Under attack Vatican Department has great unity – Bertone

The Vatican’s under-fire top official, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, says there is great unity in his department.

“Personally, I don’t sense any sign of cardinals or church personalities being involved in any conquest of some phantom power,” he said.

Bertone admitted the Secretariat of State is facing difficult times, but went on the offensive Wednesday, saying while there is some truth in the stories, the media has gone way beyond the facts.

He also accused the media of pettiness, lies and intentionally ignoring the good things the Church does.

Journalists reporting on the leaks are “pretending to be Dan Brown … inventing stories and replaying legends” he said.

Admitting the Vatican is not perfect, Bertone said that the Vatican did not want to hide the Church’s defects, but the media had gone too far, violating the rights of the Holy Father and people who corresponded with him.

“The truth is that there’s a will to create division that comes from the devil,” said Bertone in a rare interview with the Catholic magazine, ‘Famiglia Cristina’.

Responding to media questions, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said that while he did not want to make “generalized condemnations”, he believed that some of the coverage of the Vatican was “not founded on objectivity”.

Lombardi said that a commission of cardinals investigating the leaks scandal had so far interrogated 23 people, including Mr Gabriele as well as other lay and clergy, Vatican superiors and employees.

The commission members reported back to the Pope on Saturday about their investigation and are continuing their work.

So far Vatileaks has seen only one person, Paolo Gabriele, father of three and the Pope’s butler, arrested in the case.

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