Cardinal a leading mole in Vatileaks scandal: Italy media
AsiaOne Monday, May 28, 2012
ROME - An unnamed cardinal is suspected of being a leading mole behind a series of embarrassing leaks of confidential papal documents, the Italian media reported on Monday.
"A cardinal led the crow," read the headline in Il Messaggero, referring to Pope Benedict XVI's personal butler Paolo Gabriele who was arrested last week in the "Vatileaks" scandal after secret papers were found in his home.
"The real brains are the cardinals. Then there are the monsignors, secretaries and smaller fry," according to one source quoted by La Repubblica.
Gabriele, who has worked at the Vatican since 2006 and was one of a select few with access to the pope's private quarters, was arrested a month after the pope set up a special commission of cardinals to probe the leaks.
The documents, splashed in the Italian press and in a book, have shed light on many Vatican secrets, including the Church's tax problems, the funding of Catholic bodies, child sex scandals and negotiations with hardline traditionalist rebels.
Although they do not reveal any great surprises, the secret papers have lifted the lid on deep-seated venom among rival figures in the Vatican.
Gabriel's arrest was greeted with disbelief as the 46-year-old was known for his devotion and loyalty to the pope and there has been speculation he was a simply a pawn in a game of intrigue and struggle for power inside the Holy See.
One source quoted by La Repubblica said the mole behind the leaks had acted in support of the pope "because the goal was to reveal the corruption within the Church over the past few years".
"There are those who oppose Cardian Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, those who think Benedict XVI is too weak to lead the Church and those who think this is the right time to move forward," the source said.
The source also said the pope was deeply affected by the sacking last week of Vatican Bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi following a spate of financial scandals.
"He (the pope) began to cry and then he became angry and vowed that the truth will come out," the source said.
Gotti Tedeschi was ousted on Thursday after no-confidence vote over his failure to clean up the image of the bank and has also been named as a possible source of leaked documents about the institution.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 23, 2012 at 5:08 PM ET
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with years of communications blunders and one of its most serious scandals in decades, officials said Saturday.
Greg Burke, 52, will leave Fox to become the senior communications adviser in the Vatican's secretariat of state, the Vatican and Burke told The Associated Press.
"I'm a bit nervous but very excited. Let's just say it's a challenge," Burke said in a phone interview.
He defined his job, which he said he had been offered twice before, as being along the lines of the White House senior communications adviser: "You're shaping the message, you're molding the message, and you're trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. And that's tough."
Burke, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, is a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement. Pope John Paul II's longtime spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, was also a member of Opus Dei and was known for the papal access he enjoyed and his ability to craft the messages John Paul wanted to get out.
After Pope Benedict XVI was elected in 2005, Navarro-Valls was replaced by the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit who had long headed Vatican Radio and still does, along with running the Vatican press office and Vatican television service.
Lombardi told the AP that Burke will help integrate communications issues within the Vatican's top administrative office, the secretariat of state, and will help handle its relations with the Holy See press office and other Vatican communications offices. Burke will report to the Vatican undersecretary of state and the official who oversees Vatican communications in the secretariat.
Lombardi confirmed the news after the AP broke the story, several days before the Holy See had planned to announce it officially.
The Vatican has been bedeviled by communications blunders ever since Benedict's 2005 election, and is currently dealing with a scandal over Vatican documents that were leaked to Italian journalists. While the scandal is serious — Benedict himself convened a special meeting of cardinals Saturday to try to cope with it — the Vatican's communications problems long predate it.
Benedict's now-infamous speech about Muslims and violence, his 2009 decision to rehabilitate a schismatic bishop who denied the Holocaust, and the Vatican's response to the 2010 explosion of the sex abuse scandal are just a few of the blunders that have tarnished Benedict's papacy.
Even the Vatican's response to the leaks from within the Vatican of sensitive papal documents hasn't involved a terribly sophisticated public relations strategy. Just last week the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, blamed the media and the devil for fueling the scandal and accused journalists of "pretending to be Dan Brown."
Brown wrote "The Da Vinci Code," the best-selling fictional account that portrayed Opus Dei — of which Bertone's new communications adviser is a member — as being at the root of an international Catholic conspiracy.
Burke acknowledged the difficult task ahead but said that after turning down the Vatican twice before, he went with his gut and accepted the third time around. "This is an opportunity and challenge that I'm not going to get again," he said.
He said he didn't know what, if any, role his membership in Opus Dei played. Opus is greatly in favor in the Vatican these days, particularly as other new religious movements such as the Legion of Christ have lost credibility with their own problems. Currently, for example, the cardinal who is heading the Vatican's internal investigation into the leaks of documents is the Opus Dei prelate, Cardinal Julian Herranz.
"I'm an old-fashioned Midwestern Catholic whose mother went to Mass every day," Burke said. "Am I being hired because I'm in Opus Dei?" he asked. "It might come into play." But he noted he was also in Opus when he was hired by Fox and Time magazine.
Burke has been a Fox correspondent since he joined the U.S. network in 2001. He was the Time magazine correspondent in Rome for a decade before that.
At Fox, he led the network's coverage of the death of John Paul and election of Benedict in 2005, and has covered the papacy since then, traveling with the pope around the globe. But he has also used Rome as a base for non-Vatican reporting, including several stints in the Middle East during the last intifada, labor law protests in France and the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid.
He is a graduate of Columbia University's School of Journalism.
Pell to enter rarefied air at the Vatican Date February 25, 2014 .. bit ..
Supporters of survivors of child abuse at the hands of Catholic priests have condemned the Vatican's choice.
"It's absolutely no surprise that Cardinal Pell has been given a golden parachute by the Vatican to leave the jurisdiction just when things are getting hot at the royal commission," said Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) spokeswoman Nicky Davis.
Cardinal Pell: hundreds of millions of euros tucked away in Vatican
.. surprised i couldn't find one on this on the board ..
AP December 05, 2014 7:52AM
Cardinal George Pell has outlined his vision for the Vatican finances in a frank essay. Source: News Corp Australia
THE Vatican’s economy minister, Australian Cardinal George Pell, says the Holy See’s finances are in better shape than he thought, revealing that hundreds of millions of euros were kept off the balance sheet and that reforms are forging ahead to make the Vatican “boringly successful.”
In a frank essay published in Britain’s The Catholic Herald,
Cardinal Pell outlined his vision for a Vatican that follows international accounting standards, is transparent and audited externally, and uses its proceeds to help the poor.
Pope Francis was elected in 2013 on a mandate to get the Vatican’s finances in order after years of scandal at its bank and waste in its administration.
Pell was among the most vocal in calling for reform, and was named by Francis to head the new Secretariat for the Economy to oversee the process.
In the essay, Pell disparaged the Vatican’s past practices of financial secrecy, defending fiefdoms and dragging its feet in implementing international anti-moneylaundering norms.
He resurrected two of the most recent scandals — the “sacking” of the Vatican bank president and the leaks of documents by the papal butler — which he said had “severely” damaged the Holy See’s reputation.
In saying they were a “heavy cross” for Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI to bear, Pell suggested that Benedict’s resignation was indeed linked to the scandals. The reforms, however, are going ahead to make the Vatican “boringly successful,” Pell said.
He said his team had discovered that the financial situation was “much healthier than it seemed, because some hundreds of millions of euros were tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet.”
Pell didn’t say that the euros were unknown to Vatican authorities, just that they didn’t feature into the balance sheet.
New rules for Vatican finance offices include protection for whistleblowers
Cardinal George Pell, the head of he Secretariat for the Economy (CNS)
Separate statutes for the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy and a 'general auditor's office' announced
New rules governing the guidance, oversight and control of Vatican financial and administrative activities include the power to levy sanctions and take “civil or criminal action” in cases of “damage to assets”, as well as providing protection for whistleblowers raising red flags about “anomalous activity”.
The provisions were detailed in separate statutes for the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy and a “general auditor’s office,” which will be staffed by three lay experts.
The Vatican published the new statutes in Italian on its web site today; they went into effect on March 1. Pope Francis approved the statutes “ad experimentum” (on a trial basis) for an unspecified period of time.
The establishment of the council and secretariat were announced in February 2014. Officials said it took a full year to develop the statutes because they had to be reviewed by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. A key issue reportedly was to ensure adequate checks and balances.
The statutes officially define the nature, role, responsibilities and organisational structure of each of the three bodies; outline channels of command and accountability; designate English and Italian as the new offices’ working languages; and emphasise the need to keep data and documents confidential.
The statutes codify the mission of the three bodies as part of a major overhaul of the Vatican’s accounting and budgeting procedures, and make clear that both the Secretariat for the Economy and the auditors report to the Council for the Economy.
The auditing office, made up of a general auditor and two assistant auditors, will have the power to audit any Vatican office or body “in full autonomy and independence, and following the best practices recognised internationally concerning public administration.”
The auditor’s office will be the body that receives and investigates any signs of corruption, fraud and “anomalous activity” or irregularities concerning financial activities, budgeting, bookkeeping and the offering of outside contracts or services.
“The general auditor guarantees the confidentiality, integrity and security” of documents and information associated with suspected activities and “protects the identity” of those signaling any potential problems unless revealing the whistleblower’s identity becomes necessary in carrying out an investigation or trial.
Red flags raised “in good faith” concerning suspicious activities “do not produce any kind of culpability for violating professional secrets” or other similar confidentiality agreements, the new rules say.
The Council for the Economy, the statutes say, is dedicated to devising best practices, according to international standards, for more ethical, effective and transparent financial management and administration “in light of the Gospel” and Church social doctrine.
The council — which is made up of 15 members — will be charged with inspecting the budget forecasts and final budgets of all dicasteries, offices and organisations of the Holy See and Vatican City State. The council will prepare “recommendations for them and submit them to the Holy Father for approval”.
The council will also examine annual “risk assessments” concerning the Vatican’s holdings and finances.
The council will have the authority to request information from every office, including the Financial Intelligence Authority and the Vatican bank, and will examine annual reports from the general auditor.
The council members, appointed to a five-year term by the Pope, will include eight cardinals or bishops and seven lay experts, all from different nationalities to “represent the universality of the church.”
The Secretariat for the Economy, currently headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell, will act in collaboration with the Secretary of State and is in charge of “supervision and vigilance” over all administrative and financial activities at the Vatican. It is charged with implementing the norms and suggestions made by the Council for the Economy.
The secretariat will “monitor activities of the dicasteries” and other Vatican agencies, making sure they carry out their activities “efficiently” and “prudently” while funding pre-approved programs and projects. Spending must follow approved budget plans and book-keeping should conform to the new norms.
Cardinal Pell’s office will provide assistance and support to all Vatican offices and organisations so they can implement standardised norms and procedures and better manage their financial and administrative affairs. It will have the authority to conduct onsite “checks” at any of the Vatican offices.
If the secretariat discovers any “possible damage” to assets or to the Vatican “patrimony,” it can make sure corrective measures are taken or “where opportune, civil or criminal action and administrative sanctions.”
To ensure a better separation of powers, the secretariat will have to maintain two separate sections each headed by a “prelate secretary” with one dealing with the Vatican’s administrative activities and the other with financial oversights and controls. It added that during a “sede vacante,” the interim period before the election of a new Pope, the two secretaries, and not the prefect, will govern the secretariat.
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