BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

That letter from Bertone!
Translated from

February 29, 2012

Dear friends, yesterday, Il Fatto Quotidiano, in its latest installment of Vatileaks - those confidential files from the Holy See which have been passed on to the media for the purpose of destabilizing the present leadership in the Secretariat of State - published two letters regarding the case of the Istituto Toniolo (which has been called the 'cash box' of the Catholic University).

The case is known in most of its details and sidelights, and you can read about it in an article I wrote for La Stampa on May 4, 2011.

What's new are the original letters themselves, both supposed to be confidential - the first one, from Secretary of State Tarciso Bertone to Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, then Archbishop of Milan; and the second is Tettamanzi's reply.

The story is easily summarized: Last spring, Bertone, in the name of the Pope, informed Tettamanzi [in a letter faxed to Tettamanzi on March 26) to leave the presidency of the Toniolo and to accept as his replacement former Italian Justice Minister Giovanni Maria Flick. The changeover was to take place fast and soon.

But why all the haste? Simple: Because at the time, everyone was expecting the imminent nomination by the Pope of a new Archbishop for Milan [to succeed Tettamanzi after his anticipated retirement when he turned 77] who would obviously have his say at the Toniolo, and would have been in the way of Bertone's plans.

[Bertone wrote the letter in March; it turned out that Benedict XVI did not announce the appointment of Cardinal Scola to Milan until the end of June! It somehow indicates Bertone really thought in March that the appointment would be made soon, which leads one to conclude there are certain things Benedict XVI keeps close to his chest, without necessarily pre-announcing them to Bertone (who had his own ideas about whom he wanted to be Archbishop of Milan). Probably that is why Benedict XVI kept his own counsel on the matter!]

But this particular power bid failed, and the Pope, after having spoken to Tettamanzi, agreed with him and blocked any further moves in the Toniolo until a new Archbishop was installed and could have his say. [The truly distressing element in this is that the Pope was apparently given a doctored version about Toniolo affairs, and only by the grace of God did Bertone pick on Tettamanzi who was not going to be a sitting duck, and had the documented facts to show the Pope that he had not been given the truth about Toniolo. How can we be sure that Bertone is not similarly misrepresenting the truth to the Pope on matters in which Bertone has a personal interest that is not necessarily in the Pope's best interest???]

So there is nothing new or not previously known about these two letters in terms of their content. But what struck me most in reading these two letters was the 'style' in which Bertone's letter was written.

Bertone in effect 'fires' the Archbishop of Milan ("Your Eminence is hereby relieved of this onerous responsibility"), saying he is doing so in the name of the Pope; specifies the date at which the administrarive council of the Toniolo should be convened {"I am asking you to set a meeting of the Permanent Council by April 10"); orders him to name "Prof. Giovanni Maria Flick, after notifying the Permanent Council, as your successor to the Presidency" of the Council; informs him that "the Holy Father has also decided that until the new President takes up his position, you are not to proceed to any provision or decision regarding appointments and responsibilities nor undertake any management activities of the Istituto Toniolo".

He goes on to say that "the secretariat of State has already informed Prof. Flick and obtained his consent".

Cardinal Tettamanzi was not consulted on any of this and received the 'dismissal' letter by fax.

I do not know which brain actually wrote the letter from Bertone, but it had a tone of imposition.It hints, it orders, it takes away, it lays down the law... {That's being too kind! It was rude and imperious, and every line rubbed in the subtext and context of "Just so you know who you're dealing with, you are completely at my mercy"].

And yet Bertone is addressing the head of an institution of the Church in Italy, not of the Vatican. [I am glad I understood that right, and said so in my remarks yesterday! It is most strange that after having spent years as a member of the italian bishops' conference, Bertone has come to believe that as Secretary of State of the Vatican, he can dictate to the Italian bishops!]

That should be a warning to Tettamanzi's successor, who is also a cardinal! [And one who has clear episcopal and cardinalatial seniority over Bertone by a good many years!]


But the most surprising thing about Bertone's letter - even more than its tone - is that his orders, supposedly authorized by the Pope, ended up producing no results.

Not because of an act of rebellion or disobedience by Cardinal Tettamanzi, but because the latter had a chance to explain to the Pope directly how things really are, and how the Toniolo had been managed in the past several years since he became Council president.

All the power deployed in the letter by the Secretary of State simply shattered to pieces after the audience given by the Pope to Tettamanzi.

The attempted power grab at the Toniolo failed - the new Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, would not arrive to find a fait accompli, and he has a chance to play the decisive role that is rightfully his.

And that is exactly what the Secretary of State had wanted to prevent.

[I find it disturbing that Bertone apparently feels so sure of the Pope's favor that he has not hesitated to directly oppose other Italian bishops whom the Pope esteems and likes (with good reason) - such as Cardinals Scola, Ruini and Bagnasco. Benedict XVI's innate fairness is obvious in having taken Tettamanzi's side regarding the Toniolo, even if he and Tettamanzi have always been on opposite sides of the ideological divide.]

Sandro Magister has not yet written a formal article on this issue but in his blog today, he waxes sarcastic about it, given the quite ironical opening yesterday of a major exhibit on the Vatican Secret Archives! This was announced last July, but the synchronicity of the event with the still ongoing Vatileaks is hewavensent for all who want to milk this situation of every bit of irony



'Lux in arcana':
Frederick II's 'bull' (edict)
and that of Cardinal Bertone
Translated from

February 29, 2012

“Lux in arcana. L’archivio segreto vaticano si rivela“. (Light in darkness: The Vaticah Secret Archives uncovered),

All we needed was this - a major exhibit with this title precisely at a time when so many confidential documents that ought to remain private have been pilfered from the Vatican offices and displayed for all the world to relish. [Please, specify the Secretariat of State! Cardinal Levada or Cardinal Ouellet, to cite the most sensitive offices outside of SecState, have not been the victim of inbred vipers so far! What documents of interest might be leaked from an office like. say, the Congregation of Divine Worship, or the Pontifical Counjcil for the Family, just to name two at random?]

But fact can outdo fantasy. And look who was the first to visit the exhibit before it even opened to the public this afternoon at the Campidoglio - none other than Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, who has been the most 'mistreated' - not without fault on his part - by the fevered fluttering of the pilfered pages from the Vatican.

Reading L'Osservatore Romano's presentation of the exhibit, one does not think just of the historical texts on exhibit, but of the most recent ones about the Vatican - "a nebulous or even obscure context"; "a reality that is mysterious because unknown"; "knowledge withheld from most persons"; "binder string that must be united"; "fictionalized settings and surroundings"; 'secret documents that are brought outside the Vatican for the first time"...

Among the most valuable documents in the Campidoglio exhibit is the Bull [from the First Council Council of Lyons that deposed Emperor Frederick II in 1245.

But si parva licet comparare magnis (if we can compare small things to big things), Cardinal Bertone's letter of March 26, 2011, to Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, was also a 'bull of deposition' meant to take away from Tettamanzi the crown jewel that the Istituto Toniolo represents. A bull that was made public on February 28 by Il Fatto Quotidiano. [Magister provides a link to the text of the letter published in IFQ].

And if in antiquity, the fiction of 'Constantine's donation' was invented to lay a basis for the temporal power of the Church, a fiction later unmasked by the humanists of the 14th century, today, we have Cardinal Bertone, who in his aforementioned 'bull' - citing the Pope's improbable endorsement - claims imperium over the Toniolo unto himself "according to a practice going back to the beginnings of the Institute".

Bertone's claim was unmasked as 'historically unfounded' by Cardinal Tettamanzi in his letter dated March 28, 2011, to the Pope himself, to protest and push back against the abusive attempt to dismiss him summarily. This letter too was published in full by the Fatto. (Magieter provides the link)

“Lux in arcana” offers the public till September 9 just a small sampling of the endless mass of documents kept in the Vatican Secret Archives.

But Vatileaks may be no less 'massive'. We have been given to understand that the few documents made public so far are just a preview of a vast array of pilfered files. To be released indefinitely. Without a time limit.