Pope Writes Christmas Cards to Pedophile Jesuit in Prison
What They Knew
We have been getting numerous vistors from all over the world recently. We like that. But nothing melts our hearts more than to see the frequent visitation from the Vatican. Yes, that’s right IP address 212.77.12.74 or Internet Office of the Holy See, thanks for being a frequent reader here at What They Knew. We have many more surprises in store for you, starting with the documents below. But first off, Alexander Stille wrote an excellent article this week in The Atlantic that asks the question of whether the Vatican can survive in the 21st century age of radical digital transparency. We here at WTK are still waiting to see if the Jesuits would like to enter the 20th century at this point. Some salient quotes: Anonymous letters, damaging dossiers, and poison penmanship are old staples of Vatican intrigue. The big difference is that all this material was once kept rigorously private — its power derived from its mere existence and the potential threat of being made public. The lesson of both the pedophilia scandal and Vati-leaks is that the Church can no longer control information about itself. In the past, when police arrested priests who were acting out, they generally took the matter to the local bishop, and newspapers often chose, out of deference, not to write about it. Changes in public opinion — anger and outrage over wrongdoing in the Church — and in information technology make it impossible to keep the lid on scandal…
The Internet world is a world of fragmented authority, of transparency, and one in which 3 billion users expect to participate and have their say. The Catholic Church is a top-down organization run from Rome with an unquestioned authority at its head. “Roma locuta, causa finita,” “Rome has spoken, the case is closed,” is a phrase often attributed to Saint Augustine, indicating that the word from Saint Peter’s settles every argument. But transparency is not as easy a matter for the Catholic Church as it might be for secular organizations. A corporation or branch of government can actually gain in public legitimacy and consensus through greater transparency, issuing detailed data about their operations and finances, publishing the minutes of their meetings, and instituting freedom of information laws. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said of corruption. But there is a limited amount of sunshine the Vatican can allow into its walls without violating its very nature. Absolute monarchies are willfully opaque and mysterious; they are an archaic and charismatic form of leadership that derive much of their power from their mystery, unapproachability, and unknowability. In democracies, we expect national leaders to issue exhaustive medical and financial records. In Thailand — one of the last monarchies with genuine power — anyone can be prosecuted for criticizing the king or disclosing information about his health or finances. Too much transparency — the equivalent of placing a Webcam on the Pope and his cardinals — would strip away layers of mystery. It would be like pulling away the curtain at the end of The Wizard of Oz, revealing that the awe-inspiring figure we first see in Oz’s throne room is nothing but a frail and highly fallible old man.”
The other main star of the article is our old Jesuit friend Federico Lomabrdi SJ, the current Vatican spokesperson. His thinly disguised mask of distain he wears constantly, especially whenever he is asked questions rather than issuing dictates, should be on full display in the coming weeks and months as the Vatileaks trial of ‘Paoletto’ has already begun. RT has an excellent report about the start of the trial HERE.
Fr. Lombardi has not had an easy year dealing with Occupy the Vatican, the VatiLeaks scandal or our good friends at Anonymous, let alone the constant cries for justice from victims of the sexual abuse of children from priests, the shouts for equality from women and for gay rights.
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