Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Vatican Press Office, criticized as “partisan...partial and banal” an Italian television news program that 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 Viganò, right, and written when he was the secretary general of the commission that governs Vatican City. One of the letters, dated April 4, 2011, said that when Archbishop Viganò took office almost two years earlier, he discovered “chaotic management” and overspending. The letter complained of a “media campaign” by opponents of his efforts at reform and implored the pope not to remove him from his job “even for promotion.” The pope named Archbishop Viganò nuncio to the United States in October 2011. Under his leadership a Vatican City budget deficit of nearly $9.8 million in 2009 turned into a surplus of $28 million in 2010.
Vatican Downplays Corruption Charges
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
An interview on economics and Catholic social teaching with Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist and a professor at Columbia University.
Lesson one: I had to buy more stamps.
Celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea should give new energy to evangelization efforts, a new document from the International Theological Commission says.
In this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell walk us through the pontiff’s recovery, including “slight improvements” in his speech.