VATICAN CITY
The Salt Lake Tribune
By ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
Religion News Service
First Published Jun 21 2012
For the past six months, the so-called Vatileaks affair has rocked the frescoed halls of the Vatican, plunging the global center of the Roman Catholic Church into turmoil.
Sparked by the publication of dozens of confidential documents, the scandal has led to the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler and might even be linked to the ouster of the president of the controversial Vatican Bank.
But, as in most things Vatican, it has at times been difficult to tell fact from fiction. Amid the media frenzy, people have often been left wondering what is going on inside the Holy See. Here’s what we know:
What’s been revealed?
The leaked documents vary in content: Most simply give interesting details on the inner workings of the Vatican bureaucracy, or on Rome’s take on local church developments. For example, a letter by Chicago Cardinal Francis George shows how he asked the Vatican to block the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic movement, from giving a “pro-life” award to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for ending the state’s death penalty. George argued that the award was inappropriate because Quinn supports abortion rights.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.