"Pondering the what not the who of Vati-Leaks"
John L. Allen Jr.
"While the arrest of the pope's butler has triggered feverish speculation about the "who" of the Vatican leaks scandal, there's been less attention so far to the "what" of the revelations contained in the sensational new book His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI, published by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.
In part, that's because the scores of documents in the 326-page book are complex and highly diverse, often composed in dense ecclesiastical Italian; in part, that's because a Vatican whodunit is tough to resist.
Yet the substance of the leaks obviously merits consideration, so below, I present a sampling of the highlights, including material likely to interest English-speaking readers. Later, I'll roll out more.
First, this caution: The mere fact that a document exists does not automatically make its content credible. Some official documents, even if they're stamped "top secret," do little more than record gossip, spin or self-serving opinion. Each purported revelation has to be evaluated on its merits.
Overview
The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI contains 11 chapters, two concerning Nuzzi's sources and the genesis of the project, and nine devoted to the documents themselves. Nuzzi quotes from the documents throughout the text, and an appendix contains reproductions.
The nine content chapters cover the following subjects:
- The Dino Boffo case
- Controversies surrounding Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, currently the papal ambassador in Washington, D.C.
- Vatican finances
- The Vatican's role in Italian politics
- The Vatican security forces
- Controversies surrounding Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State
- Communion and Liberation, the Legionaries of Christ, and the Lefebvrists
- Globalization and its economic impact on the Catholic church
- Vatican diplomacy
Nuzzi opens by describing the clandestine circumstances under which he met his principal source, whom he refers to under the code name "Maria." In light of debate over whether the pope's butler acted alone (assuming he's involved at all), it's interesting to note that Nuzzi describes "Maria" not as an isolated whistle-blower, but a conduit for a larger faction in the Vatican.
Nuzzi points to "a small group of persons with different functions and roles, in various entities of the Holy See, but united in the same choice ... to preserve papers which reveal unknown plots, controversies and affairs of the church, in every corner of the world..."
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Nuzzi points to "a small group of persons with different functions and roles, in various entities of the Holy See, but united in the same choice ... to preserve papers which reveal unknown plots, controversies and affairs of the church, in every corner of the world..."
To use as blackmail, I assume?
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