InfoAnda - Vatican has long history of intrigue and controversy |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Lawsuit details Madoff's bottom-bunk prison life | 21 October 2009
South Africa state workers join strike bandwagon | | 8 October 2012
Renowned "Painter Of The People" Artist Andrew Wyeth Dies At Age 91 | 17 January 2009

Biden: Iran leaders sow seeds of own destruction | 3 February 2010

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Vatican has long history of intrigue and controversy |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Issues 2012 Candidates 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (1) Slideshow Full Focus Editor's choice Our best photos from the last 24 hours. See more Images of April Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Exclusive: China arrests security official on suspicion of spying for U.S. 11:44am EDT What Are 'Bath Salts' And Are They Illegal? 30 May 2012 Court says marriage law discriminates against gay couples 31 May 2012 Job growth seen stepping up in May 12:06am EDT Job growth stumbles, raising pressure on Fed 10:47am EDT Discussed 203 Romney’s birth certificate evokes his father’s controversy 155 Romney tells vets dangerous world demands powerful military 153 Obama honors Dylan, other ”heroes” for cultural impact Watched A look at the UK’s most beautiful face Thu, May 10 2012 Cruise ship crunch Sat, May 26 2012 Something does not compute with layoffs Thu, May 31 2012 Vatican has long history of intrigue and controversy Tweet Share this Email Print Related News U.S. nuns push back against Vatican crackdown 12:13pm EDT Heavy security for Milan visit by scandal-hit pope 11:15am EDT Analysis & Opinion Pope’s top aide Bertone at the centre of Vatican furore Italian journalist defends his book on leaked Vatican documents Related Topics World » 1 of 4. Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithful in front of a replica of the Grotto of Lourdes to celebrate the end of May, a month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Vatican Gardens at the Vatican May 31, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Tony Gentile By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor VATICAN CITY | Fri Jun 1, 2012 12:13pm EDT VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict is fighting the worst crisis of his papacy, but his problems are only the latest in a long history of controversies and intrigue in the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. The "Vatileaks" scandal, in which the pope's private papers are alleged to have been pilfered by his own butler, pales in comparison to the scandals of centuries past when popes were accused of violence, nepotism and sexual excesses. Pope Benedict has angrily charged that "totally gratuitous" accounts in the media "offer an image of the Holy See which does not correspond to reality." Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the third-ranking official in the world's smallest state, bemoaned the "distorted image" presented of the Vatican and said the internal debates revealed by the documents were perfectly normal in any organization. "We are not mummies," he said with the kind of historical allusion that seems to come naturally in the corridors of the world's oldest continually operating institution. But the allegations have caused a sensation round the world and defied Vatican attempts to play down their importance. Italian newspapers have devoted pages and pages to the crisis, often with graphics showing the exact layout of the pope's apartment or a bird's-eye view of Vatican City, although written reports have often been highly speculative in the face of the Holy See's deep secrecy. Although it is rare, leaking confidential documents is nothing new. Secret papers from the First Vatican Council of 1869-1870, which defined the doctrine of papal infallibility, ended up in German newspapers. A highly sensitive papal commission report approving artificial birth control was leaked in 1967, a year before Pope Paul VI rejected its findings and issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae upholding an earlier ban on contraception. The privacy of the pope's own apartment has also been violated before. In 1958, papal doctor Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi managed to snap pictures of Pope Pius XII on his deathbed and sell them to gossip magazines in Italy. "I was not surprised at all when I heard about it," Frank Coppa, a Church historian at St John's University in New York, said about the "Vatileaks" scandal. INTRIGUE ENCOURAGED BY VATICAN STRUCTURE Intrigue seems encouraged by the Vatican's organizational model, which borrowed from Renaissance royal courts and shields its inner workings from outside scrutiny. A remnant of the time when the popes were also temporal rulers over Rome and parts of Italy, the tiny city-state is headquarters for the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church, the world's largest. As the Catholic saying goes, "the Church is not a democracy." "The Vatican has an unmatched capacity to draw a veil of secrecy over its doings," said Thomas F.X. Noble, a papal history expert at Notre Dame University in Indiana. "It lacks the kind of transparency that we associate with government and corporations in the modern world." A case in point is the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, which - despite recent progress in embracing the Internet and livening up its drab format - waited almost a week before mentioning that papal butler Paolo Gabriele had been arrested for stealing documents that allege corruption in awarding infrastructure contracts. In recent decades, the culture of secrecy helped mask the clerical sexual abuse of minors and the quiet reassignment of predator priests. It has also prompted charges that the Vatican bank laundered money and secretly funded projects abroad. But all this is nothing compared to more ancient scandals. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Renaissance popes bribed their way into office, openly kept mistresses and families and appointed young nephews as cardinals. Alexander VI, whose pontificate from 1492 to 1503 is generally agreed to have been the worst ever, was said to have presided over more orgies than Masses. He came from the notorious Borgia family, who have been accused of adultery, rape, incest and murder. Alexander is said to have died from eating a poisoned apple. Sixtus IV built the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican archives during his 1471-1484 pontificate, but also made six of his nephews cardinals and was involved in a murder plot. One of the nephews, Julius II, was patron to renowned artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael between 1503 and 1513 and commissioned St Peter's Basilica. But the budgetary wizardry he used to finance it backfired disastrously. He raised funds by selling indulgences to reduce punishment for sinners, a practice that so shocked Martin Luther that he broke with Rome and launched the Protestant Reformation. (Editing by Barry Moody and Jon Boyle) World Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (1) hkrieger wrote: Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Friday, 1 June 2012
Yemeni militants say they release 27 soldiers |
Can love affair with UK royals outlast Elizabeth II? |
Suu Kyi asks investors for help on Myanmar jobs time bomb |
Insight: From a ferry, a Chinese fast-attack boat |
Brussels police attacked after arresting veiled woman: media |
Buildings at Iran site razed: think-tank |
French government readying decree on retirement age |
Syria on brink of sectarian civil war, West says |
Europe, U.S. agree on air cargo safety regimes |
Thai yellow shirts bring parliament to a halt |
Nokia: Android phones have major patent issues |
Facebook's website goes down temporarily |
Analysis: Nasdaq plays tough with clients angry over Facebook |
Chic geeks give San Francisco a new tech groove |
Analysis: RIM's new woes seen speeding loss of BlackBerry users |
Google accuses Microsoft, Nokia of mobile collusion |
Facebook makes a comeback, options volume soars |
Oracle suffers major setback in Google case |
After Facebook, Silicon Valley warily eyes Square |
Authors win class status over Google digital books |
New Disney studio chief's instructions: make good movies |
Kicking off tour, Madonna shows she's no lady (Gaga) |
Justin Bieber suffers concussion in Paris |
Amy Winehouse London home put up for sale |
Grammys set for 2013 in Los Angeles |
Diddy Combs son criticized for accepting football scholarship |
Disney names Hollywood veteran Horn as studio boss |
Exclusive: China arrests security official on suspicion of spying for U.S. |
Erratic Greek polls fail to unlock vote riddle |
Vatican has long history of intrigue and controversy |
Canadian dismemberment suspect may be in France: source |
Kosovo Serbs, NATO troops hurt in gun fight |
NATO, Afghan forces kill 14 after rebels attack base |
South Africans live for the now, ignore calls to save |
Kazakh head says terrorist act behind border deaths |
Spain awards licenses for online gaming |
Microsoft to defer revenue from Windows upgrade offer |
Cisco sues TiVo over DVRs |
Morgan Freeman takes TV viewers into a Wormhole |
Justin Bieber gives balcony concert in Paris |
Usher feels near a rebirth on new album |
U.S. director Michael Mann to head Venice jury |
Turkish pianist charged with insulting Muslim values |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01