Within the new cardinals' traditional oath of loyalty taken today, each one pledges to remain
faithful to the church and to "not to make known to anyone matters
entrusted to me in confidence, the disclosure of which could bring
damage or dishonour to Holy Church."
In the light of the sexual abuse, financial and
other scandals within the church and the necessity for transparency and
accountability I wonder whether the Vatican has got a whistleblowing
policy...
This article from Reuters begins with this:
"Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.
"It is a total mess," said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.
The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court.
Senior church officials interviewed this month said almost daily embarrassments that have put the Vatican on the defensive could force Pope Benedict to act to clean up the image of its administration - at a time when the church faces a deeper crisis of authority and relevance in the wider world.
Some of those sources said the outcome of a power struggle inside the Holy See may even have a longer-term effect, on the choice of the man to succeed Benedict when he dies."
Read the rest here
"Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.
"It is a total mess," said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.
The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court.
Senior church officials interviewed this month said almost daily embarrassments that have put the Vatican on the defensive could force Pope Benedict to act to clean up the image of its administration - at a time when the church faces a deeper crisis of authority and relevance in the wider world.
Some of those sources said the outcome of a power struggle inside the Holy See may even have a longer-term effect, on the choice of the man to succeed Benedict when he dies."
Read the rest here
Interesting article from The Wall Street Journal here which points out:
"The Vatican Secret Archives holds documents that it says date back 12
centuries and take up 85 kilometers (more than 50 miles) of shelf
space, partly housed in an underground bunker.
Documents surrounding historical events, from the conviction of
Galileo Galilei for heresy to Henry VIII's break from the Catholic
Church, can now be consulted by scholars. But the section of the archive
dating from the papacy of Pius XII, the World War II-era pope, remains
off-limits, Bishop Pagano said. ( I am not sure if this last part is accurate/up to date - see related article at bottom)
The Vatican's code of silence is often
upheld to protect the confidences of churchmen around the world,
especially in regions hostile to the Catholic Church.
In China, which doesn't have diplomatic
ties with the Holy See or recognize the pope's authority over his
flock, a large swath of the church's flock practices underground to
avoid state persecution. At least one Chinese bishop was secretly
appointed a cardinal in pectore, Latin for "in the breast" of the pope, and unknown to the outside world for many years.
"The church is different, because it's not a political structure like
other states," Bishop Pagano said. "There are always situations that
require prudence, and the church has always been hyper-prudent."
The past few weeks have revealed that, in a media age fueled by
Internet gossip, not even the Holy See can keep a lid on its internal
machinations."
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