Plot to Kill the Pope More Reminiscent of the Borgias Than 21st Century Rome

By Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere
National Post
February 11, 2012

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/02/10/plot-to-kill-the-pope-more-reminiscent-of-the-borgias-than-21st-century-rome/

Rumours of assassination and skulduggery at the Vatican recall the days of the Borgias

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.

In the letters published by the Corriere della Sera daily and La7 television channel Archbishop Vigano claimed there were “numerous situations of corruption and waste” in the Vatican governorate, which he led in 2009-11.

His strongest criticism was reserved for the Vatican financial committee, which includes Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, head of the Vatican bank. He accused the bankers of favouring “their interests” over the Vatican’s.

In one financial operation by the bankers that went wrong, the Vatican lost $3.2-million, he said.

He also claimed the Vatican was being systematically overcharged for a range of technical services and construction contracts.

The Holy See has also been on the defensive in recent days over a report that the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) — the Vatican bank’s official name — is failing to co-operate with Italian prosecutors in an investigation.

The Vatican denied this and stressed the IOR was not an “offshore” bank. It also cast doubt on a report in the leftist daily L’Unita’four priests were being investigated for laundering hundreds of thousands of euros.

“Not a day goes by now that some sort of confidential note escapes from the sacred palaces of the Vatican, which have become a sieve,” Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert, said in a commentary on the Vatican Insider website.

He said the leaking of the assassination plot letter was “part of a strategy in a clear internal struggle in the Vatican, which has an uncertain outcome which will in any case be devastating.”

“The background to the struggle is not only the succession of Cardinal Bertone but even the conclave itself” — the body of cardinals that meets whenever a pope dies to elect a new one.