The room full of people was still in shock at the news of his resignation when Pope Benedict XVI tottered across the marble floor towards a tall, heavy-set man in the red robe and skullcap of a cardinal.
As cameras rolled on Monday in the gilded Sala del Concistoro at the Apostolic Palace in Rome, Benedict grabbed the man by his shoulders, looked deep into his eyes and struggling to hold back tears shared a long embrace.
It was a public show of affection to one of the Pope's most important fratres carissimi or dear brothers'.
Dark intrigue: Benedict's decision to become the first leader of the Catholic Church to step aside since the Middle Ages has left a slew of unanswered questions
It was also a display of respect. For the man was Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who as Dean of the College of Cardinals will organise the coming conclave at the Sistine chapel where 117 cardinals from across the world choose the next pontiff.
Yet in these ancient hallways, things are never entirely as they seem.
Dust may still be settling on Benedict XVI's unexpected resignation, at the age of 85, but cynical eyes have begun to turn towards his relationship with Sodano the power-broker.
Sodano has lost little time in expressing his sense of loss and almost disbelief' at Benedict's decision to quit, telling reporters that Monday's announcement felt like a lightning bolt in a clear blue sky'. But Vatican insiders smell a rat about those widely reported comments. They point out that, far from being surprised at Benedict's announcement, Sodano had been told the previous Friday. And far from a sense of loss', previous form suggests the ambitious cardinal would have been delighted at the news.
Benedict's decision to become the first leader of the Catholic Church to step aside since the Middle Ages has left a slew of unanswered questions. In the official statement, the German-born Pope blamed his resignation on advancing years, saying declining health had left him unable to properly lead the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
Having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,' he said.
An official spokesman later added that Benedict is suffering from a decline in vigour, both of the body and spirit'.
To a degree, that's probably true. Italian newspapers have revealed Benedict suffered a serious fall' this year and underwent heart surgery in November to replace a pacemaker fitted after an earlier heart attack.
Dust may still be settling on Benedict XVI's unexpected resignation, at the age of 85, but cynical eyes have begun to turn towards his relationship with Cardinal Angelo Sodano (pictured) - the power-broker
Dust may still be settling on Benedict XVI's unexpected resignation, at the age of 85, but cynical eyes have begun to turn towards his relationship with Cardinal Angelo Sodano (pictured) - the power-broker
But in a world governed by tradition, serving Popes don't step aside, no matter how ailing.
Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, served for 27 years, surviving an assassination attempt. After being diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2001, he suffered severe difficulties speaking and even sitting up. But he carried on until his death in 2005.
The last pope who failed to carry on until the bitter end was Gregory XII, who was forced out in 1415.
The last to go voluntarily was Celestine V, who resigned in 1294.
But if the fact of the Pope's departure is unusual, its timing looks downright suspicious.
The Vatican claims he'd been considering the move for almost a year, praying intensively as he decided whether to quit.
But if so, why did he recently allow officials to schedule an official tour of Brazil for July?
Why, too, insiders wonder, shortly before Christmas did Benedict promote one of the Vatican's most glamorous figures, fellow German Georg Ganswein, to Archbishop and the high-profile position of Prefect of his Pontifical Household?
At the time of his appointment, the 56-year-old who is known as the Black Forest Adonis' and Gorgeous George' on account of his good looks was billed as the perfect right-hand man to protect an ageing Pontiff from the daily grind of Vatican politics.
Benedict promoted Georg Ganswein (pictured) to Archbishop and the high-profile position of Prefect of his Pontifical Household
Benedict promoted Georg Ganswein (pictured) to Archbishop and the high-profile position of Prefect of his Pontifical Household
Ganswein then appeared on the cover of last month's Italian Vanity Fair, billed as the George Clooney of Catholicism'.
The article pointed out that papal aides are promoted to archbishop when an ailing Pope wishes to create an unofficial gatekeeper'. But if Benedict knew he was about to quit, why appoint Ganswein to this position?
The Pope's departure also comes at a time of scrutiny over the Vatican's alleged links to the world of organised crime.
Last summer saw the scandalous trial of Paolo Gabriele, his butler, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing confidential documents from his master's desk and passing them to a journalist.
The papers were given to Gianluigi Nuzzi, a reporter whose Vatileaks' scoop alleged corruption at the Vatican Bank, including the laundering of £160 million on behalf of the Mafia.
In the wake of Nuzzi's revelations, the bank's president was forced to resign. A replacement is due to be announced in the coming months.
His identity is of great concern to organised criminals, who fear the wrong' appointee will attempt to wipe clean the tarnished bank's slate by confessing a raft of previous financial misdeeds.
Benedict was expected to usher in just such a new broom; his successor may not. The fact his departure is good news for the mafia has left many suspicious.
But the most curious figure in the shock resignation is Cardinal Sodano.
The Pope and the cardinal are hardly allies. Indeed, for years they have been regarded as bitter rivals, clashing repeatedly as they each climbed the slippery pole of the hierarchy.
Months after Benedict became Pope, Sodano resigned as the Vatican's Secretary of State, its most senior political and diplomatic post, after 12 years in the high-profile job. This hardly makes him an obvious candidate for a public papal embrace.
The second source of suspicion is Sodano's professed surprise at Monday's news.
Several Vatican insiders, including Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, a top contender to be the next Pope, say Sodano learned of the coming resignation in Benedict's private quarters the previous Friday.
Angelo Sodano
Pope Benedict XVI
Not allies: For many years, the Pope (right) and Cardinal Sodano (left) have been regarded as bitter rivals, clashing repeatedly as they each climbed the slippery pole of the hierarchy
If that is the case, then why did the Cardinal describe Benedict's departure, three days later, as a bolt from the blue?
And what really happened at the Friday meeting? Though held in secret, reports in the Italian press claim there was a heated argument between the men over the fraught question of how the Church should deal with clergy accused of sexual abuse.
In recent years, Benedict has taken a relatively hard line on dealing with paedophile priests, an issue that has damaged the hierarchy's reputation.
Not only has he apologised publicly to victims, he has also insisted that the Vatican, rather than individual diocese, should be in charge of investigating future abuse complaints, referring them to the police whenever possible.
Sodano takes a different view. The cardinal has been reluctant to proceed with investigations into suspect priests over the years, and famously used a prayer during Easter Mass in 2010 to describe the complaints of victims of abuse as petty gossip'.
He has clashed with Benedict over this issue several times over the years. In 1995, they fell out over how to deal with Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, who resigned as Archbishop of Vienna after being accused of molesting young men.
While it seems Sodano had several reasons to seek the Pope's resignation, that doesn't mean he had the ability to execute such an audacious plot
While it seems Sodano had several reasons to seek the Pope's resignation, that doesn't mean he had the ability to execute such an audacious plot
Benedict advised the then Pope, John Paul II, to issue an apology over the appalling allegations, which were later proven. Sodano, as the Vatican's Secretary of State, chose to over-rule him.
Then, in 1998, Sodano instructed Benedict then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to drop an investigation into multiple counts of abuse by Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of a holy order called The Legionaries of Christ. In a plot twist worthy of a Dan Brown novel, a Catholic journal uncovered evidence that Sodano had issued the order after receiving $15,000 from the order for being its cheerleader'.
Benedict waited eight years for revenge. In 2006, he removed Maciel later revealed to have fathered several children by different women from his post. Sodano's resignation from Vatican Secretary of State came soon afterwards.
Yet while it seems Sodano had several reasons to seek the Pope's resignation, that doesn't necessarily mean he had the ability to execute such an audacious plot.
A hostile cardinal seeking to bring down a Pope would have to unearth a catastrophically devastating scandal from his past.
With Benedict's childhood in the Hitler Youth and long career in a Church ridden with sex abuse allegations, there are avenues for attack. But eight years of scrutiny from the media has left little mud sticking to him.
There is a dubious incident from 1980, when as Archbishop of Munich he transferred a paedophile priest to another parish. And there have been complaints that during the Eighties and Nineties, in his role as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he ignored complaints of abuse.
Getting the Pope to resign would have taken something more damning. Did Sodano stumble on a scandal? It seems unlikely.
A more plausible explanation is perhaps that constant exposure to Vatican politics had left the monkish and cerebral Benedict tired and desperate to find an escape.
Maybe an unpleasant meeting with Sodano pushed him over the edge,' says a veteran insider. The Vatileaks scandal showed the place to be completely dysfunctional. It's been that way throughout history.'
As for Sodano, he's no doubt hoping one piece of Vatican history repeats itself. The last time a College of Cardinals chose a new Pope was in 2005 and Benedict was Dean of the College of Cardinals. This time, of course, the dean is none other than Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
La Repubblica has an article describing a network of homosexual priests and blackmail. The pope baceme aware of that on December, 17, 2012, by the report of three cardinals. It is claimed that that is the reason for Ratzingers resignation.
The googlish translation is difficult to understand, but there will be more soon.
The article is written in clerical code and obfuscation...
Quote:UK's top cardinal accused of 'inappropriate acts' by priests
Three priests and former priest report Cardinal Keith O'Brien to Vatican over claims stretching back 33 years
Catherine Deveney The Observer, Saturday 23 February 2013 21.31 GMT
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Britain's most senior Catholic clergyman. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Three priests and a former priest in Scotland have reported the most senior Catholic clergyman in Britain, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, to the Vatican over allegations of inappropriate behaviour stretching back 30 years.
The four, from the diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, have complained to nuncio Antonio Mennini, the Vatican's ambassador to Britain, and demanded O'Brien's immediate resignation. A spokesman for the cardinal said that the claims were contested.
O'Brien, who is due to retire next month, has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights, condemning homosexuality as immoral, opposing gay adoption, and most recently arguing that same-sex marriages would be "harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of those involved". Last year he was named "bigot of the year" by the gay rights charity Stonewall.
One of the complainants, it is understood, alleges that the cardinal developed an inappropriate relationship with him, resulting in a need for long-term psychological counselling.
The four submitted statements containing their claims to the nuncio's office the week before Pope Benedict's resignation on 11 February. They fear that, if O'Brien travels to the forthcoming papal conclave to elect a new pope, the church will not fully address their complaints.
"It tends to cover up and protect the system at all costs," said one of the complainants. "The church is beautiful, but it has a dark side and that has to do with accountability. If the system is to be improved, maybe it needs to be dismantled a bit."
The revelation of the priests' complaints will be met with consternation in the Vatican. Allegations of sexual abuse by members of the church have dogged the papacy of Benedict XVI, who is to step down as pope at the end of this month. Following the announcement, rumours have swirled in Rome that Benedict's shock move may be connected to further scandals to come.
The four priests asked a senior figure in the diocese to act as their representative to the nuncio's office. Through this representative, the nuncio replied, in emails seen by the Observer, that he appreciated their courage.
It is understood that the first allegation against the cardinal dates back to 1980. The complainant, who is now married, was then an 18-year-old seminarian at St Andrew's College, Drygrange, where O'Brien was his "spiritual director". The Observer understands that the statement claims O'Brien made an inappropriate approach after night prayers.
The seminarian says he was too frightened to report the incident, but says his personality changed afterwards, and his teachers regularly noted that he seemed depressed. He was ordained, but he told the nuncio in his statement that he resigned when O'Brien was promoted to bishop. "I knew then he would always have power over me. It was assumed I left the priesthood to get married. I did not. I left to preserve my integrity."
In a second statement, "Priest A" describes being happily settled in a parish when he claims he was visited by O'Brien and inappropriate contact between the two took place.
In a third statement, "Priest B" claims that he was starting his ministry in the 1980s when he was invited to spend a week "getting to know" O'Brien at the archbishop's residence. His statement alleges that he found himself dealing with what he describes as unwanted behaviour by the cardinal after a late-night drinking session.
"Priest C" was a young priest the cardinal was counselling over personal problems. Priest C's statement claims that O'Brien used night prayers as an excuse for inappropriate contact.
The cardinal maintained contact with Priest C over a period of time, and the statement to the nuncio's office alleges that he engineered at least one other intimate situation. O'Brien is, says Priest C, very charismatic, and being sought out by the superior who was supposed to be guiding him was both troubling and flattering.
Those involved believe the cardinal abused his position. "You have to understand," explains the ex-priest, "the relationship between a bishop and a priest. At your ordination, you take a vow to be obedient to him.
"He's more than your boss, more than the CEO of your company. He has immense power over you. He can move you, freeze you out, bring you into the fold … he controls every aspect of your life. You can't just kick him in the balls."
All four have been reluctant to raise their concerns. They are, though, concerned that the church will ignore their complaints, and want the conclave electing the new pope to be "clean". According to canon law, no cardinal who is eligible to vote can be prevented from doing so.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
PAPAL RESIGNATION: Is the Pope gambling that a younger man can win back the Church's soul?
Doubts grow about motives for retiring' as Italian and Greek sources offer further clues
If I recall correctly, it was some time in May last year that a reliable and generous media tipster for The Slog, now largely retired, told me to start looking more closely at financial corruption within the Vatican, and the emergence of a powerful clique using the Papacy's assumed innocence as a front for its activities. I did note what he said, and I did use a Roman contact to fill me in on anything of relevance. But as so often happens in a world where the unexpected has become commonplace (and invention almost ubiquitous) I moved onto urgent stories and ignored the importance of that one. Big mistake.
Having arrived to a techno-blackout here in France, three days into it I (briefly) got a signal on my mobile and texted a close friend in London to ask what, if anything, of significance had happened. The Pope has resigned' said the reply. Very funny' I texted back. Later that day, having established it was true, I drove over to a friend's house and went online to read the coverage. As so often with the British press, the vast majority of the coverage was respectful and concerned about the Pope's health. I simply couldn't believe that such a historically unique event was being written about in a way that almost suggested normality.
Unable to post normally, I sent one email to a friend travelling in Africa. It said:
Jon Sopel was discussing on BBCNews how the Catholic world would deal with having an ex-Pope and a real Pope alive at the same time…..the main thing I'd like to know is why he allowed himself to get elected…and then resigned. This sort of makes him the Richard Nixon of the Papacy, but nobody in the MSM is about to ask anyone what expletives or break-ins might have contributed to his decision. Se there we are: Pope resigns, nothing to see here.'
Now, eventually over the last few days a more realistic look behind the scenes has emerged in the Italian media. La Repubblica's respected Vatican expert Ignazio Ingrao has claimed that Benedict XVI resigned rather than face the backwash from a scandal related to money-laundering (via the Vatican's bank IOR) and a gay sex ring among the Cardinals.
Although Inside the Vatican editor Robert Moynihan said in a recent newsletter that "today a veil of secrecy was shredded in this eternal city" much doubt has been expressed in the Catholic media as to the story's validity particularly as Ingrao's main source is unnamed. Having looked more closely at the situation, I don't think the dismissive attitude is at all justified. Having spoken to a Greek friend with a strong interest in the matter (and returned to my original Italian source) there seems to me to be a pretty clear timeline….and it doesn't sit at all well with Vatican spin. Further, if the Pope's failing health' is to remain as the game-changer here, then I suggest the pontiff should be working harder on his role: he doesn't look or sound like a bloke losing it.
The path to resignation begins properly last Autumn, with Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, being found guilty of stealing sensitive Papal documents from the Pope's apartments. The Slog's Roman source takes up the story:
"The Pope realised very quickly that there was more to the theft than personal greed. Gabriele was being blackmailed. Not only did the butler admit this in private, but the nature of the documents was enough on its own to point in that direction. Benedict is a very bright philosopher and analyst….he knew this was bigger than just a light-fingered butler."
The Pope quickly called a top secret meeting with three key Vatican allies, and demanded that a full report for his eyes only be produced. Most sources name the three cardinals as Salvatore De Giorgi, Julian Herranz, and Josef Tomko. They produced the report by December 17th, and as my source alleges, "it confirmed Benedict's worst fears of a rotten and widespread clique working towards its own criminal ends. He decided within days to resign on the basis of it".
From what can be pieced together thus far as to the contents of the report (the next human being to read it will be the new Pope) there seems to have been a gay and/or possibly paedophile element in the Vatican a group behind the ferocious attempts to smear complainants against paedophile priests and evidence of what La Republicca calls wordly sexual activities' by them. Sadly, the financial operators within and without IOR appear to have used evidence of such proclivities to get their business done, and done without detection.
Far from being separate cancers within the Vatican, the two scandals are thus entirely mutually dependent: deviants within the Cardinal's College have been recorded at their work, and forced to do dirty money-laundering work by the men behind it. It all looks very messy, and having gained a glimpse of the size of the disaster Benedict XVI resigned. But there remain three theories as to why he did so.
The first is that the pontiff simply cut and ran away from something which would, eventually, implicate him. There isn't a shred of evidence to support this, and in the light of him having commissioned the urgent report in the first place, such a possibility seems counter-intuitive. It is also out of character for a man who, spanning five decades, has argued tirelessly that the Church needed deep-cleaned renewal in a world where the bad guys seemed to be more and more in control of things.
The second is that Benedict was about to move against the perpetrators, and purge the College of everyone involved. However, he was very quickly appraised, by person or persons as yet unknown, of how the money-launderers would pull down the entire Church around his head by releasing every last grisly detail of the sexual abnormalities involved. While this too is largely supposition, it isn't anywhere near complete conspiracy theory fantasy: why, for example, are the spokespeople in the Vatican clearly lying about when the Pope made his mind up to go?
The third is that the pontiff saw the size of the task facing him….and decided very shrewdly to hand it over to a younger but equally radical ally. Although not spelt out to this extent, the National Catholic Reporter broadly supports the hypothesis when it writes, he knows that putting things right inside the Vatican will take a tremendous investment of administrative energy, which he doesn't feel he can supply, and which probably isn't in his skill set in any event.'
Which of these alternatives (or others) one believes will ultimately be settled by two things: first, who the Cardinals elect in terms of age, closeness to Benedict, and attitude; and second, a closer analysis of how and why the Vatican media machine is churning out defensive bollocks.
There is no shortage of examples illustrating what I mean by that. The deteriorating "strength of mind and body" cited in the Papal resignation announcement received little or nothing in the way of critique. Yet only two days later, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a complex yet lucid 46-minute long public talk, working only occasionally from notes and in the absence of any preparatory text.
In December, Vatican spin-doctor Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Pope Benedict's fourth encyclical would be released in the first half of 2013. Treating the subject of faith, the encyclical would complete a trilogy on the three "theological virtues," following "Deus Caritas Est" (2005) on charity, and "Spe Salvi" (2007) on hope. Suddenly, this isn't going to happen. Here was a fighter for fundamental values abandoning the most prominent teaching project of his pontificate….even though it is already largely completed.
I'm also deeply indebted to the research carried out by a hugely reliable Greek source, whose scholastic knowledge of things ecclesiastical is far greater than mine. This source pointed out this press report to me (my emphasis):
The pontiff arrived for his final address to Rome's clergy. Before the Pope's talk, the several thousand priests in the Vatican's audience hall greeted him with a standing ovation and a shout of "Long live the Pope!" Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the vicar of Rome, then read a short tribute to the Pope, likening the occasion to the departure of St Paul from Ephesus in the Acts of the Apostles.'
Digging out the New Testament Ephesus account, my contact notes this passage (my emphasis}:
"And now you see me a prisoner already in spirit; I am on my way to Jerusalem, but have no idea what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit, in town after town, has made it clear enough that imprisonment and persecution await me. But life to me is not a thing to waste words on, provided that when I finish my race I have carried out the mission that the Lord Jesus gave me and that was to bear witness to the Good News of God's grace…..Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers, to feed the Church of God which he bought with his own blood. I know quite well that when I am gone fierce wolves will invade you and have no mercy on the flock. Even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them. So be on your guard, remembering how night and day for three years I never failed to keep you right, shedding tears over each one of you."
This is an astonishingly apt reference, and certainly leaves one with the impression that here was a College ally of Benedict XVI throwing down the gauntlet to any in the crooked clique expecting to emerge victorious from the forthcoming election.
As I suggest above, the identity of his successor will give out a clear sign as to which side' has won. For whatever the See's PR machine tries to say, there is a battle going on at the top of the Catholic Church for its heart and soul. Drugs, possible sexual deviancy and financial wrongdoing do not sit well with the idea of Rome as the believers' support in times of hardship. This is shaping up to be yet another example of how perverted privilege can triumph. We should all look at the runners and riders very carefully.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
