Rorate Caeli

The hysterical mafia

Italian daily La Repubblica published a report of further leaks of confidential documents of His Holiness sent to the paper - this time, three documents, one a letter sent by Card. Burke on the approval of the Neocatechumenal liturgy, and two personal notes signed by the Pope's private secretary, Mons. Gänswein. This time, the leaks were sent with a strange threatening cover letter (see our note below). 

The following is the main excerpt of the article:


MILAN [June 3, 2012]  - "Drive the true culprits from the Vatican. Once again, the only one to pay is the scapegoat. Who is a better victim than the Holy Father's butler. The truth must be searched in the central power." The mole is still in the Vatican. He circles, he observes, and he hits, while Benedict XVI is on official visit of three days to Milan, searching for a moment of calmness amidst the resentments that encircle him. The mole delivers new documents by surprise. Three, to be exact, of which La Repubblica is in possession and that it presents today. But, the source soon warns, we have "hundred" of letters such as these. He writes it in a cover letter - that comes before the documents - typed in a computer. Showing, as if it were still necessary, that the Pope's butler accused of being the carrier of the letters that appeared from the Holy See in the past, "the scapegoat", as the letter says, is not at all the only one. Because the mole is, in reality, still active. "The truth - he denounces - is to be searched in the central power." And he explains: "That is, in the private archive of Mons. Georg Gänswein, private secretary of the Holy Father, from which numerous documents reserved to Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone appear continually."

A harsh accusation, that the source makes his own, against the private secretary of Benedict XVI, a man for which the Pope has, instead, the utmost trust, and that for several years has been the person on which to rely for matters not only of personal, but also of spiritual and political nature. In the past years, in fact, monsignor Gänswein has notably increased his influence within the [Papal] Apartment, growing into a role, certainly informal, but nevertheless tangible and clear to all, as advisor to Joseph Ratinger, who is also his fellow countryman. The mole adds in his cover page of the three letters: "Things not always move in the right way, and there have been uncontrolled passages of very reserved documents and acts between Mons. Georg and the Cardinal." As if to say: the internal documents and acts that move from the papal Apartment to the office of the Secretary of State, and viceversa, at times take different paths. And control over them is lost.



The mole thus presents "three of the hundreds of documents in our possession." The first is a "top secret letter" addressed to Bertone by the Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal for the Apostolic Signatura [Card. Burke], and that deals what is branded as "the shameful event of the Neocatechumenals, on which there is a long note written by hand by Benedict XVI himself." The other two are letters with the apparent signature of Monsignor Gänswein. And that deal, it is said, with "some regrettable and shameful events within the Vatican." The two notes bear on top the arms of the Holy See with the words "Città del Vaticano". And in the bottom the signature, by hand, of "don Georg Gaenswein".  Under them, the stamped words, "Segretario Particolare di Sua Santità Benedetto XVI". One of them is dated February 19, 2009. The text of the letters was deleted. The mole explains: "We will not publish it in a complete fashion to avoid offending the Person of the Holy Father, already put under great stress by his close collaborators." And he warns: "In order to be fair, we reserve the unabridged publication in case they persist in hiding the truth of the facts". He then concludes: "Drive out of the Vatican those truly responsible for this scandal: Mons Gänswein and Card. Bertone". Very strong unproved accusations, and not detailed here.


[Rorate note:] This report raises two interesting points. First, while it is almost certain that the arrested butler is not the only one responsible for the leaks, letters from 2009 do not disprove that he may have been the original source of documents originating in the Papal Apartment itself - documents written since the time of his arrest would, but it is clear that only a small part of the leaked documents have been published. 


Second: This kind of writing and this particular style of trying to force things to go one's way are strange, are they not? This hysterical enmity does not sound like something real men would do. Perhaps that is why some thought there was a woman involved... 


No, we definitely do not think there are women involved, but obviously some kind of hysterical "advocacy group", whose interests are being affected. If this source attacks what he calls "the central power", that is, the Secretary of State and in particular the Pope's personal secretary, than it is obvious that THEY are not the problem. THEY are not the ones being accused, but,  rather, by threatening them, the mole himself makes clear that there is some kind of personal move against His Holiness. Clearly, some things done by the Pope must have upset the hysterical group, no wonder only serious men with serious concerns (Cardinal Burke, exposed in his opposition to the Neocatechumenal liturgy, and Mons. Gänswein) have had their letters revealed in today's leaks. So now, as the tone reveals, it is a personal struggle between the Pope and the men who are of his mind (as Mons. Gänswein and Card. Burke), and this hysterical mafia: what does the hysterical mafia want?


Let us pray for His Holiness.