Vatican downplays charges of financial ‘corruption’
By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Insisting on the Holy See’s continuing
commitment to transparency and rectitude in economic affairs, the Vatican’s
spokesperson downplayed references to “corruption” in a letter
apparently sent to Pope Benedict XVI by a Vatican official who is now
apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office,
criticized as “partisan,” “partial and banal,” an
Italian television news program, which, on Jan. 25, broadcast portions
of letters addressed to Pope Benedict and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
the Vatican Secretary of State.
The letters were apparently signed by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano and
written when he was the secretary general of the commission governing Vatican
City.
One of the letters, dated April 4, 2011, said that when Archbishop Vigano
took office almost two years earlier, he discovered a “disastrous
situation” of “chaotic management” and overspending
on contracts.
The letter also complained of a “media campaign” launched by
opponents of the archbishop’s efforts at reform, and implored the
pope not to remove him from his job, “even for promotion to a more
important post.”
The pope named Vigano as nuncio to the U.S. in October 2011.
The commission manages the 108-acres of Vatican City State, including the
Vatican Gardens and Museums.
During Vigano’s stint as the commission’s second-highest
official, a budget deficit of nearly $9.8 million in 2009 turned into
a surplus of $28 million in 2010.
According to Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist who hosted the Jan.
25 broadcast, the archbishop’s reforms included cutting the cost
of the Christmas Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square by more than
250,000 euro ($330,000), and lowering expenses for maintaining the Vatican
Gardens by some 800,000 euro ($1.05 million).
In a written statement on Jan. 26, Lombardi praised
Vigano’s
tenure at the commission as one of “administrative rigour, savings,
and rectification of a generally difficult economic situation.” However,
he noted that other factors, including a rise in attendance at the Vatican
Museums, help to explain the improved finances during the period in question.
The principles of “correct and healthy administration and of transparency” that
inspired the archbishop continue today to guide the management of the
commission, Lombardi said.
The letter to Bertone, dated March 27, 2011, eight days before
the letter to Pope Benedict, complained of the cardinal’s plans
to remove Vigano from his post, accusing him of breaking a promise
to let the archbishop succeed the then-president of the commission, Cardinal
Giovanni Lajolo, upon the latter’s retirement.
According to the letter, Bertone had mentioned unspecified “tensions” within
the commission to explain Vigano’s reassignment, but the
letter’s author suggested that a recent Italian newspaper article
criticizing the archbishop as incompetent had contributed to the decision.
During the broadcast featuring the letters, Nuzzi was joined by Giovanni
Maria Vian, editor of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano,
who voiced skepticism at the suggestion that a post as prestigious as
that of nuncio to the U.S. could be considered a demotion.
Vian also noted that, according to usual practice, number-two officials
of Vatican offices are rarely promoted to the top job.
The apostolic nunciature in Washington declined to comment.
Lombardi would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the
letters, which were shown on screen during the broadcast; but his statement
deplored the “publication of private documents.”
He also suggested that the Vatican might pursue legal action to protect
the reputations of Vatican officials named in the broadcast, including
investment advisers whose recommendations purportedly led the Vatican
to lose 2.5 million euro ($3.3 million) in a single transaction.
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Contributing to this story was Patricia Zapor in Washington.
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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