-Caveat Lector- >From Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald Saturday, March 20, 1999 PAPAL POTBOILER KAOS runs riot through the Vatican By DESMOND O'GRADY in Rome An anonymous book just published in Italy provides a rare insight into the Vatican as it prepares for possible papal elections. Gone With the Vatican Wind, issued by a professedly anti-clerical Milanese publisher KAOS, consists mainly of complaints about the injustices and incongruities in the Vatican bureaucracy, which employs 3,000. Often without evidence, and using many pseudonyms, it makes charges of ruthless careerism, financial corruption, homosexuality, Communist and, above all, Freemasonic influence. It claims that an easily recognised although unnamed American who worked for a time in the Vatican was an active homosexual who, because of the Peter principle, was promoted to archbishop of a US diocese which he still directs. The Vatican is a court of bachelors, many of whom let off steam by backbiting. The book consists of the sort of gossip which might be exchanged by Vatican employees over a bottle of wine but is seldom found between hard or soft covers. Most of the rancour is directed against Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, head of the Vatican Ministry, or Dicastery, responsible for the Eastern-rite Catholic Church, which suggests that it was written by a former employee who felt he was badly treated by Silvestrini. (The editor says that several Vatican employees contributed to the book which has a collective signature, The Millenarians, but this claim could be a protective device.) Silvestrini, nicknamed by the author "The Sleeper", is depicted as the head of a sinister hidden government which is preparing to take over when the "sick and besieged" John Paul II dies. Silvestrini, who is considered a possible successor to John Paul, is influential but it seems an exaggeration to claim he heads a hidden government. He might be a tough man in the office but he has given his Dicastery a new energy and breadth of vision. Formerly he worked in the Secretariat of State where his finest achievement was ensuring the insertion of the freedom of religion and conscience clauses in the Helsinki Agreements on European Security and Co-operation which enabled those oppressed by the Soviet system to appeal to an international treaty. Trained as a historian, he is a friend of artists such as the late Federico Fellini, whom he resembles. None of this counts for the author but only the bad deal he feels he has suffered in Silvestrini's office. The interesting thing is that he attributes Silvestrini's influence to the fact that he is part of a clan from the Romagna region near Bolgona which includes other cardinals: Pio Laghi, Dino Monduzzi and Aurelio Sabatini. He sees a titanic battle for influence in course between the Romagna clan and that from the city of Piacenza near Parma (Silvio Oddi, Luigi Poggi and Ersilio Tonini are cardinals who trained in Piacenza) rather than in terms of conservatives and progressives. It sounds like Renaissance battles between Italian city-states but something similar occurred in 1978 at the last papal election: the deadlock between Giovanni Benelli of Florence and Giuseppe Siri of Genoa opened the way to the first non-Italian pontiff in 456 years. Italians still comprise the largest national group of cardinals with 18 electors out of the 113 aged under 80 eligible to participate. But to exert a decisive influence, they must vote together, which seems unlikely if the my-hometown-right-or-wrong mentality revealed by the anonymous author prevails. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. 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