The Vatican has blamed the media for fuelling the scandal over leaked documents and insists there are no power struggles or problems of unity in the Holy See’s governance.
Secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told an Italian Catholic weekly that journalists reporting on the leaks scandal were “pretending to be Dan Brown . . . inventing stories and replaying legends”.
Brown wrote The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, best-selling fictional accounts of power struggles and scandals inside the Catholic Church.
The Vatican has been on the defensive since sensitive documents alleging corruption and exposing power struggles began appearing in the Italian media in January. A recent book containing dozens of documents from Pope Benedict XVI’s desk has compounded what many see as a plot to undermine Cardinal Bertone’s authority.
The pope has complained about media reports that “went well beyond the facts, offering an image of the Holy See that doesn’t correspond to reality”.
However Cardinal Bertone’s interview with Famiglia Cristiana took the complaints to a new level, criticising the “vehemence” of some Italian newspapers in seeking to create divisions where they did not exist. – (Reuters)