ABOUT THE CHURCH AND THE VATICAN

Over the past few days, the soap opera has gone on in the Italian media with respect to the re-opening of the 'Boffo case' - in which it appears the former editor of Avvenire was dealt a low blow and that his resignation following the media melodrama last summer was both unnecessary and undeserved.

The media narrative is that the whole 'affair' was the result of ongoing rivalry over political influence in Italian affairs between the Secretariat of State and the Italian bishops' conference, in which the Vatican side has been the aggressor.

Rodari's title comes from St. Ambrose who described the Church as a "chaste whore, since many lovers frequent her because of the attractions of love; yet she is free from the contamination of sin." In the article, Rodari quotes Vittorio Messori who uses the term to describe the ongoing intramurals in Rome.


The Church as 'chaste and whore'
by PAOLO RODARI
Translated from

February 4, 2010


"They are quaking with apprehension at the Vatican," says an eminent Curial prelate about the revived controversy of the 'Boffo case'. "They are trying to get the right answers but they have not found it".

And they are quaking because of a statement made by Vittorio Feltri to Il Foglio last Saturday - that he had received the false information he used last September against Boffo from "a Church figure in whom one must have institutional trust".

Yet there has been no official denial or rebuttal from the Vatican. Just as no one from the Vatican has denied what Il Foglio wrote about recently in this connection, namely: "It appears from reliable sources that some telephone calls were made to Feltri from the editor of L'Osservatore Romano Giovanni Maria Vian, for the purpose of accrediting the false document".

When push comes to shove, an official denial can be ordered, but is that not too late now?

The silence from the Vatican says a lot. And give much food for thought. Because it is not a simple "No comment". Rather, it seems like an unsaid "No comment" for the simple reason that verification and investigation are under way.

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has spoken out promptly on far less significant things. It may well be that the current hustle and bustle at the Vatican will end up with a decision to make a strong official statement for the benefit of the public.

But the fact that 12 days have passed since Il Foglio published its first background story on this case without an answer from the parties named makes one think that things are not clear at the Vatican itself.

For instance. Mons. Domenico Mogavero - who last September had been the first to call for Boffo's resignation as editor of Avvenire and his other jobs as director of the radio and TV networks of the Italian bishops conference [on the basis of an accusation that the accuser has since denounced as false and apologized for] - indicated to Corriere della Sera yesterday that he now regrets having acted in haste, and was concerned that our reconstruction of events may indeed prove to be correct.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, had a generic comment, telling La Repubblica that he found the idea of an internal plot in the Vatican against Boffo, and through him, the CEI, to be "unthinkable".

In an apparent attempt to further muddy the water, some have even tried to involve external elements like Comunione e Liberazione, which was immediately denied by Bishop Luigi Negri of San Marino-Montefeltro who was indignant that his name had once again been used by the media without any basis.

The Vatican is rather fearful of what could happen on February 22. That is when Vittorio Feltri faces a hearing by the Press Association of Lombardy which has started a disciplinary process against him for the false accusations he made against Boffo last summer.

Feltri will tell them what he told Il Foglio - and what he had written in his own newspaper, Il Giornale, when he admitted last December that he had accused Boffo on the basis of a document that proved to be false.


Would you trust a document like this no matter who sent it to you - and on its 'strength' alone, accuse a most respectable man of being a homosexual and concluding that the telephone molestation he was fined must have had to do with a homosexual affair?

[It's difficult to credit Feltri for the simple reason that the photocopy he published of the supposed 'supplemental information' (to a court document showing Boffo had been fined by a local court for 'telephone molestation') was very clearly a cheap tawdry-looking anonymous flier! Just as it is hard to believe someone like Vian would send or cause to be sent such a tawdry document - at the very least, he could have had it re-typed and presented cleanly!]

What the Vatican fears is that Feltri may feel compelled to name names to the press association - just who had sent him the documents, and who had brought it to him personally [earlier said to have been someone from the Vatican police force]. He could give them names, on condition that the press group keeps them secret.

But his only defense would be to reiterate that he believed the documents sent to him because they came from someone 'institutionally reliable' in the Vatican.

Writer Vittorio Messori told Il Foglio that he himself is not 'scandalized' even if he feels the Vatican must be "embarrassed because it seems the whole brouhaha came from within its walls". But he adds:

"The Vatican has always been a court rife with intrigues and conspiracies, fists and knives and vendettas. In the time of the Borgia Popes, they resolved their disputes through literal backstabbing. These days, they have other ways. History repeats itself.

"And the Church has always had two faces: it is an institution made up of humans who happen to hold on to a mystery: the mystery of faith. The Church is both chaste and whorish, but this fact should not be cause for horror. Alexander Borgia, for instance, was a good Pope - despite the known misdeeds, he never deviated from correct doctrine.

"What really matters is that the Pope is a master of the faith, as the great Benedict XVI is, and not a heretic. The Pope's faith is what should inspire the believer and draw his interest. Everything else is the way life is, and the person who has faith knows that.

"For as long as God's Church is run by men, we will have a sinful Church full of internal fights. Of course, the Curia seems to have a lot of problems, but I think it is paying the price for a lack of governance under Papa Wojtyla, who was a great Pope but left the Curia to their own devices".