Corporate confusion is evident at the Vatican

Sometimes, corporate executives forget that, in this modern day and age, everything that is said, written, filmed or photographed will turn up, sometime, someplace, to remind you of what really happened. I’m not just talking about Twitter, Facebook and e-mails ... even letters, handwritten notes, old radio interviews or, heaven forbid, TV appearances will be and are resurrected when you least want them to appear.

Now imagine you are dealing with corporate corruption. The old saying “greed is good� from the movie “Wall Street� is nothing when compared with bribery, secret meetings, clandestine operations to probe your enemies’ strengths (in the boardroom or individual witnesses) and, worst of all, the coverups you were sure would be effective forever. They never are.

And so, it must serve somewhat as a lesson for the man who would like to be the next pope, the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, that his past words, deeds, religious orders and utterances have come back to haunt him. The problem is especially acute because he’s been on a book tour of sorts for more than half a year, promoting his “The Last Secret of Fatima,� and he is not shy about talking to the press.

Meanwhile, the last thing he wants is for anything from the Pope’s office to cause media offense. But the molestation issue does not seem to be going away any time soon, in the media, the courts or the public consciousness.

The book explains one of the most controversial events in 20th-century Catholicism — the 1917 apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima. According to the book and church lore, during World War I three Portuguese children received a vision in which Mary, the mother of Jesus, foretold great global turmoil. The first part of their vision — warnings about World War II, communism and the spread of atheism — were widely publicized, but Vatican officials were hesitant to reveal the vision’s concluding images, thus creating the “secret� of Fatima. Speculation about this secret gripped many Catholics, and the aura of intrigue surrounding Fatima grew when the church hierarchy barred the last surviving visionary from speaking publicly.

u      u      u

However, six months or so ago, Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican equivalent of prime minister and a top advisor to Pope Benedict, revealed the secret. He explained that the final prophecy envisaged the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II and he argues the apparition at Fatima was a call to renewal for the church, and he was assigned the task of promulgating this message by the pope.

Now, though, I suspect that positive message may be lost in the media stampede to get at a different and less controllable coverup: the allegations of child molestation by priests around the world.

As the deputy chief of the church’s moral watchdog when it was headed by the current pope when he was a cardinal, Cardinal Bertone played the role of a “brake� in the affair, the magazine Die Zeit weekly just revealed. There have already been claims that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope failed to take action, despite being alerted twice by the Archbishop of Wisconsin to allegations that the Rev. Lawrence Murphy had abused 200 children.

However, it fell to his deputy, Bertone, to “raise numerous obstacles against internal disciplinary proceedings against the U.S. priest.� In fact, it was Bertone who demanded that Lawrence’s case be “treated in absolute secrecy ... without enlarging the scandal.� In a summary of the meeting (ah, the modern age), notes show he wanted to “avoid a scandal for his boss.�

At the Vatican, it all goes downhill from there insofar as any coverup is concerned or for absolution of the pope for his failed oversight of priests’ molestation charges in Austria, Australia, America, Ireland, Germany ... it is a long list.

In a sermon, Vatican Father Raniero Cantalamessa likened allegations that the Vatican had systematically hushed up cases of sexual abuse of children by priests to the “most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.� That caused a negative reaction worldwide.

u      u      u

There is some significance to the fact that Bertone is a member of the Salesian Society, defined as “the Christian perfection of its associates obtained by the exercise of spiritual and corporal works of charity towards the young, especially the poor, and the education of boys to the priesthood.�

He is the man in charge now, caught in the crosshairs of his own doing, coupled with the media’s focus on his Salesian moral ethic (helping children). He quickly apologized for Cantalamessa’s comments, but then made it all worse by explaining them. In “clarifying� remarks, Bertone outdid himself by saying it was homosexuality — not clerical celibacy or anything else — which was at the root of the abuse of children.

The list of countries now condemning Bertone is growing daily, led by France. That did not deter him. He explained further, deepening the hole he had dug for decades: “Many psychologists, many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and pedophilia but many others have demonstrated, I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia,� he said. “That is true. I have seen documents of the psychologists. That is the problem.�

The media is now having a field day, assigning scores of journalists to cover that which the church would have apparently preferred to cover up. Meantime, this is a matter of faith, something the Vatican seems to have forgotten in their rush to protect individuals who have done harm, especially to children, and to the faithful.

A former resident of Amenia Union, Mr. Riva now lives in New Mexico.