Vatican rumors spread as Cardinal Dolan packs for Rome

With rumors running wild in the Eternal City, Pope Benedict XVI is reportedly cleaning house -- which in his case is the Vatican -- as Cardinal Timothy Dolan prepares to leave for Rome in time for the pontiff's retirement on Thursday.

The Holy Father is scheduled to "meet and personally greet" Dolan and all of the other cardinals in Rome at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

The Vatican has strongly but obtusely denied all the scandalous rumors that have been reported in the media regarding the reasons for Benedict being the first pope to resign in almost 600 years.

"It is deplorable that, as we draw closer to the moment that the Conclave will begin and the Cardinal electors will be held -- in conscience and before God -- to freely express their choice, there is a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable, or even completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions," according to an official statement from the Vatican.

"Now as never before, Catholics are focusing on what is essential: praying for Pope Benedict, praying that the Holy Spirit might enlighten the College of Cardinals, and praying for the future Pope, confident that the future of the barque of Peter is in God's hands."

According to the Associated Press, Italian newspapers have been rife for days with anonymous reports about the contents of the secret dossier that three cardinals investigating leaks of information to the media prepared for Benedict. Some rumors are that they involve a gay sex scandal within the Vatican. The "Vatileaks" scandal began after papers taken from the pope's desk were published in a blockbuster book. The pope's butler was convicted in October of aggravated theft, and later pardoned.

The Vatican has refused to comment on the reports, which have claimed the contents of the dossier, delivered to Benedict in December, were a factor in his decision to resign. Benedict himself has said he simply no longer has the "strength of mind and body" to carry on.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, has indicated that Benedict would meet with the three cardinals before stepping down Feb. 28, in one of his final private audiences.

Given the rivalries, turf battles and allegations of corruption exposed by the leaks themselves, there is some speculation that cardinals entering the conclave might want to know the contents of the dossier before choosing a new pope.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that Pope Benedict reportedly is clearing the decks of his pontificate, tweaking the rules of the conclave, finessing the religious rites used to launch the next papacy and making some eyebrow-raising final appointments before he retires next week.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said in editions published late Friday that Benedict had signed a decree earlier in the week making some changes to the papal installation Mass, separating out the actual rite of installation from the liturgy itself.

He is also studying the text of a separate document governing the rules of the conclave, though it's not known if it will address the thorny issue of whether the election can begin earlier than March 15, by some interpretations the earliest the vote can start under the current rules.

And on Friday, the Vatican announced Benedict had transferred a top official in the secretariat of state, Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, to Colombia -- an appointment that came amid swirling media speculation about the contents of a confidential report into the Vatican's leaks scandal.

Balestrero was head of the Holy See's delegation to the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee, which evaluated the Vatican's anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing measures. He has had a hand in the efforts by the Vatican bank to be more transparent and is close to Benedict's No. 2, the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

The Vatican submitted itself to Moneyval's evaluation in a bid to improve its reputation in the financial world.

The Vatican passed the test on the first try in August, and Moneyval said it had made great progress in a short amount of time. But the Holy See received poor or failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its bank, long the source of some of the Vatican's more storied scandals.

Some of the documents leaked in the midst of the "Vatileaks" scandal concerned differences of opinion about the level of financial transparency the Holy See should provide about the bank, the Institute for Religious Works. However, Balestrero himself wasn't named in any significant way in the leaks.

Lombardi said Balestrero's transfer had been months in the works, was a clear promotion and had nothing to do with what the Vatican considers baseless reporting.

Lombardi noted that the nunciature in Bogota is one of the most important in Latin America, with the headquarters for the Latin American bishops' conference as well as the regional organization for religious orders, and is usually headed by someone who has had experience as a nuncio in at least two other postings.

Asked if the transfer had anything to do with the broader Vatileaks investigation, Lombardi said he was declining comment in line with the Vatican's decision not to confirm or deny any specifics of the investigation.

Associated Press materials are used in this story.

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Source: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/cardinal_dolan_1.html

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