With voice distorted and face hidden, one of the Vatican whistle-blowers appeared on Italian Television saying the recent Vatican leaks are not about a power struggle but a code of silence perhaps surrounded by fear.
The Vatican mole claimed on private Italian Television channel La7 to be one of more than 20 people in the Vatican who have leaked sensitive material to news media in the last few weeks.
Extracts from the interview reveal the whistle-blower believes the Vatican is engulfed in intrigue, secrecy and a climate of intimidation.
“Maybe there is a kind of omerta to prevent the truth from surfacing. Not because of a power struggle but maybe because of fear,” he said.
The whistle-blower claims to have worked in the Secretariat of State, which is led by the apparently unpopular Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, whom some claim has fallen out of favour with the Holy Father and his supporters.
The whistle-blower said the Vatican is a place where “you can commit a murder and then disappear into the void” – a reference to a murky scandal in the Swiss Guard in 1998, when a young soldier shot dead the corps’ commander and wife before apparently committing suicide.
The leaks have embarrassed the Vatican in recent weeks, with claims of corruption and nepotism, questions over the transparency of the Vatican bank and unconfirmed reports of an assassination plot against the Pope within the next 12 months.
The whistle-blower dismissed suggestions that documents were being leaked in exchange for money.
“Something like that is inconceivable for me. That would mean betraying what we believe in,” he said.
Sources
- Daily Telegraph
- Image: Syracuse.com