Political Animal
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Let’s face it — everybody loves a juicy scandal, especially when it involves the Vatican. And dear Animals, lest you think I veer from the topic of politics to which I am pledged while guest-blogging here, I can assure you that there is nothing in the realm of the Holy See that is not political.
From the Associated Press:
The Vatican confirmed Saturday that the pope’s butler had been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to a sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.
Paolo Gabriele, a layman who lives inside Vatican City, was arrested Wednesday with secret documents in his possession and was being held Saturday, the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.
At issue are confidential letters to and from Pope Benedict XVI regarding the Vatican’s financial dealings disclosed in the recently published book, His Holiness, by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. The AP notes that the scandal “has seriously embarrassed the Vatican at a time in which it is trying to show the world financial community that it has turned a page and shed its reputation as a scandal plagued tax haven.”
So, in arresting Gabriele, the Vatican is doing what it does best with those who would challenge its sources and methods: putting the screws to them.
You’d think that the pope and his men might be so consumed with straightening out the Holy See’s financial mess, and penitentially finding the institution’s way back to the straight and narrow that they’d have little time to do much else. But, no, instead the pope has seen fit to focus his institution’s resources on a mission designed to bring U.S. nuns into line.
From Reuters’ Stephanie Simon:
The Vatican last month accused the leading organization of U.S. nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, of focusing too much on social-justice issues such as poverty and not enough on abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia. The Vatican also rapped the group for standing by as some nuns publicly challenged U.S. bishops on matters of church doctrine and public policy.
In a move that many nuns viewed as an insult, the Vatican put the nuns’ organization under the effective control of three U.S. bishops, who have the power to rewrite its statutes, its meeting agendas and even its liturgical texts. The board of the Leadership Conference is due to meet next week in Washington, D.C. to mull a response.
Those of a certain age may recall when, during a papal visit in 1979, Sister Theresa Kane, then president of the Leadership Conference, challenged Pope John Paul II to include women in the priesthood. At the time, Cardinal Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict, was JPII doctrinal enforcer. He apparently holds a grudge.
Readers may also remember the Vatican Bank scandal of the 1980s, which involved all manner of financial shenanigans, including a counterfeiting scheme that involved the delivery of $14.5 million in bogus bonds to the Vatican. All told, the Vatican Bank scams amounted to a “$1.3 billion scandal,” according to the New York Times And back in the 1980s, $1.3 billion was real money.
In 2009, now retired from her office at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Sr Kane addressed a gathering of the National Coalition of American Nuns, just as the Vatican embarked on its investigation of LCWR. From the National Catholic Reporter:
“Regarding the present interrogation, I think the male hierarchy is truly impotent, incapable of equality, co-responsibility in adult behavior,” she said, not mincing any words. “In the church today, we are experiencing a dictatorial mindset and spiritual violence.”
A scandal, then, of epic proportions.
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SYSPROG on May 26, 2012 12:18 PM:
Oh sigh...I love you Addie Stan! You have made my Saturday...
skippy on May 26, 2012 12:20 PM:
no opinion about the fact that the pope's butler did it, but i just wanted to say, welcome back adele, glad to read your work again!
Hedda Peraz on May 26, 2012 12:26 PM:
Charles Ponzi (1882-1949) was recently exhumed in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to the remains, the coffin contained a Catholic bible, a history of the Mormon church, and the complete writings of L. Ron Hubbard.
It was reported that the corpse was green, not with decay, but envy.
Anonymous on May 26, 2012 12:34 PM:
"“In the church today, we are experiencing a dictatorial mindset and spiritual violence.”
It sounds to me to more like 'business as usual.'
And it's all a backlash against the 1960's:
Vatican II is the Catholic Church’s version of their own 1960′s DFH’s, Civil Rights activists, and feminists.
Just like today’s American Conservatism is a backlash against the era from the 1930′s to early 1970′s, and the beginnings of decades of progress for many people, the Church’s Conservatives, consisting of a cadre of child-feckin’ coot clergy and complicit hierarchy, are looking to eradicate the progress of Vatican II: “We want our Church back!”
Hopefully, if there is any justice, history will expose the revered John Paul II, who admittedly did a lot to bring down Soviet Russia and its Eastern European satellite empire, as a misogynist and a homophobe. And, while being a force for good in ending Soviet oppression, he was also a force for terrible regression and oppression in other areas, especially against women and gays. He helped take down the Soviet Gulag’s, but with his stances against women, he helped set-up the “modern” Church’s policies of “Forced Labor’ for women. I’m surprised they never asked Catholic homosexuals to wear pink triangles to services, where they’d be denied communion. But, maybe that’s because so many of their Priest should have been forced to wear them while GIVING communion.
And, as mentioned, JPII also didn't want women priests, and forced the nuns to knuckle under that Papal fist.
And today’s Pope and Church hierarchy are following in his footsteps and continuing his legacy, and are carrying out policies he established.
Before he died, as esteemed and revered as he was, he could have focused on the sexual abuse and rape of children and young adults, and ended it by strict punishment within the Church. I
nstead, he turned a blind eye, and was more concerned about peoples use of contraception, and women’s abortions. And, despite taking a vow of poverty (laughable when coming from a Priest turned Pope, living in a castle and countless mansions, and wearing ornate gilded and bejeweled attire), helped in the continuation, and further expansion, of that poverty, by forcing women and families to have children they either didn’t want, or couldn’t afford.
‘Vow of poverty for thee, NOT for me.’
I looks as if JPII will soon to be canonized as a Saint.
But JPII was more monster than saint - at least in many peoples opinion, including mine.
And I hope, eventually, historians will eventually judge him that way. But I’m afraid, despite the sexual abuses, and virtual enslavement of women, via their wombs, and denigration and repression of homosexuals, historians will sweep all of that underneath a priceless Papal rug.
After all, in allegedly trying to help his precious poor people, and the children he loved, the people he ended up really hurting were only women and gays.
Let that be his legacy - ‘The people I hurt were only women and gays.’
All women, no matter their faith, have to respect the religious freedom and rights of this cabal of celibate old child-feckers. Contraception and abortion take away precious future Papal assets. The shameless harlots have no right to their own religious freedom and rights, let alone their own bodies.
After all, they’re women - they’re born to be screwed!
‘So sayeth the Lord! A-man.”
Pope John Paul II:
Not a saint.
A monster.
c u n d gulag on May 26, 2012 12:36 PM:
Ooops!
Om case you couldn't tell, that large lump of word-turds was dropped by me - c u n d gulag. ;-)
Adele Stan on May 26, 2012 12:47 PM:
Aw, shucks, SYSPROG and skippy! Thanks so much. And, c u n d gulag, well, words fail me. :-)
jpeckjr on May 26, 2012 12:58 PM:
The AP article notes that one of the Vatican Bank officials alleged in an new book to be corrupt is now the Vatican's ambassador to the United States.
Since the Vatican is a sovereign state as well as a religion, and given the attempts of the Vatican to influence elections in the United States, perhaps we should recall our ambassador to the Vatican, and engage in "candid" conversations about our diplomatic relationship with the Vatican State.
james on May 26, 2012 1:01 PM:
I saw a photo on the San Francisco Chronicle site of
B-16 with his butler and his personal secretary. My, for a homophobe, he certainly has some very handsome men in his close personal circle.
Jerk.
TCinLA on May 26, 2012 1:20 PM:
sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.
The only difference between Ratzi the Nazi and Alexander VI (Borgia) is the available technology and the clothing styles of the sheep, er, I mean the congregants. The "church" is still the most corrupt political organization in history.
impartial on May 26, 2012 6:33 PM:
Oh no anti-Catholic bias on the site. How immoral and hypocritical of me to suggest that!. Just read the above.
Doug on May 26, 2012 8:06 PM:
impartial, could you please point out where the Catholic "bashing" IS? All I see are the well-earned condemnations of those not even attempting to live by their creed.
When Benedict XVI, the Bishops here in the US and almost ALL of the upper reaches of the Catholic heirarchy start practicing anything close to what they preach, I doubt you'll see such postings. Until then, their hypocrisy, double-dealing, and criminal practices are fair game.
Old Uncle Dave on May 26, 2012 9:25 PM:
RE: Cardinal Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict, was JPII doctrinal enforcer.
"Doctrinal enforcer" is the modern church's term for "Grand Inquisitor."
jpeckjr on May 26, 2012 9:54 PM:
@impartial. I posted one of the comments that might be considered "anti-Catholic." I am not anti-Catholic. I support the right of my Catholic friends and neighbors to practice their faith. I support the right of the Catholic church to express publicly its views on public issues and public policy. I support the right of the Catholic church to exercise discipline within its own organization with both clergy and lay leaders. I do not believe Catholic people should be discriminated against on the basis of their faith. I am an admirer of JPII, despite his failings. I have no admiration for Benedict XVI -- I think he is interested only in his own power and is a poor representative of Christ.
The inability or unwillingness of the Catholic church to address corruption in it's own leadership is a disgrace to Christianity (I am an active Protestant Christian). The all-male heirarchy is investigating nuns and Girl Scouts for not toeing the doctrinal line while the Vatican bank has gained a long-standing reputation for corruption. The Bible condemns greed and unjust business practices plus, on a more practical level, a poorly-run, corrupt financial institution puts the church's financial resources at some kind of risk.
I feel the same way about the recent scandals at the Crystal Cathedral, a Protestant church in Orange County, CA.
Bernard HP Gilroy on May 26, 2012 10:23 PM:
Here's an interesting truth, impartial: You can be anti-Vatican without being anti-Catholic. Shocking, isn't it?
Anonymous on May 27, 2012 4:49 AM:
@Bernard HP Gilroy, Saying that one can be anti-Pope, and not anti-Roman Catholic, which, by their own lights are the sole arbiter of what it does and does not mean to be Roman Catholic, is problematic at best. Recent advertisements urging those nominal Roman Catholics who disagree with the Holy See to leave the church seem to have the better of the argument (or would have, if we weren't discussing something as inherently illogical and anti-intelectual as religion).
As an aside, I note with sadness the irony that, to be rigorous in these arguments, one must specify Roman Catholicism as there are now several "catholic" sects; another fine word whose original meaning has been distorted to the point of meaninglessness.
dopey-o on May 27, 2012 8:40 AM:
IMPE, there is nothing more catholic in 21st century america than to be anti-vatican.
if you have a wife, are a wife, a child or a gay partner, you have indeed felt the vatican's lash. if none of the above, you are probably simply and plainly disgusted by the vatican's behavior.
otherwise, you are probably sleeping thru the sermons.
jpeckjr on May 27, 2012 9:44 AM:
@anonymous / 4:49 a.m. I specify ROMAN Catholcism not because there are other "catholic" sects, but because there other branches of Christianity -- Reformed and Lutheran Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Pentecostal, Evangelical Protestants.
Roman Catholics are not the only Christians. And all the other Christians are not the only ones who can be in error. The Roman Catholic church is in error these days on any number of things, including, apparently, how it runs its finances.
"Catholic" may mean unified, but there hasn't been a "unified" Christian church since 1054 when the Western church in Rome and the Eastern church in Constantinople split from one another over doctrinal differences.
As a Reformed Protestant, I don't recognize any Pope as having authority over me. He may be the final arbiter within the Roman Catholic Church, but even a Pope I admire doesn't actually have any authority over me or my church.
What happens in the Roman Catholic church and how its leaders handle it does reflect on all Christianity, though. "So, now, they can't handle their finances without a scandal. See, I told you Christians are crooks." Yes, I know the Vatican Bank and the churches finances aren't coincident, but most people, most Catholics, don't.
Now do you get why this is a problem for all churches, not just the one headquartered at the Vatican? If you're going to claim to be the only true church, you'd better get it right.
impartial on May 27, 2012 10:19 AM:
The whole post, the responses to it, and their tone equals Catholic bashing. Can't see past your own bigotry, can you?
schwag of tulsa on May 27, 2012 10:28 AM:
Regarding Sr. Kane's remarks: You go, girl!
HMDK on May 27, 2012 11:22 AM:
Yeah, Impartial, condemning someone for doing something wrong is clearly a sign of bigotry... I guess God is the biggest bigot of all, then!
Get real and try to live up to your name.
Either defend the things the Vatican are doing or shut up.
Put your words where your faith is.
Unless, of course, you're SO imbalanced and insane that anyone saying anything bad about your faith and those, well, RULING it, is the same as being a bigot.
james on May 27, 2012 4:49 PM:
@impartial. You're right. It's anti-Catholic bigotry to talk about the Catholic church. Okay.
I'll ignore it from now on. That better for you?
Texas Aggie on May 27, 2012 5:19 PM:
Yesterday I saw a report that speculated that there were a lot more people involved than just the butler. It seems that the reporter who wrote the book that started all the excitement had access to some documents that the butler didn't have access to.
Stonewalling is the SOP for the Vatican when facing a scandal. They did it with the sexual predators in the priesthood by having the lawyers attack the victims and try to cow them into submission. They did it with the first bank scandal. They are doing it with anything that reflects poorly on the hierarchy and the way that they manage things.
Bishop Helder was one of the original priests who took seriously their commitment to social justice and justice for the oppressed. For his efforts, Ratzinger had him excommunicated when Ratzinger was head of the organization that was once the Inquisition.
"When I give food to the poor, people call me a saint. When I ask why they have no food, they call me a communist." - Dom Helder