks

[onager]

Reuters By Philip Pullella – 11 hrs ago

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.

"It is a total mess," said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.

The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court...

From leaked letters by an archbishop who was transferred after he blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption and cronyism, to a leaked poison pen memo which puts a number of cardinals in a bad light, to new suspicions about its bank, Vatican spokesmen have had their work cut out responding.

http://news.yahoo.com/monsignors-mutiny-revealed-vatican-leaks-140524856.html

[Peregrine Took]

1. Very interesting. Thanks so much for posting this article. n/t

[loudsue]

2. A fish stinks from the head down.

In the first place, Benedict isn't exactly the most sleeze-free dude that ever put on that top hat. He makes me sick, and I never could believe the Catholic church allowed him to become pope. A very dark day for a huge organization that does plenty of good in the world, and plenty of bad.

Secondly, any huge and wealthy organization, with a heirarchical structure, is going to become corrupted: Governments, labor unions, churches, corporations, militaries and political parties. Throw in too much testosterone -- not enough balance -- and lack of an open system of self-reflection, and you are going to get corruption, sooner or later, and it will go deep.

[AndyTiedye]

8. The Election Was Rigged

[nofurylike]

12. roflmao

that is GREAT!!!

still LOL ...

thank you for the LAUGHTER, AndyTiedye!!

[Renew Deal]

27. That's a funny graphic

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

28. .

[DeSwiss]

33. LOL!

K&R

[Bozita]

38. +1

[yellowcanine]

32. Benedict is a place holder for the return to power of the hardliners

complete with an Italian Pope. The reaching out to the third world and to Protestants that characterized Vatican II and Pope John Paul II is over, I believe. Note that Benedict is going after conservative Anglicans, basically sheep stealing and adopting a cynical strategy of accepting married Anglican priests as candidates for the Catholic priesthood in order to make the strategy work. It is inconceivable to me that Pope John Paul II would have pursued such a strategy.

[hedgehog]

35. How many here know that when Lord Acton said this:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

He was referring to the declaration of Papal Infallibility which came out of Vatican I after most of the bishops had left for home. Vatican I shut down abruptly as war broke out across Europe, and the out-of-towners beat feet to get home before the borders closed. The Vatican denizens who remained re-opened the Council and took a vote that favored their interests.

[Renew Deal]

3. Pope Benedict is running the Vatican like Bush ran the US, and he's getting Bush like outcomes

At least that's how I read this:

The sources agreed that the leaks were part of an internal campaign - a sort of "mutiny of the monsignors" - against the pope's right-hand man, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Bertone, 77, has a reputation as a heavy-handed administrator and power-broker whose style has alienated many in the Curia, the bureaucracy that runs the central administration of the 1.3 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church.

He came to the job, traditionally occupied by a career diplomat, in 2006 with no experience of working in the church's diplomatic corps, which manages its international relations. Benedict chose him, rather, because he had worked under the future pontiff, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in the Vatican's powerful doctrinal office.

[Renew Deal]

4. I recommend people read the entire thing

It's a long and crazy, but interesting story.

[Skittles]

5. Vatican = biggest cult headquarters ever

seriously corrupt

[mopinko]

7. +1,000,000

[yellowcanine]

6. This whole business sounds so ...... medieval. There was speculation about assassination of the

Pope and about who the next Pope should be (apparently in a memo from one Cardinal to another) - I was under the impression that this kind of speculation isn't supposed to happen in the Vatican.

[Fearless]

11. Historically it is quite the opposite.

Here's one of the most well known... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VII#Sack_of_Rome

"Clement was kept as a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo for six months. After having bought off some Imperial officers, he escaped disguised as a peddler and took shelter in Orvieto and then in Viterbo. He came back to a depopulated and devastated Rome only in October 1528.

Meanwhile, in Florence, Republican enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to again expel the Pope's family from the city.

In June of the next year the warring parties signed the Peace of Barcelona. The Papal States regained some cities, and Charles V agreed to restore the Medici to power in Florence. In 1530, after an eleven-month siege, the Tuscan city capitulated, and Clement VII installed his illegitimate son Alessandro as duke. Subsequently the Pope followed a policy of subservience to the emperor, endeavouring on the one hand to induce him to act with severity against the Lutherans in Germany and on the other to avoid his demands for a general council."

[yellowcanine]

21. Well yes, that is why I thought the whole thing was very medieval. Something seriously

weird is going down in the Vatican. My personal opinion (based on nothing except a hunch) is that the election of Benedict was a result of a series of very political maneuvers - even more so than usual. Basically the hardliners won but they didn't get the Italian Pope they were seeking. They settled for the next best thing - Benedict as a stand-in. He is old and not really interested in political skulduggery anymore. Letting him be Pope was a reward for past services to the hardliners but it came with a short leash. I wouldn't even be surprised if he resigned in the not too distant future. Possibly the murmuring about assassination/papal succession is a not too subtle way to push Benedict in that direction.

[Fearless]

34. Definitely medieval...

Although I doubt he would resign even if someone attempted assassination... It hasn't actually happened since the 1400's.

Here's a good one for that though... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_resignation

Interesting how many signed secret letters of resignation though, in case something happened to them.

[hedgehog]

36. Benedict XVI is an old man, closer to a natural death

each day. The odds are that he will die in the next few years, but in this atmosphere, the conspiracy theories will thrive.

[secondwind]

9. I never liked Benedict, from the moment he was "elected" and

he clasped his hands over his head, as if he were Mohammed Ali.

From the moment he discharged his faithful priest who was by his side for over 20 years, and was instrumental in his being selected Pope, and replaced him with a young, 20-something blonde priest.

I have never trusted or liked this man, or his red Gucci shoes.

[onager]

10. Those shoes are NOT common ol' Gucci.

The Pope's red shoes are custom-made by Adriano Stefanelli, a Roman artisan.

But here's the good news! You can get your own pair of Stefanelli shoes absolute FREE!!!

All you have to do is buy the car shown in the pic below, the Pagani Zonda roadster. Along with the shoes, you get a free set of luggage.

The Zonda will set you back about $1.3 million:

[secondwind]

14. Tks for the update. :-)

[Myrina]

20. Now THAT'S a Pope Mobile!

[caseymoz]

16. Doesn't help that he does this

. . . with a face that reminds you of Darth Sidious.

[yellowcanine]

23. Don't all the Popes wear those red shoes? I thought it was part of the papal costume.

I have always thought the costumes of Popes and Cardinals were just a bit feminine - almost as if they are trying to compensate for the exclusion of women from the church hierarchy.

[MADem]

13. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys... nt

[BlueMTexpat]

15. The scandal described below didn't happen during Benny XVI's era, but it is

really gathering "legs" in Europe now. No wonder the Vatican is against contraception. In Spain, the Church collaborated with the Franco regime and even raised funds by lying to mothers they deemed "unfit" and selling their babies on. This abhorrent practice did not necessarily stop when the Franco regime ended.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15335899

That report is from November. Here's a follow-up from January. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/05/spain-stolen-babies-scandal

This week, local TV stations will be showing their own documentaries on the subject.

Methinks that the Vatican should clean its own house before getting into everyone else's bedroom. It certainly has no consistent moral compass where it perceives that its own interests lie and therefore little credibility.

These people should be on their knees apologizing to the many genuinely good priests and nuns I have known who are nothing like the upper echelons in the hierarchy - and never will be. Thank heavens!

[hedgehog]

37. The 20th century saw a proliferation of secretive cults

within the Church: Opus Dei, The Legionaries of Christ, the New Catechumens, Heralds of the Gospel from Spain, Mexico, Italy and Brazil, respectively. Get a look at the Heralds of the Gospel:



Yes, those are knee length leather boots the men are wearing!

Sounds in keeping with their activities:

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/one-most-unusual-and-disturbing-stories-you-will-read-some-time

[BlueMTexpat]

39. And these secretive cults as scary as hell, for the most part. eom

[caseymoz]

17. Ain't infallibility a bitch?

I was right. Benny isn't a John Paul, or even a George Ringo.

[Brickbat]

18. Gah, I hate "call it" leads. That's just lazy writing.

[GTurck]

19. All institutions...

have to be reformed now and then. The Church being very old has had to do this several times and apprears to need reforming again. By that I mean they need to be reminded of why the institution exists and who they are serving. This is true of all institutions: government, education, economic, etc. It is not that so many are evil it is that so many are lazy.

[Thor_MN]

22. The main function of all institutions, no matter how good their initial purpose,

after about 50 years, turns to self preservation.

Wish I could remember where I first read that.

[nanabugg]

24. Time to investigate all the "tax empt" institutions for corruption and money laundering, abroad and

here in the US. These institutions (many, not all) are cash cows for some politicos and an agenda to keep the masses poor and ignorant,.

[BlueToTheBone]

29. Name me one of the

"not all?" I'm wracking my brains trying to come up with one. Just one.

[txlibdem]

25. Add to it the end of Liberation Theology

Conspiracies, possible murder of Pope John Paul I, so many skeletons in the closets of the Vatican.

[_ed_]

26. These are the people upset about contraceptives?

Hey, Catholics, when you're done paying out billions in $$$ to victims of child rapists that your church went on to coverup, maybe we'll all be curious what you think about moral issues. Until you stop fucking kids and lying about it, shut up.

[progressoid]

30. No way.

I'm shocked!@!!21!

[pscot]

31. The Vatican is a midiaeval court

The last bastion of the Twelfth Century.