Source: RT
The latest allegation that a gay priest blackmail scandal was
the reason for Benedict XVI’s sudden resignation shows that his
sudden decision will be queried long after his departure, perhaps
robbing him of his greatest achievement while in office.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica has reported that the Pope was
overwhelmed when presented with evidence in mid-December last year
(collected in "two volumes of almost 300 pages – bound in red”) of
a network of highly-placed Vatican priests who did not only engage
in illicit homosexual “
worldly relations” with outsiders,
but let themselves be blackmailed by their gay lovers.
Among the listed locations for alleged trysts were a sauna, a
beauty parlor, and even a residence used by an archbishop.
The newspaper claims it was then that Pope decided that he could
not carry on, declaring that he was
“no longer suited” to
the demands of the job during his resignation speech earlier this
month.
With cack-handedness that marked public relations throughout
Benedict’s term, the Vatican immediately issued a denial that
almost invited more speculation.
"Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments
to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter. Let
each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be
following up on the observations that are made about this,"
said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.
The media quickly latched onto to the simultaneous announcement
on Friday of a transfer of Ettore Balestrero, a senior clergyman,
to a new prestigious post in Colombia, saying it was intended to
get him out of the Vatican after unnamed transgressions.
This forced Lombardi into making a second statement on the same
day. The spokesman shot the insinuations down as "absurd, totally
without foundation", saying the decision had been made weeks
ago.
Both the report and the figure of Balestrero did not come out of
the blue, but to the press they are a continuation of the scandals
that rocked the Papacy last year.
Throughout 2012, the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, aided by a
selection of powerful officials leaked documents to an Italian
journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi that confirmed the worst outsider
prejudices about the Holy See. The Vatileaks exposed the Papacy’s
spiritual home as a highly-factionalized breeding ground for
gossip, plotting and dirty tricks (including an instance when one
newspaper editor was removed from his post by a rival with the help
of anonymous letters falsely alleging his homosexuality). Even
those who leaked the revelations themselves were suspected to be
jockeying for position within the Holy See.
"The Pope was never the same after that. It was like shooting
Achilles in the heel," one insider told Reuters after the
resignation was announced.
The quick trial of Gabriele by Vatican cardinals was seen as a
whitewash (concerned only with the specifics of how he obtained the
documents, not why) but Benedict did order a deeper investigation
by three trusted cardinals.
It was apparently their report, which showed the situation as
even worse than assumed, that tipped the Benedict’s hand.
The other insurmountable embarrassment of 2012 was the
interconnected but separate failure of the Vatican Bank to get on
the “
white list” of Moneyval, the EU’s banking compliance
commission that had criticized the lack of transparency at the
institution (something Vatileaks amply confirmed).
The man who led the Vatican’s efforts? Ettore Balestrero.
For the critics the assorted facts compose paint a picture of a
Pontiff forced to abandon his post, unable to stem the tide of
revelations, and possibly facing censure for personal mistakes, if
not in deeds, then in appointing corrupt men to high places.
Even one of the investigating cardinals, Julian Herranz,
conceded that this might have been one of the
“hypotheses”.
"He could content himself with doing very little except
praying ... but because the people he had in place were not
adequate, instead of removing them, he removed himself," said
yet another insider to Reuters.
But the does the notion of a Pope on the verge of disgrace (not
only due to Vatileaks, but possibly also as a result of the sexual
abuse allegations rocking the church) really stand up?
In his statement the 85-year-old Benedict XVI said his ebbing
“strength of mind and body” was the reason for his resignation.
"The pope's decision was made many months ago, after the trip
to Mexico and Cuba [almost a year ago] and kept in an inviolable
privacy that nobody could penetrate," wrote the official
Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano.
It was on that trip to Mexico that the Pope fell and hurt his
head while in an unfamiliar hotel room. He has also had a pacemaker
installed in recent months.
But it is perhaps a description of the pontiff from his own
biographer Peter Seewald, who saw him last at the end of 2012,
which most vividly conveys his true state.
"His hearing had worsened. He couldn't see with his left eye.
His body had become so thin that the tailors had difficulty keeping
up with newly fitted clothes ... I'd never seen him so
exhausted-looking, so worn down," Seewald recently wrote in the
German magazine Focus.
This does not nullify the degree of decay at the Holy See, but
perhaps draws a more nuanced portrait of Benedict’s final year.
There is little doubt that Benedict XVI served a calamitous
eight years as the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church. His
time in charge has lurched from public relations disasters, to
damaging revelations, to endless lawsuits from all corners of the
world.
The Vatican’s instinctive response to crisis situations has been
to close ranks, hide information and try to deal with
transgressions internally, something that simply amplifies the
scale of any misdeed once the truth inevitably emerges in this
telecommunications age.
Whatever his reported knowledge on theological matters, Pope
Benedict was rarely a successful communicator, often on the
defensive after making pronouncements on the most routine issues,
and regarded as out-of-touch and uncharismatic.
But for all his flaws, no one has doubted the personal religious
devotion of the pontiff (and none of the scandals incriminated him
in anything other than passiveness in his dealing with
problems).
Perhaps due to his age and inherent traditionalism, he was never
the right man for the Papacy, but at least he knew his
limitations.
Benedict learned from observing his close friend John Paul II in
the last months of his Papacy in 2005, body trembling with symptoms
of Parkinson’s disease, and voice barely above a whisper as he
attempted to struggle through services in front of crowds of
thousands.
For all the unexpectedness of his resignation, Benedict said as
far back as in 2010 that he would step down as soon as he was
unable to perform this job.
He has done as he promised, with his dignity intact.
By being the first Pope to leave his post alive in 600 years,
Joseph Ratzinger may have angered the traditionalists (who say that
being God’s representative on Earth isn’t a job you can just quit),
but he may have also set an example to his successors that will
help the Papacy avoid becoming a constant deathwatch as its
decrepit heads are driven around the world in wheelchairs.
And for this he should be treated with respect, instead of
having his motives queried and twisted by those pursuing their own
agendas, however valid.
In the meantime, the world can switch its attention to the new
man at the Vatican, who will hopefully be able to address the very
problems Benedict XVI failed to overcome.
Igor Ogorodnev, RT
