THE Pope has ordered a criminal investigation to track down whistleblowers who have leaked Vatican documents in an embarrassing power struggle.
The documents, denouncing alleged financial corruption at the Vatican, were given to Italian television programmes and newspapers earlier this year. According to insiders, the reports, dubbed “Vatileaks”, were aimed at undermining Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, or “prime minister”.
In one letter to Benedict XVI, Archbishop Carla Maria Vigano, now the papal nuncio (ambassador) to Washington, denounced abuses in the awarding of works contracts.
“Projects are always assigned to the same companies at costs that are double what’s charged outside the Vatican,” wrote Vigano, who was previously a Vatican administrator. He said a nativity scene in St Peter’s Square had cost €550,000 (£457,000).
Among other documents was one alleging a bizarre plot to assassinate the Pope “within a year”. That was quickly dismissed as “nonsense” by the Vatican. However, continued leaks about the city state’s financial affairs clearly caused embarrassment.
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Bertone’s deputy, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, announced the investigation in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper. The Pope has also entrusted the task “of shining a light on the whole affair” to a high commission of cardinals. “The hope is that we will recover the basis of our work: mutual confidence,” Becciu said.
Becciu denounced what he called “the grave disloyalty” of a few “cowardly” employees who had portrayed the Vatican as home to “plotting and careerism”. The Pope, who turns 85 next month, had been “pained” by the leaks, he said.