Pope Benedict's private correspondence leaked -CathNews NZ/Pacific

Pope Benedict’s private correspondence leaked

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

Confidential letters and memos to and from Pope Benedict and his personal secretary have just been published in a book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi entitled “His Holinesss”. The book refers to power struggles and corruption inside the Holy See and the approach of its top banker who has been under scrutiny.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi warned the Holy See would get to the bottom of who “stole” the documents. He warned the Holy See would seek international cooperation in its quest for justice.

The Vatican had already warned of legal action against Nuzzi after he published letters in January from the former second-highest Vatican administrator to the pope, Monsignor Carlo Maria. In those letters he asked not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. He is now the Vatican’s US ambassador.

Nuzzi, said he was approached by sources inside the Vatican with the trove of new documents. Most of them are fairly recent and many of them depict the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a negative light.

The documents include information about a 2009 scandal over the ex-editor of the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, a previously-unknown dinner between Benedict and Italy’s president, and even a 2011 letter from Italy’s pre-eminent talk show host Bruno Vespa to the pope enclosing a cheque for €10,000 for his charity work and asking for a private audience in exchange.

International leaks include diplomatic cables from Vatican embassies from Jerusalem to Cameroon. Some are from the pope’s delegate to the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order. In one memo he warns that the financial situation of the order, “while not grave, is serious and pressing.”

A number of documents relate to Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the head of the Institute for Religious Works, (the Vatican Bank). His private memos to the pope concern the Vatican’s response to the global financial crisis and how to handle the church’s tax exempt status amid Italian government efforts to crack down on tax evasion.