Bitchy factions within the Vatican and a wish list of new and
upcoming clerics who want to be corrupted by Vatican contract bids is boiling
to the surface.
The old, the extremely old, holding onto power, has sparked
wishful thinking among some in the Vatican of an alleged plot to kill the
ancient pope.
VATICAN CITY • A “plot”
to kill Pope Benedict XVI disclosed Friday is only the latest in a series of
rumours, leaks and corruption allegations in what experts believe is a bitter
power struggle in the Vatican.
The Holy See’s press
office has been forced into overdrive in recent days against multiple reports
in Italian media centred mainly on the activities of the Vatican bank and
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State.
On Friday, the Vatican
dismissed as “delirious” the writings of a cardinal who said he had heard of an
unspecified assassination threat on the Pope and also described increasingly
confrontational ties between the Pope and Cardinal Bertone.
The document — allegedly
written by a Colombian cardinal and quoting declarations reportedly made by
Italian cardinal Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo, during a visit to China —
was also dismissed by Cardinal Romeo himself as “absolutely without basis.”
Whether its contents are
true or not, the fact the apparently genuine Vatican document was leaked in the
first place points to intrigue and growing tensions against Cardinal Bertone’s
management style in the Roman Curia.
Although his honesty has
not been called into question, the Cardinal has already been criticized after
the publication of leaked confidential letters in which a Vatican whistleblower
alleged a widespread culture of corruption.
The scathing letters
were sent to Cardinal Bertone and the Pope last year by Archbishop Carlo Maria
Vigano, then-head of the Vatican governorate, who has since been appointed
papal envoy to Washington in what he saw as a demotion.
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