AFP Reports Fierce Power Struggle in the Vatican

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On Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported that there’s an intense power struggle in the Vatican, with an attempt to overthrow Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, in a bid to undermine the position of Pope Benedict XVI Ratzinger. Marco Politi, a Vatican expert at the newspaper il Fatto Quotidiano, said that the widespread public outcry caused by the recent leak of secret Vatican documents was a specific effort to discredit Bertone, noting, “One way, or another, all the documents that fell into the hands of journalists had connections with Tarcisio Bertone. Whoever did this, they did it to attack his credibility, to force the appointment of a new Secretary of State”.

Earlier, the Italian newspaper la Repubblica wrote that Bertone could be just an intermediate target on the way to a coup against the Pope, observing, “A coterie of cardinals has a very ambitious goal… to appoint a new Secretary of State, and, after that, to gain power over the next conclave, so that they could elect a new pope from the ranks of their allies”. Previously, Benedict XVI appointed a special commission to investigate the leak of secret documents in the media, which provided information about corruption and internal conflicts in Roman Catholic clerical circles. Amongst the leaked documents were personal letters to the Pope. Materials unearthed in the investigation led to the arrest of the Pope’s valet, Paolo Gabriele, and to the removal of Vatican Bank President Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

29 May 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=45727

Editor’s Note:

HERE is one of the reasons why the RC bishops are making such a fuss over “Obamacare”. This Vatican contretemps, plus the continuing sexual abuse scandals amongst RC clergy has led to the RC hierarchy taking measures to divert people’s attentions. We shouldn’t be suckered into supporting such. Of course, in the case of the OCA and the ROCOR, there’s been unsavoury doings amongst us in the past, too (Sam Greene, Panteleimon Metropoulos, Neal Carrigan, and Gleb Podmoshensky pop to mind), and there’s some (such as the Storheim case) at present.

In short, don’t be fooled. Keep your eyes and ears open… notice what clergy do. If they’re not up to snuff, speak up! After all, they make grandiose claims for themselves based on having the “moral high ground”. I’d say, “Remember that the Orthodox Church is the freest of the Churches… it’s not hyperclerical, no matter what this-or-that unhinged convert may say. It’s OUR Church… and we share the responsibility of keeping it sweet”… let’s do that, and leave the hypocritical and bootless political posturing over Obamacare to others. God has better things for us to do…

BMD