Vatican City
The Appearance.
The Reality?
Dear F,
When I read today's Guardian headline my reflex was to assume the Vatican is lying.
Or, if it is not lying, it is telling the truth because -- by happy accident -- the truth coincides with what the Vatican would want the faithful to believe.
What is your assumption?
If you assume that the Vatican will unhestitatingly lie to save its institutional ass - simultaneously preventing sufficient transparency to help "clean the stable" -- what does it mean that the church's highest officials reflexively lie?
I marvel that The Secular Press forced priestly pederasty from the closet and that not one Catholic publication in the entire world -- even though the management of many Catholic knew of the corruption -- would blow the whistle on 4% of American priests "fucking our kids in the ass." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases (I realize this metaphor is overstatement but what does it mean that my tawdry metaphor - which is substantively true - inspires more outrage among "believers" than the fact that their own priests often engaged in such activity - and then colluded in criminal cover-up?)
I do not deny the Vatican's "right" to lie. Freedom of choice allows anyone to ally with The Prince of Darkness.
Clearly, "clubs" get to make their own clubbish rules and if reflexive falsehood is necessary for the survival of the club, so be it.)
However, I always question the "justified" centrality of falsehood and whether "the masses" have the right to sufficient transparency to make "informed consent" possible.
I also question the presumption that deems kneejerk falsehood "necessary" for "the good" of the church.
Or...
Am I being presumptuous?
Pax,
Alan
Vatican dismisses reports linking pope's resignation to gay conclave discovery
Pope Benedict talks of 'evil, suffering and corruption' in the world in remarks to Vatican Curia as he prepares to vacate papacy
Pope Benedict XVI speaks to cardinals during the closing day of spiritual exercises at the Vatican. Photograph: Osservatore Romano/Reuters
The Vatican has attacked reports in the Italian media linking Pope Benedict XVI's resignation to the alleged discovery of a network of gay prelates as attempts to influence the cardinals in their choice of a new pontiff.
The Vatican secretariat of state said in a statement: "It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave … that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions."
The statement was made as Pope Benedict XVI had his final meeting with senior clerics, lamenting the "evil, suffering and corruption" that have defaced God's creation in a final address to Vatican officials.
Benedict spoke on Saturday at the end of a week-long spiritual retreat coinciding with Lent, the period of 40 days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter. For the past week, Italian cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi has led the Vatican on meditations that have covered everything from the family to denouncing the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy.
Ravasi's blunt critique of the dysfunction within the Vatican Curia comes as cardinals from around the world are arriving for the final days of Benedict's papacy and the conclave to elect his successor. Bureaucratic reform is a high priority for the next pope.
The pontiff's speech follows a report that has linked his resignation to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom have reportedly been targeted by blackmailers.
The Italian daily newspaper La Republica said the pope decided to resign on 17 December – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.
Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with stealing leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.
The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation". It added that some Vatican officials had been subjected to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature". La Republica said this was a clear reference to blackmail.
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