As expected, there's quite a barrage of commentary in the Italian media about the new batch of leaked Vatican documents, this time purporting to come from the Pope's own files. There's an interview with the author of the book that exposes these private files, but I have chosen the following item to translate first. Because it answers the first and obvious question that inexplicably, virtually all of the other articles and commentary have left out - which is: what exactly has been revealed and how much is there? The diligent Angela Ambrogetti, who now edits Korazym online, tells us in this interview with TEMPI:
What 'secret' letters to the Pope?
All of the facts disclosed have been known for some time:
These are just banalities that violate the law on private correspondence
by Leone Grotti
Translated from
May 18, 2012
Veteran Vaticanista Angela Ambrogetti tells TEMPI about the new book
Sua Santita: Le lettere segrete del Papa": "No scoop at all - it simply recycles things that have been publicly known. And to publish private correspondence [without the consent of the persons who wrote them] is not journalism. It's madness".
"There's no secret revealed. These are all things that have been brought to light for some time. Nothing in it has not been published before in terms of content. And even the 'sources - faxes and letters to the Pope [or to Mons. Gaenswein] - anyone can write whatever he wants, and it all depends on his state of mind when doing so. What one writes when one is worked up is not necessarily the truth".
Excerpts from the book by Giancarlo Nuzzi were published in a special edition today of
Corriere della Sera's Friday magazine,
Sette, which says the book contains letters and files leaked from the Vatican Secretariat of State.
[I must check this out, too, because this is the first indication that the origin of the leaked documents was the Secretariat of State, and not the papal apartment as the initial reports made it appear. My own speculation about who on earth in the Pope's own household would ever be so treasonous was based on the very naive assumption that the Pope's private files are necessarily kept in his private study. Obviously, they go into a papal documents archive in the Secretariat of State.]
Those secret letters previewed today in Sette...
No. Stop right there. What 'secret' letters? These are private letters published illegally. But I must say that as someone expecting find news, the 'documents' were a great letdown.
In what way?
These documents only contain things that were already known. Where are the scoops? That Pope Benedict defends the family based on marriage between a man and a woman? That’s news?
[This has to do with a private dinner that the Pope had with the President of Italy in early 2009 when they discussed, among other things, they discussed proposed legislation that would equiparate de facto heterosexual unions and gay marriage with traditional marriage.]
What about the fact that the former editor of Avvenire. Dino Boffo, sent a fax to the Pope’s personal secretary…
Not even that. He was known to complain at the time that the editor of
L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, had it in for him. And that he had communicated this to the Vatican. What we didn’t know was how he did it, but who cares?
We must instead recall that at that time, the Vatican issued a press statement, which specifically said it had been approved by the Pope – not a usual thing in Vatican press statements – in which the Vatican denied that Vian had anything to do with the Boffo affair. So where’s the news? These so-called secrets are nothing but banalities.
Nonetheless, these documents have now been published in a book, and excerpts are appearing in all the newspapers…
Now that’s the serious concern. How is it possible that a journalist can publish private letters that have been pilfered? Is he sending a message that he has documents that he can publish as he wishes? Or is it simply to sling mud at a Pope and a Pontificate that some people find ’bothersome’? A hypothesis that’s not improbable. If the letters were pilfered and leaked, it means someone gave them to him. This is serious. Even if we Catholics know that not everyone can be a saint.
But the Constitution specifically prohibits the [unauthorized] publication of private correspondence…
Exactly. But that the newspapers are doing it without a problem is insane. This is not journalism – this is something that the media associations should investigate. If only because these documents have not been authenticated…Moreover, as someone who works in the Vatican environment, I know very well that no one goes around giving you ‘news’…
But these documents were certainly handed to the author….
I didn’t get to finish the sentence. No one gives you any ‘news’ unless they want to use you for their own purposes.
Anticipating what the author of the new book says in the interview which I will translate in full later, this is what he says the documents are about, among other things:
________________________________________________________________________________________________
"These documents touch on events of all kinds - about the underground Church in China, the sufferings that mark the life of those people. Some of the private appointments of the Pope. Such as the one with a ferocious critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom the pope accused of interference in the Williamson case
[The Pope most certainly did nothing of the kind! And how would these private meetings be reported anyway? There are no audio tapes, so there can be no transcripts! Anything else is speculation]
"Or the Pope's 'top secret'
[Nuzzi uses the English words] with [Italian president] Napolitano, who is seen by the Vatican as a strategic interlocutor in relationships with the Italian government. Ot the efforts at transparency by IOR president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and the Pope's meetings with then Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti
[whom everyone knows the Pope consulted when he was preparing Caritas in veritate]..."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ooooh! Such lip-smacking goodies! I certainly hope Nuzzi doesn't get to con any significant number of bookbuyers who will do better to donate the euros they're willing to spend to some charity instead.
Author of book on the Pope's private files says
'For a year I lived in fear,
carrying the documents on a USB
from a chain around my neck'
by Pablo Marchese Ragona
Translated from his blog
May 18, 2012
Tomorrow, Gianluigi Nuzzi's new book entitled
Sua Santità, le carte segrete di Benedetto XVI (Chiarelettere, 352 pp, 16 euro), will be in bookstores.
Nuzzi's book contains private documents, notes and letters addressed to the Pope and his secretary, Mons. Gaenswein, which deal with topics of all kinds: from the Boffo case to Mons. Vigano, from the IOR to the Vatican's relations with states. Not to mention the Legionaries of Christ, and the case of Emanuela Orlandi.
In this interview, Nuzzi tells us how the book was born, which he says is a natural sequel to his first book,
Vaticano s.p.a., about Vatican finances and the IOR.
How did you get your hands on these documents?
One writes books when has the material. Having written Vaticano s.p.a. allowed me to come into contact with a whole range of sources with whom I was able to build relationships of trust that were concretized in the book.
It's not that I am out chasing stories about the Vatican, but for the first time in the history of the Church, private documents are available [which I will soon make available on my personal website]. In effect, we have been able to look into the Pope's desk, into his private study.
And who are these moles?
I would not call them moles - they are confidential sources, persons who wished to make public events that have always remained secret.
[Big deal! Does the public really have a right to know what the Pope discusses with his dinner guests, or what other people write to him?]
I think that often, and wrongly, we read everything about the Vatican in terms of warring factions. And this is bad for the Church because there are people who believe in the Holy Father, people who believe in transparency.
[1) Where is the rule book that says 'transparency' must include airing out all the petty rivalries within an institution and the scurrilous details associated with such rivalries? This is carrying the relatively new notion of 'transparency' to sanctimonious and truly invasive lengths. Why don't we just speak of the plain and simple virtue of honesty, and prudence? In which you don't make up anything about anything, but do not volunteer anything either that is no one else's business? 2) Find me anyone who has ever thought for a nanosecond that everything is a picture of perfect harmony within the Vatican - or within any large institution for that matter! Of course, there's always office infighting - people fight for perks, to get ahead in the pecking order, to be the boss's pet, whatever. Does anyone really expect this to be less in an institution that has been around for centuries and has a long and documented history of palace and court intrigue? Stop being so faux-naif, Nuzzi!]
This people see in him their leader and pastor. But instead they see too many merchants in the Temple. [Even Christ had to drive them out of the Temple. But the Vatican is not the Church. It's the all-too-human support institution of the Church, and it will have its share of misbehaving 'merchants', most of them, unfortunately, men of the Church. The question is not whether the Vatican under Benedict XVI has these merchants - they have always been there [What would Nuzzi call the prelates who played footsie with Maciel because he could ply them with material gifts?] - and no Pope has ever been without them. The question is whether they influence him in any negative way - and there is absolutely no reason to think they do, in the case of Benedict XVI, whose senses and faculties are still sharper than anyone around him!] Therefore my sources started meeting among themselves and decided to make these documents public. [Excuse me! What have they revealed that is not already substantially known to the public? And how does betraying the Pope by exposing his private files to the public help anyone in any way? Except perhaps Nuzzi who hopes to sell more books. I've never heard a lamer excuse for treason!]
So if they are not moles, can we call them crows?
It's also wrong to call them crows. A crow is one who disseminates anonymous fliers. Whereas here,
there was finally a chance to have access to private files. [What kind of moral compass - let alone, knowledge of Italian law - does Nuzzi have if he does not see anything wrong with publishing private documents without authorization - just because they are available to him?]
At home, we say
'Carta canta' (paper sings), and it is interesting to see how everyone at the Vatican turn to the Holy Father, that this Pastor is at the center of the Church.
[DUH! Did Nuzzi need the private files to tell him that? Of course, everyone runs to the Pope. They want him to be on their side, however improbable the circumstances may be! And of course he is central to the Church - he only heads it and is responsible for it!]
Sometimes, they turn to the Pope directly because, rightly or wrongly, they do not think that his closest advisors are as enlightened as he is.
Did you pay these persons?
I've never paid anyone. There are those who say so to discredit a book that is based on true documents. But I have paid for coffee or lunch for my sources.
What will readers find tomorrow in the bookstores?
I want to say that this should not be read as a book against the Church or against Bertone, as some may think. These documents touch on events of all kinds - about the underground Church in China, the sufferings that mark the life of those people. Some of the private appointments of the Pope. Such as the one with a ferocious critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom the pope accused of interference in the Williamson case
[The Pope most certainly did nothing of the kind! And how would these private meetings be reported anyway? There are no audio tapes, so there can be no transcripts! Anything else is speculation]
"Or the Pope's 'top secret'
[Nuzzi uses the English words] with [Italian president] Napolitano, who is seen by the Vatican as a strategic interlocutor in relationships with the Italian government. Ot the efforts at transparency by IOR president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and the Pope's meetings with then Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti
[whom everyone knows the Pope consulted when he was preparing Caritas in veritate] There's even a farcical episode in which a Vatican car riddled with bullets is found outside a restaurant.
[What does that have to do with anything???? That whoever owned the car was probably criminal?]
And then, there's the Boffo case all over...
I don't like it that I had to reopen the case. As a human being, I don't like it at all. But I was obliged to publish his letters because if I did not, then I ought to change my profession. I am a journalist, and I should publish everything.
[No, you don't. No lives are st stake here - nothing but the reputation of a man already unfairly besmirched who has to be dragged through the mud again! But you know some topics are inherently titillating, and you weren't about to pass up the chance to throw in some titillating stuff in there, because what reader could get excited about the problems of the underground Church in China or what President Napolitano thinks of traditional marriage? Gimme a break!]
What are the documents that left even you with your mouth open in surprise?
Two in particular struck me. The first has to do with the Encryptment Office of the Secretariat of State [the office in charge of encrypting messages sent and received from the Apostolic Nuncios around the world].
The book contains an encrypted message from Cardinal Bertone sent to the Nunciature in Madrid, about the relationships that the Church in Spain ought to have with the ETA [Basque separatist terrorist group]. He tells them that they ought to avoid meetings in the Nunciature with representatives of the ETA at a time when the group was negotiating to give up their weapons. I was very curious about the role of the Church in this disarmament of a terrorist group, because no one knows about this.
[Why should the Church make public all the delicate negotiations it may have to carry out in diverse circumstances? And what harm could be done to the Madrid Nunciature's relationship with ETA by this disclosure? What benefit does anyone get out of knowing this?]
The other is about the Pope's current account at the IOR.... [And Nuzzi had no qualms about making this public? That's despicable!] I'll leave it to the reader to discover the 'thrill' of reading about this in the book... [Dear Lord, he's made a sales pitch out of it! That's even more despicable. See, even the most jaded journalist would not write about it, whatever Nuzzi says in his book, out of delicadeza (a refined sense of propriety], and just because it's none of anybody's business - unless Nuzzi claims the Pope is laundering money in his private account for some gangsters and funding terrorists from it, or has accumulated sums unthinkable for a Pope, even if he is the first ever to earn millions in royalties, which he channels to various causes, including charities and scholarships!]
You also discuss the case of Emanuela Orlandi...
Yes, various letters have been sent to the Pope. From the documents I have seen, my impression is that the Holy Father knows nothing about the case. I think the Secretariat of State is paying much attention to it now that any knowledge or recollection of anything that has to do with the event belongs to only very few. I hope some light can be cast, and that the same attention can be paid to this as there was in creating a committee of cardinals
to discover who my sources are.
[Wait! I thought the commission was to discover the traitors responsible for the documents released to Il Fatto Quotidiano. Was Nuzzi then the direct source of that newspaper for those earlier 'exposes'? Well, that's right! He introduced each of those exposes first on his TV show before they came out in the newspaper the following day! And that's a snide and totally unfair remark about the committee of inquiry - if the Rome police are unable to find out any more about the Orlandi case, why should anyone in the Vatican do better - after a time lapse of 30 years - when even Nuzzi himself says that only very few have any knowledge or recollection of the events in 1983?]
You have said that with the publication of the book, you are no longer afraid. Afraid of what?
I was afraid, with a visceral fear. To carry around my neck a chain with a USB drive on it 24 hours a day, and to keep away the documents in a secret hiding place - these can cause great tension.
During the past year, I have lived with a thing that's far greater than me! [Excuse me and oy veh! How melodramatic and egotistic! In the grand scheme of things, what he seems to have 'exposed' are relatively trivial - because they only concern some externals that do not necessarily convey the substance of what they are about!]
I don't want to sound like a victim,
but when you have the Pope's private documents with you - and you're the only one who has them - then you would be a little tense, too. I even had to place indicators in my house in Rome to be able to check if tghere had been intrusions, because in the book, I also discuss some exploits by Vatican 007's on Italian soil.
[More betrayal of matters that ought to be kept confidential!] And now that the book is out, I am far more tranquil.
The man is delusional, not far from being a megalomaniac. The traitors who made these files available to him have apparently given him this exalted and very wrong sense of self-importance... An editorial in Formiche punctures this self-ddelusion by Nuzzi and his sources that they are really rendering a service to the Pope and to the Church by this most abject action of betrayal. Betrayal is no less betrayal even when you clothe it in altruism, which is in itself preposterous!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/05/2012 05:43]