Pope Francis faces a daunting challenge

Second of a two-part series

LeRoy Goldman
The Shadow Knows

The Roman Curia is the central government of the Catholic Church. Its roots go back to the collapse of the Roman Empire about 1,500 years ago. When the empire disintegrated, the vestiges of its governmental apparatus were absorbed by the Catholic Church.

The Curia's prime responsibility is to take direction from and implement the policies of the pope. When it does not, when it chooses to act independently, bad things happen. How the new pontiff chooses to address (or not) the Curia's actions will define his papacy and the vibrancy or decline of the church going forward.

In 2011, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, then the deputy governor of Vatican City, wrote letters to Pope Benedict denouncing corruption in the Curia. For his efforts, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state who had been hand-picked by Benedict, fired him. It's likely that Bertone's sacking of Vigano inspired the plot that led to the "Vatileaks" in January 2012.

The leaked documents illuminate a Curia obsessed with secrecy, intrigue and corruption. The Vatican denounced the Vatileaks as a brutal attack. But In March 2012, as the crisis mushroomed, Pope Benedict appointed a commission of three cardinals to investigate the leaks. That secret investigation has purportedly uncovered financial irregularities and the blackmailing of homosexual clergy.

In May 2012, the scandal intensified with the publication of Gianluigi Nuzzi's book, "His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI," which describes the Curia as a hotbed of jealously, intrigue and factional infighting. Nuzzi had access to more than 10 Vatican whistle-blowers.

Also in May, the pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested for having been the source of the Vatileaks. Police seized documents in his apartment that dealt with allegations of corruption, abuse of power and lack of financial transparency in the Vatican. He was indicted for aggravated theft in the summer of 2012. After a four-day trial in October, he was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in an Italian prison. However, he never went to prison. He remained in the Vatican until Pope Benedict met with him and pardoned him just before Christmas.

Five days before he pardoned Gabriele, Pope Benedict received the 300-page report from the three cardinals who had completed their investigation of the Vatileaks. Their secret report, "Relationem," was also given to Pope Francis.

Although the Vatican has denied that the contents of the Relationem had anything to do with Pope Benedict's decision to abdicate, such denials do not pass the smell test. The report was presented to the pope on the same day he reportedly decided to resign.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported in February that the Relationem "all revolves around the breach of the Sixth and Seventh Commandments." Those are the commandments that prohibit adultery and stealing.

La Repubblica, relying on a source close to the authors of the Relationem, said the report identifies high-ranking clergy who were blackmailed by laymen with whom they had relationships of a "worldly nature." The paper recounts a gay network that organized sexual encounters in villas, saunas and even the Vatican itself. Nor is this the first revelation of a gay network in the Vatican. The British newspaper, The Guardian, reported similar incidents in 2007 and 2010 involving a senior official and a chorister.

Regarding stealing, Repubblica reported the main focus of the cardinals' report concerns an investigation of the Vatican Bank for money laundering. The Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), is a privately held institution that reports to a committee of cardinals, and through them to the pope. As such, the IOR is not subject to public scrutiny. Last May, as the Vatileaks unfolded, the IOR's board of directors fired its president, Ettore Tedeschi, who is under investigation for money laundering.

The IOR has a checkered history. It was involved in a major political and financial scandal in the 1980s concerning the $4.7 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, of which it was a major shareholder. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, head of the IOR at the time, was indicted as an accessory in the collapse. Banco Ambrosiano was accused of laundering drug money for the Sicilian Mafia. Marcinkus avoided trial because the Italian courts ruled that, as a high-ranking prelate of the Vatican, he had diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Marcinkus retired to Sun City, Ariz.

The inescapable conclusion is that it's not possible to overestimate the challenge facing Pope Francis. All the pomp and ceremony of the Vatican no longer disguises internal rot. If the church decides to turn a blind eye toward it or decides to make minor changes in secret, it will doom Francis' papacy, and more importantly the Catholic Church.

In fact, Francis has only one path that will save the church. He must publicly expose the corruption in the Curia, rip it out root and branch, and replace it with a governance structure that is transparent, honest and under his control. The way to begin that process is for Francis to release the Relationem report. Redact it where necessary only to protect the identity of innocent individuals who provided testimony to the commission. To get beyond a monstrous cover-up, you have to come clean in the light of day.

I pray that Pope Francis will remember what God told his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi: "Go and repair my house, which, as you can see, is falling into ruin."

The Shadow's in the Vatican, but the Swiss guards can't find him. Goldman can be reached at:  EmailMe

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