| December 16, 2022
The week is ending, Advent is heading towards its last fairs, and we are undergoing a veritable maelstrom of information that promises to launch us into a complicated 2023.
The news that fills the media today is that the Secretary of State “sent a statement confirming respect for the Russian people.” It is the apology, the request for forgiveness, for the last blunder of Pope Francis. The Russians had requested it and the Vatican has studied how to do it in the most hidden way possible. We found out that it exists from the Russian side, it is not made by Pope Francis and we try not to focus the issue on the controversial and undiplomatic expressions of the last pontifical emanation. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers the case that arose after the interview with Pope Francis to be “closed”. The Vatican does not confirm, but does not deny and acknowledges that there have been “diplomatic contacts” between Russia and the Holy See.
We have experienced anger in kyiv because Pope Francis spoke of the “poor girl blown up by a bomb that was under the seat of the car in Moscow.” While there is a request for forgiveness from Russia with great love for all Russians and Russians, without reference to Ukraine. They are trying to mislead us with a campaign announced at the same time, in the general audience, to donate money to Ukraine, where the civilian population suffers the consequences of the cold and the lack of doctors and nurses, no word of a war, things of diplomacy and of the blunders and ‘screw-ups’, of the desired mediations, no news.
Khomeini from his exile in France promised the Kurds that, once he returned to Iran, he would grant autonomy to the Kurdish population, but as soon as he returned home in 1979 he began to hang young Kurdish men in public squares, guilty only of being Kurdish: “Killing a Kurdish is not a sin.” The UN today expelled Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women, both over the death of Mahsa Amini and its fierce crackdown on protests, opposed by Russia and China, who plan to form a common front against the West. But we still continue with the silence of the Vatican…
Pope Francis, who this Thursday received the credentials of the ambassadors of Belize, Bahamas, Thailand, Norway, Mongolia, Niger, Uganda and Sudan to the Holy See. The Pope repeated the expression “fragmented third world war” to describe what is happening and renewed his call for “greater political sensitivity in the face of the increase in violations of international law.”
Every day we find out about some ‘irregularity’ in the functioning of Vatican institutions. The workers and their families have a card to access the territory of the Vatican that also gives the right to buy without taxes in internal businesses. Today we know that for 40 years, some 1,500 police officers in Rome have enjoyed these benefits: supermarkets, gas stations without taxes, all without 22% VAT. The justification is the work done by the Prati district group for the Vatican, but these cards were meant to be returned once the work was done. Those who retired have not returned them and the new ones have not received them.
The more we know about the Rupnik case and the more it gets complicated. The Jesuit Superior General confirmed that, based on a 2019 complaint, Father Rupnik had incurred an automatic latae sententiae excommunication for having acquitted a woman who said she had had sex with him in confession. The one who deals with these themes in Doctrine of the Faith, the also Jesuit Hans Zollern, referred to a complaint by a nun against the religious-artist in 1998: «We will probably never know anything about it. In most cases there are no documents.
Becciu’s lawyers come to the fore trying to stop the new hemorrhage in which his client is involved: «The reference to Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, described as a ‘shadow’ who appeared in the context of a pending process in the Bari Prosecutor’s Office , is totally defamatory and devoid of the slightest reference to the reality of the case. They do not deny the fact, amply documented: “our client has never decided on any investment on its own initiative, limiting itself to ratifying the elections of the Administrative Office, following the reports and investigations prepared by the technicians and the manager of the competent Office.” “Therefore, Cardinal Becciu’s approach to this matter, to which, it is reiterated, is completely unrelated, is absolutely defamatory. He will thus be the object of judicial initiatives to protect his honor and his reputation ». The Vatican has already sent the required information to the Italian court, another scam, or nefarious management, which we will see as it clears up, Becciu’s signatures are there and, from what we have seen, we do not believe that Parolin or Pope Francis will come to his defense.
The case of the Vatican Museums scam is still very present in the media. The Sistine Chapel is at the center of a sensational scam against the Vatican Museums, and in Italy the media recalls the famous scene from a Totò movie, in which the Neapolitan actor sells the Trevi Fountain to a rather stupid North American tourist. . An Italian company sold the license rights to the works of art in the Vatican Museums, without officially enjoying any authorization from the Holy See. A scam in which we can be talking about a lot of money and that the Vatican has found out about through the media. So many reforms and transparency so that in the end we are not able to know what is happening in the house itself. The key character, it’s not new, it’s that story, it’s Paolo Nicolini, who denied having granted the company in question the authorization to sell the rights to works of art. Between the company and the Vatican there is a document that certifies previous relations, dating from 2015, we continue with the official silence of the Vatican that neither confirms nor denies the accusations.
Everything that touches Paglia is usually full of color in such a flowery character. It is not a new issue and in the Vatican it is well known that upon his arrival at the pontifical council of the family, he diverted hundreds of thousands of euros destined for “missionary and charitable works” to finance repairs in his offices, including the renovation of his apartment. Staff at San Callisto. When caught, he says he returned “part” of the money, but did so by diverting other donations. Paglia faithfully serves her lord and all is forgotten. He left the diocese of Terni ruined and Pope Francis diverted more than tens of millions, a loan from the Vatican Bank never repaid, to cover the ruin of his protégé. Roman expenses have been assumed and hidden and so we continue with Paglia to his.
We are living in moments of lazy bishops and it is very common in these dark times that they ‘resign’ without explaining the reasons for their abandonment. Last Monday the bulletin of the Holy See reported the “resignation from the pastoral care of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle (England) presented by HE Archbishop Robert Byrne, CO.” In this case, the interested party explained the reasons for his anticipated resignation in a letter to the faithful published on the diocese’s website and read in the cathedral on the same day, December 12. “The office of the bishop carries with it the great responsibility of providing for the spiritual guidance and governance of the diocese.” And it is to this that the bishop says he recently dedicated his discernment and reflection, concluding, “with great pain and reluctance”, that the ministry was “too great a burden” for him. Words very similar to those of the Bishop of Lugano, who resigned at the age of 59 on October 10, while Ivan Brient, 50, Auxiliary Bishop-elect of Rennes (France), had resigned from his office even before being consecrated. The miter on the head of a bishop weighs more than a crown of thorns and it seems that lately the most widespread episcopal motto is: “He who can save himself.”
The former news director of Italian Television publishes an essay «Lo Boot e il Cupolone. Italy – Vatican a couple in crisis”. He explores and reconstructs, with background and great detail, the complex relationship between the Vatican and the Italian state. In the last 20 years the complicated relationship seems to have entered a moral and political crisis that seems almost irreversible. In the essay he speaks of a totally Italian peculiarity, represented by the Christian Democracy. «The relationship with the Vatican has not always been so idyllic… While in the previous century, after the rupture of Porta Pia, the Pope said Non Expedit and the Church remained rooted in the vast majority of the Italian people, in the democratic Italy of After the war, almost exclusive support for the Christian Democrats made Catholics a relative majority. The Church has become “partisan” and this has prevented it from continuing to represent all Italians, or almost”.
«For more than a quarter of a century, from 1978 to 2005, with the irrepressible personality of John Paul II, he forced his adversaries to step aside. But these “enemies” went on the attack with the election of Benedict XVI. Never in the history of the Church has there been such virulence against a Pope. Never, however, as in those years, had the Church suffered an internal crisis so profound as to force the Pope to resign in 2013.” “The Vatican must clarify internally what to do. He is still divided by opposing forces. In the book he argues that there is a secular and liberal culture that is perfectly aware of how much damage the renunciation of religion, spirituality, morality and ethics has caused throughout the West. After trampling on natural law, not just religion, the best secular culture realizes that a soul supplement is necessary. She is convinced that only dialogue with religion can restore hope to all.
«…if I say this it is so that you can be saved».
Good reading.