Vatican ‘regrets’ letter on bank chief’s health

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd from his studio's window overlooking St. Peter's square during the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, Sunday, June 10, 2012.

The Vatican said Monday it “truly regrets” the publication of a letter from a psychotherapist detailing the mental health of the Vatican’s recently ousted bank chief, as yet another Holy See document leak exposes the unseemly side of the Catholic Church’s governance.

The letter was published in an Italian newspaper Saturday and appeared aimed at further discrediting and humiliating the Vatican bank’s ex-president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, once a top papal adviser. The bank’s board ousted Gotti Tedeschi on May 24, accusing him of failing to do his job, leaking documents and impeding the Vatican’s efforts to be more financially transparent.

The ouster was a stunning show of Holy See power struggles playing out in real time and came amid one of the greatest scandals facing Pope Benedict XVI’s seven-year papacy: the continuous leaks of confidential documents that have laid bare allegations of church corruption, intrigue and even homosexual relationships under Benedict’s watch.

The pope’s personal butler has been arrested in the case, accused of aggravated theft after reams of papal documents were found in his Vatican City apartment.

All told, the content of the leaked documents hasn’t posed a threat to Benedict’s papacy or revealed any great scandal, and on Monday Benedict once again urged his collaborators to remain faithful to him. But the continuous hemorrhaging of confidential memos has painted a picture of a church hierarchy that is little more than a petty, provincial Italian bureaucracy engaged in occasional Machiavellian power plays. [more]

SOURCE

Atlanta Journal-Constitution