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Subscribe to RSSOn his final day in Cuba, Pope Benedict noted that the Cuban government has taken steps to allow greater freedom of religion, but still has room for improvement. Vatican analyst George Weigel talks about the Pope's message and his meeting with Fidel Castro.
Pope Benedict's butler was arrested on Friday in connection with an investigation into leaks of confidential documents, some alleging cronyism and corruption in Vatican contracts, a senior Vatican source said.
The arrest is the first break in an investigation of the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal involving the leaking of secret papers including papal letters.
"The inquiry carried out by Vatican police... allowed them to identify someone in possession of confidential documents," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists, according to BBC News. "This person is currently being questioned."
"It's all very sad," a Vatican source said.
For much of this year, the Vatican has been at the center of a scandal involving the leak to Italian media of documents, some of them personal letters to the pope.
Some of the documents involved allegations of corruption, mismanagement and cronyism in the awarding of contracts for work in the Vatican and internal disagreement on the management of the Vatican's bank.
The president of the Vatican's bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted by its board on Thursday.
Pope shocked, saddened
The pope, who was said to be shocked and saddened by the leaks, ordered several investigations, including one headed by Vatican police and another by a commission of cardinals.
The scandal involves the leaking of a string of sensitive documents to Italian media since the start of the year.
Pope at Easter vigil: Technology without God is dangerous
They included letters by an archbishop who was transferred to Washington after he blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption and cronyism, a memo which put a number of cardinals in a bad light, and documents alleging internal conflicts regarding the Vatican Bank.
The Catholic Church accused the nation's largest organization of American nuns of espousing "radical feminist" ideas. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses the charges with Sister Jeannine Gramick, who was once silenced by the Vatican, and Jeff Stone, communications director of Dignity USA.
The private letters to Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the pope from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former deputy governor of Vatican City and currently the Holy See's ambassador in Washington were broadcast in January by an Italian television.
The letters showed that Vigano was transferred after he exposed what he argued was a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to Italian contractors at inflated prices.
Like a Dan Brown book? Vatican allows mobster to be exhumed
In one letter, Vigano wrote of a smear campaign against him by other Vatican officials who were upset that he had taken drastic steps to clean up the purchasing procedures. He begged to stay in the job to finish what he had started.
Bertone responded by removing Vigano from his position three years before the end of his tenure and sending him to the United States, despite his strong resistance.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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The R.C.C. does not represent Christianity.
The true Church is comprised of all true believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, period. Add nothing else, ever.
The head of the Church is Jesus Christ and it is administered by the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of Christ.
The Roman church missed their opportunity to get it right many times, but especially in the 16th century.
Christ is no king. I'm tired of people who think there is this badass guy on the other side of life that did everything. And, because these people are this badass' best friends, we now need to do everything thier way because of it. NO! BS! Hurry up and go be with your badass. My religion makes this world heaven, and you dead-life freaks need to leave and go be with your badass and leave the rest of us alone. PERIOD!!! I'll help you!!!
Hey Kingo - take your pretty white pills and the world will be much happier!
What's this? The Catholic Church which has let pedophiles go unpunished for decades (and often help them allude it) are politically corrupt as well? I'm shocked.
I've got nothing against true Christians, but those of you who would elevate a human to the level of "spokesman" for your God are sheep who aren't willing to think for yourselves. Just face reality, organized religion leaves you as nothing more than political and economic tools for the church.
Christianity with a small c began when book publisher Martin Luther found a way to sell bibles to a Europe that was largely illiterate. Any shmoe with a bible and a elementary education set himself up as his own pope. People began to follow whatever religion suited their needs at the time. Some people abandoned the Catholic Church because the rules were too tough.Throughout the ages hundreds of bibles claiming to be "THE REAL THING" had been printed.
It all began with Martin Luther, the cut and paste bible editor.
Really? I'm so surprised that the same church that is responsible covering up dozens of molestation cases would be accused of corruption!
Close it today and redistribute its wealth to those who actually need it, the ones the church so adeptly shakes down every Sunday.
But what do you call a True Believer? They can't ALL be correct, because some of them hold contradictory beliefs?
So WHICH Christian sects can be called True Believers, and which are the False ones? And how do YOU know? I'm sure THEY think they're right. You think that YOU are right. So how am I supposed to know?
YOUR faith tells you something, their faith tells them something different. WHO IS RIGHT? You can't both be!
I don't want any weasling out of this, either - I want a straight answer without any prevarication.
NOW.
I suggest you get a Bible out and read what Christ said, if you can;t figure out the answer to your question after that, you really weren't looking for an answer.
Thinking the butler was doing God's work.
Amazing how spoiled these people are. Aren't they suppose to be going round helping others instead of having others to help them.
This just goes to show how your money contributions are being spent. If the pope is to lazy to fix his breakfast, lunch and dinner, or a cup of coffee and tea, then what is he really good for. If he can't help himself, then how is he to be expected to help others? I'm sure all hos prayers are helping the starving kids around the world while he's being waited on and being fed very expensive cuts of prime beef.
Seems like the religious charlatans have a good con-job going on.
Maybe it's time that the people open their gd eyes and see the fraud that is taking place right in front of them.
the true church is the Christian Church, the belivers in Jesus Christ, and his work on the cross to die and take our sin away, what they should do is arest the pope , he's just like our congress crooked as hell it's self, what a fake religion , no hope there all man made rules and laws, made up by the church, how blind a people to believe in confessing to a man, one that has bothered little boys, do you think Gd is going to listen to him??? crazy church phonny belife !!!!!!!!!!!!
Excuse me the Vatican has their very own law enforcement?? Scarry, I want to know what the papers say. I say blow the horn on this power hungry organization!! Just like wikileaks has done, why does a "church" need confidentiality...
This arrest is CORRUPTION. They didn't arrest all the corrupted ones, just the whistle blower. The MAFIA has ties to the VATICAN.
How does a non-profit church get away with being so wealthy it has the same international status as a country, has it's own Secretary of State, own bank and police force ? ...........Not for profit, my behind.
It IS it's own country. Vatican City is a seperate nation within the city of Rome.
The catholic church has nothing to do with the real Jesus. Nor does the protestant church of the US. It's all what I call "Jesus Incorporated". It's about controlling politicians by controlling voters, creating power and making millions. Jesus is just a trigger word now that is used to hypnotize the masses and lull them into doing the will of their earthly masters. The GOP regularly invokes the word "Jesus" but it is used for the same reasons. They don't know Jesus any more than they know who I am and they could care less about him because he can't vote. Today's corporate Jesus is nothing at all like the one that lived 2000 years ago.
For some reason the phrase "Jesus must be turning over in his grave" constantly comes to mind.
Jesus isn't in a grave
This should deflect us from all the obvious scandal.
The R.C.C. should move their headquarters to New York City on Wall Street. They would fit right in.
"Vatican Cops"? is that like the Mutawa? (Islamic police who enforce Islamic religious law in Saudi Arabia)
Yeah, how DARE someone on the inside of a corrupt organization built on an ancient lie, preying on people's ignorance, hope and fear actually attempt to expose the B/S within! One brave person stands up, and millions try to knock him down. Such is "religious tolerance" in this world.
So what exactly happens when you leak corruption at the Vatican? Do you go to Vatican prison?...do you burn in hell? ...what?
Ol_Doc - You get 20 switches on your bare bottom.
Sees Thru, so they actually get rewarded rather than punished? Weird rules.
This takes the shine off of the Popery. Excuse me, papacy.
Really? There was still some shine left? The only shining going on around there are the priests making the alter boys shine their junk.
lol :)
It's always the same - arrest the messenger and not the perpetrators.
I thought the church was all about honesty and goodness , so what kind of secrets could they possible have ? If they are honest people then there should be nothing to hide right ?
Just goes to show how dishonest the Vatican really is !
The Catholic Church is the true religion. But the politicians who run it??????
The catholic church is nothing more than a corrupt theopolicital organization, anyone who belongs to it spit on the Lord Jesus Christ.
OMG are they saying the butler did it? Awesome
Aww come on. I was gonna go with The Butler Did It theme. LOL Missed it by about a minute.
Charles Ranier-2718823
Pedophiles never take responsibility for their actions.
At the Vatican it's reconceptualized as: "The butler did me."
Sees thru, now that was just damn funny.
Good one. They call him the Butt Lure.
Bertone responded by removing Vigano from his position three years before the end of his tenure and sending him to the United States, despite his strong resistance.
When someone stirs up trouble, transfer him. For the Catholic Church this sounds about right.
So, the Pope is saddened that news of Vatican corruption and cronyism was leaked to Italian authorities ? Bet he felt the same way when news got out the Catholic church is a sanctuary for pedophiles .
"If there is an evil upon this earth, it is religion.".........Albert Einstein
Just think how upset he must have been as a Hitler Youth to find out that Jews were be slaughtered by the millions!
Did you just make up that quote or...
Why does the Pope have a butler?
"Why does the Pope have a butler?"
Because when you take a vow of poverty, you're not allowed to handle money - so his butler has to do it for him.
Must be a pretty strong butler to handle all that tax-free gold. Does the butler also help out with the vow of chastity somehow?
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! The rack and thumb screws are probably being readied!
Nay, they'll give him the comfy chair and soft cushions!
"It's all very sad" one Vatican official laments. What's really sad is what's going on within the Vatican.
Any entity other than the RCC would be on the RICO list and be banned from commerce.
They should hang him from a public bridge to set an example as to what happens when you mess with the Pope.....Oh wait they already did that to their top Banker and it doesn't appear to have worked..My bad
The butler is a hero. He's was the only one at the Vatican who helped blow the whistle on corruption--and now HE pays the price?! The Vatican seems sleezier by the day!
At the Vatican, isn't it spelled BUTTLER?
HA! Good one!
Vatican City: NO WETBACKS ALLOWED!
Why is it that a nun can teach a roomful of about 45 students and teach them better than the "super duper, degrees up the wazoo" professional that get $80,000/ 9 months, can't have more than 25 students per class, and still has a bunch of dummies at the end of the school year.
who says they teach them better? In the town we live in the catholics got busted trying to bribe the governor to get a casino run by a "non-profit" which was all set to funnel money into the near bankrupt catholic school system. So can you explain how teaching them better fits in with their being corrupt little lying hypocrites loser? how many of those nuns knew the children they were teaching were being raped by your priests? Oh wait, you catholics, your like blacks and jews who scream bigotry in the face of righteous condemnation. You probably have few sexual encounters with little boys yourself you sniveling cowardly little hypocrite.
Like blacks and jews??????? Now we see left right is just that....schizophrenic!!!!
At least when I was growing up, the Catholic schools could kick out any kid that they wanted, so the worst students could be removed. More than that, though, I think it's the parents shelling out $$ for tuition---a parent paying good hard cash isn't going to be happy if their precious offspring decides to act a fool & waste that money. Plus, I was always told that the nuns didn't tend to skimp on the corporal punishment if they thought it helped move things along, & that the parents didn't protest this; if anything, the kid came in for another thumping when they got home. I'm not saying public schools couldn't do better at educating our youth, but I think they do face a few more obstacles than private schools do.
Ah, it's tough to keep secrets when you're crooks. There's always that "wild card" honest person to worry about. And then there's the crooks who turn on each other.
"The pope, who was said to be shocked and saddened by the leaks" - - - should be saddened by the misdeeds that the leaks are trying to uncover. For decades the Vatican has been covering up stories about sexual abuse rather than deal with the problems in a forthright manner. It seems that in terms of cronyism and corruption once again the prefer not to deal with the problem.
It speaks volumes that the Catholics or any other religion for that matter, that they would have to keep anything classified or secret from the people it claims to serve . . . the Vatican is filled with snakes just like any other government . . . it's all about wealth.
So the Pope and others commit highly embarrassing crimes and scandals - and is the Church worried and dismayed about that?
No.
What ARE they worried about?
That someone with some courage exposed their shenanigans to the world.
TYPICAL OF CRIMINALS TO THINK IN THAT MANNER, and considering Hitler Youth Pope is involved, not surprising in the least.
Isn't this the same vatican that the "yellow cake from Africa" letter came from? Secret informant that "KNEW" that Iraq had WMDs? The whole 'city on 7 hills' will someday have to pay for it's deceit and inhumane treatment to women.