ROME
GlobalPost
Jason Berry
June 20, 2014
In the latest installment of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s bad luck blues, the former Vatican secretary of state, 79, has responded to critical news coverage by defending the renovation of his 6,500-square-foot apartment and denying anything was amiss in a $20 million Vatican Bank loan he helped steer to Lux Vide, an Italian TV production company.
The German daily Bild Zeitung cited unofficial sources in reporting last month that a Vatican investigation of Bertone was underway for that transaction.
“I don’t understand these attacks,” Bertone told ANSA, the Italian news agency. “I am in harmony with the pope…He likes me.
In his airplane news conference returning from Israel to Rome, Francis responded to a question about Bertone’s role in the loan. “It’s something being studied,” the pope said, according to Catholic News Service. “It’s not clear. Maybe it’s the truth but at this moment it’s not definitive.”
For six months, Bertone worked to cement good will with the pope by staying on as the second-highest Vatican official under Francis, assisting in the transition.
The secretary of state is traditionally viewed as the pope’s prime minister, the public face of a papacy. Bertone was a highly public figure for the shy, retiring Benedict.
When Francis emerged as a commanding personality, at ease in public, Bertone took a long back seat in his final months in office. He was wise to do so. Bertone had baggage, lots of it.
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