BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

VATICAN NOTE ON PILFERED
DOCUMENTS TENDING TO DISCREDIT
THE VATICAN AND THE CHURCH
Translated from the Italian service of

February 13, 2012

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, released this note this evening:

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These days we should all have steady nerves so no one can be surprised by anything. The US administration had its Wikileaks, and now the Vatican has its own leaks, an outflow of documents which tend to create confusion and bewilderment that help place the Vatican, the governance of the Church, and in general, the Church herself, in a bad light.

Therefore, it is time for calm and sangfroid. And much use of reason, something that not all the media tend to do.

We are dealing with documents of diverse nature and importance, each arising in different times and situations: Discussions about the optimal economic management of an institution with many material activities such as the Governatorate. Notes about juridical and normative questions that are still under discussion and about which it is natural to have various opinions. A memorandum with delirious ravings that no serious person with a head on his shoulders would ever take seriously, even alleging a plot against the life of the Pope.

Such as they are, putting them all together serves to create confusion. A serious information outlet should be able to distinguish these diverse issues from each other and understand that they are significantly different among them.

It is obvious that the economic activities of the Governatorate should be managed wisely and strictly. It is clear that the IOR and the Vatican's financial activities should participate correctly in international norms against money laundering. All this is obviously being done in accordance with the Pope's instructions.

It is equally obvious that the story about a death plot against the Pope is delusional, foolish, and does not merit any serious consideration.

It is certainly sad that documents internal to the Vatican are passed on disloyally to the media as a way to create confusion. The responsibility cuts both ways.

First of all, on the part of the person who furnishes these documents, but also with those who gladly use it, and certainly not out of love for the truth!

Therefore we must resist and not allow ourselves to be engulfed in a vortex of confusion which is what those with ill intentions desire, and we must remain capable of reason.

In a way - it is an old bit of conventional wisdom - the existence of particularly strong attacks is a sign that something important is at stake.

The major series of attacks against the Church because of sexual abuses committed by priests is being rightly counteracted by a serious and profound commitment of far-reaching renewal. Not a short-term response, but one of purification and renewal.

Now, we have the situation in hand, and we are developing a strong strategy towards healing, renewal and prevention, for the good of the whole society.

At the same time, it is known that a serious effort is underway to guarantee full transparency in the operations of Vatican institutions even from the financial angle. New norms have been published towards this end. We have opened international channels of communication to insure adequate checks and controls.

But now, various documents in circulation seek to discredit these efforts. Paradoxically, this constitutes another reason to pursue the new policies with determination and not allow ourselves to be upset. If so much trouble is taken to hound us, then the matter obviously is a big deal to them.

Those who think that they could discourage the Pope and his co-workers from their commitment are wrong and they delude themselves.

As to the question of a supposed power struggle with a view to the next papal conclave, I would ask its proponents to consider that the Pontiffs who have been elected in the past century have all been persons of the highest and most indisputable spiritual worth.

It is clear that the cardinal electors have sought and will continue to seek to elect someone who deserves the respect of the People of God and who can serve mankind in our time with great moral and spiritual authority.

Trying to interpret events in the Vatican as part of an internal power struggle arises in part from the moral coarseness of those who provoke and promote it, who are often able to see nothing else.

But whoever believes in Jesus Christ knows that, fortunately - whatever is being said or written about in the newspapers today - the true concern of those who bear responsibility in the Church are the serious problems of mankind today and tomorrow. And that is why we do not speak in vain when we speak about the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

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I hate to post this item with Fr. Lombardi's note, but the item represents the animus of persons who are even more insidious and insupportable than the backstabbing intrigue-driven malevolents in the labyrinths of the Secretariat of State - namely, the arrogant bishops spawned after Vatican II. who interpret collegiality to mean that each one of them is equal to the Pope and therefore owes no respect, much less obedience, to the one and only Pope.

But the retired bishop recounted here is but one of many - one can probably name at least a dozen - Italian bishops who have been unspeakably insolent and almost contemptuous of Benedict XVI. I just did not think it worth posting any of their ravings before. I'm posting this because this bishop is as delusional as whoever was behind the Romeo-death plot memorandum. But then he was responding to a radio interviewer who apparently buys into the 'death plot story'... And so we have the ongoing tragicomedy of delirious fantasy presented as 'fact' by a till-now respectable Italian newspaper, and commented on as fact by a man who was chosen to be the bishop of a major Italian city!

Italian bishop claims 'death plot'
is a ploy to prepare for
the Pope's eventual resignation


ROME, February 13 (Translated from TMNews) - Papa Ratzinger is tired and is thinking to resign! This was the opinion expressed by Mons. Luigi Bettazzi, emeritus Bishop of Ivrea (northern Italy, where Cardinal Bertone was once Bishop), in the radio program Un Giorni da Pecora (A day in Pecora).

Monsignor, do you believe in the plot revealed by Il Fatto Quotidiano to kill Papa Ratzinger?" [The way the question is asked, the interviewer seems to accept the plot to be gospel truth even if, despite its lurid headlines, the Fatto story itself made clear that the existence of a lot was apparently deduced by Chinese officials from Cardinal Romeo's alleged assertion that the Pope would die within 12 months.]
No, I don't. If it had been about the preceding Pope, I would understand. But this Pope here seems so gentle and religious. I do not see any reason someone would want to kill him". [I'm bad, but is he saying, in effect, that compared to his predecessor, Benedict XVI is too inconsequential for anyone to even think of plotting against?]

What did you think when this news came out?
That it is a way of preparing for the eventuality of the Pope's resignation. To cushion the shock, because the resignation of a Pope would be a great shock, they are starting to advance this idea of a death plot.

And you think that Papa Ratzinger intends to resign?
I believe so, yes, even if the Vatican has denied it before. But an old cardinal always used to tell me, "I the Vatican denies anything, it means it is true".

But why would Benedict XVI resign at all?
I think he feels very tired. All you have to do is look at him. He's someone who is accustomed to study. But in the face of the problems he cases, and even perhaps, just in the face of the tensions within the Curia, he probably thinks that it's the next Pope who should worry about these things.

Obviously, I would not waste my time commenting on the bishop's statements! Although I will question the editorial judgment of the TMNews agency to report this at all!

P.S. For the record, I posted another distasteful and lengthy article by Philip Pulella of Reuters in the TOXIC WASTE BIN which is his totally tendentious overview of the Vati-leaks stories.