Secretive Spying, Sins And Schemes

The title of this entry seems fitting for a book of fiction but the Vatican is not an imaginary creation even though many insiders live in delusion as to the extent of their holiness, power and infallibility.  It is what was reported in the news that inspired this entry.  The Catholic Herald  on December 1, 2017, published in an article entitled Senior bank official ‘sacked and escorted out of the Vatican’.  It is quoted as follows, in full without hyperlink [1]:

The deputy director of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank, was removed from his position and escorted out of the Vatican on Monday.

Giulio Mattietti had held the position for two years before he was suddenly sacked this week. Crux reports that Vatican spokeswoman Paloma García Ovejero told local news agency ANSA, “Giulio Mattietti, deputy director general of the Institute of Religious Works, has ceased his service Monday November 27,” but decline to give any reason for his removal.

Italian media say another IOR employee may also have been removed in the past few days, although details are not clear.

In June, Vatican Auditor General Libero Milone resigned suddenly without any initial explanation.

He eventually broke his silence to claim he was forced out after uncovering possible illegal activity. Vatican officials responded by accusing him of spying.

“I couldn’t allow any longer a small group of powers to [defame] my reputation for their shady games,” Milone told reporters.

“I wanted to do good for the Church, to reform it like I was asked, but they wouldn’t let me.”

However, Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, the Vatican’s deputy secretary of state, said Mr Milone “went against all the rules and was spying on the private lives of his superiors and staff, including me.”

Recently, the former president of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù children’s hospital was convicted of diverting nearly half a million euros to pay for the renovation of a cardinal’s flat.

Some people may think that Bergoglio could "take some comfort in the fact that most modern popes before him - Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI - all came into office with ambitious aims of “purifying” Vatican operations, and all, to some extent, came up short." [2]  This blogger believes that by assuming the office of the papacy, whoever it may be, must necessarily, in time, become part of the institution and reinforce its continued existence (tacitly, of course), regardless of how noble his original ambition might have been.  In this respect, there is no comfort to be taken.

It seems that the Vatican City State is a microcosm of the secular world resplendent with all the fine things in life that are inseparably attached to every sin imaginable with exceptions, such as the manufacturing and amassing technologically advanced weapons of mass destruction, attacking sovereigns, fomenting discord and changing regimes and all other acts and threats that has led and would lead to mass deaths and sufferings.

Do people who do things that are contrary to God, especially those who bring suffering and death to people on a large scale, ever think about an eternity in Hell, or are they so prideful, so righteous and so full of themselves to even think that perhaps one day they would be humbled for an eternity?

Steps away from Hell must begin on earth, steps toward humility, Christ's humility.  If not even one step is taken, then one could possibly experience the flip side of Divine Mercy which is Divine Justice.



[1] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/12/01/senior-bank-official-sacked-and-escorted-out-of-the-vatican/
[2] https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2017/12/03/latest-vatican-mystery-raises-questions-popes-financial-reform/