BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier posts today,6/23/12.




Pope meets Curial heads then
meets with five trusted cardinals
to discuss leak scandal

June 23, 2012

VATICAN CITY, June 23 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI convened a special meeting of cardinals Saturday to get their advice about how to deal with the scandal over leaked Vatican documents, another sign of the damage the leaks have done to trust in the Holy See's governance. [Why should the meeting be seen as 'a sign of the damage...' rather than a sign of the Pope's normal concern about a managerial and morale problem, not to mention as[S} a sign of collegiality even in dealing with problems that are not ecclesial but administrative?]

Benedict was already scheduled to attend a regular meeting of the heads of Vatican offices Saturday morning. The Vatican press office said he had added a second meeting later in the day with other cardinals in a bid to try to "restore a climate of serenity and trust" in the church.

And the Vatican said he would meet over the coming days with still more cardinals who will be gathering in Rome for a Church feast day on Friday to "continue the dialogue with the people who share the responsibility of the Church's governance with him."

The Vatican has been scrambling to cope with the leaks of hundreds of Vatican documents exposing corruption [Only two - Mons. Vigano's letters - out of dozens of documents, alleged any corruption at all, and even he only cited one specific case of what he considered contract over-pricing! And yet, from the start, MSM has codified that one case into 'CORRUPTION IN THE VATICAN' as though it were a widespread practice], and I am compelled to point this out everytime they repeat this unfounded feneral charge!], political infighting and power struggles at the highest level of the Catholic Church.

The Pope's butler has been arrested in the case, accused of aggravated theft after [copies of] the Pope's own documents were found in his Vatican City apartment.

The Vatican is conducting two main investigations into the leaks: a criminal one headed by the Vatican gendarmes that led to the arrest of the butler, Paolo Gabriele, and another internal probe led by a commission of three cardinals tasked with getting to the bottom of the scandal.

Last weekend Benedict met with the cardinal's commission to learn details of [their questioning of] some of the two dozen people they have questioned.

The meetings Saturday were another indication of the seriousness with which he has taken the scandal and the damage it has done to the trust that is supposed to form the basis of the Vatican's governance.

In its statement, the Vatican said the regularly scheduled meeting with department heads, aimed at coordinating the Vatican's work, was "today particularly important and urgent to show efficient witness to the union of spirit that animates the Curia."

The second meeting Saturday includes Vatican cardinals and the archbishops of Sydney and retired vicar of Rome — two longtime papal advisers. [I don't see why the AP chose not to list the 5: Marc Ouellet, Prefect of Bishops; George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney; Camillo Ruini, former Vicar-General of both John Paul II and Benedict XVI in Rome; Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, member of the five-man Cardinal's Commission that oversees IOR, and former #3 man at the Secretariat of State in the latter part of John Paul-II's Pontificate; and Josef Tomko, former Prefect of Propaganda Fide, confidante of his fellow Pole John Paul II, and one of the three cardinals investigating Vatileaks-etc for the Pope.]

[The obvious thing about the afternoon meeting is that it does not include Cardinal Bertone. It is reminiscent of a meeting called by the Pope in Castel Gandolfo in the summer of 2009, the year Bertone was to turn 75, the statutory retirement age, at which the cardinals present were Scola, Schoenborn, Ruini and Bagnasco - all considered 'Ratzingerians'. The cast of characters today may have been determined primarily by which of those the Pope wishes to consult privately happened to be in Rome today (other than Ruini who lives in Rome, the three other cardinals who were called to Castel Gandolfo are currently in Milan, Vienna and Genoa, respectively, and it is likely they will be consulted when they come to Rome later this week for the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul). The presence of Cardinals Tauran and Tomko ensures high-level representation of the 'Old Guard' in these consultations.

About the 2009 meeting, Andrea Tornielli reported that Cardinal Schoenborn said the Pope 'closed off the discussion' about allowing Bertone to retire, before it could even begin. Now, those who think Bertone should retire when he reaches 78 in December - such as the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois and Vittorio Messori - are saying to 'lay off Bertone for now - he'll be gone by the end of the year, anyway". No one but Benedict XVI knows, however.

And in the past, still according to Tornielli, he has apparently ignored the opinion of his good friend Cardinal Meisner of Cologne that he would be better off allowing Bertone to retire. One wonders whether there has been any change since then of the Pope's personal cost vs benefit assessment of keeping on Bertone. God forbid that history will record, perhaps not entirely without basis, his insistence on retaining Bertone as one of the major 'mistakes' of his Pontificate. ]



P.S. Announced later today by Fr. Federico Lombardi:

Secretariat of State takes on
a lay communications adviser from MSM

Greg Burke, longtime Rome-based European correspondent of Fox News and a member of Opus Dei, has been named 'communications adviser' to the Secretariat of State.

Fr. Lombardi said Burke will "contribute to the improvement of communications strategies within the Holy See". He said that specifically, Burke would help "integrate attention to communications questions in the work of the Secretariat of State and to take charge of relationships with the Vatican Press Office and other communications organisms of the Holy See".

Let us all say a prayer for Mr. Burke, who has been a competent and fair reporter of Vatican events, but who may be entering uncharted waters here. Since the Vatican Press Office and the other 'communications organisms' of the Holy See are directly under the supervision of the Secretary of State, how will Burke's role as 'adviser' fit into that organizational scheme? Will Fr. Lombardi and Giovanni Maria Vian be inclined to listen to his recommendations? Will Cardinal Bertone or Mons. Becciu ask them to?