Butler Charged in Vatican "Pope and Dagger" Scandal

Paolo Gabriele (circled) in the Popemobile
(photo from the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero)

The Vatican's transactions with the secular world has its checkered aspects. A new chapter has recently been added to this occasionally tawdry history, with this week's arrest of the Pope's valet by Vatican police. The servant, according to reports in the BBC and the Associated Press, is charged with stealing private papal and other confidential Vatican documents. The authorities have alleged the valet, Paolo Gabriele, with leaking sensitive, highly embarrassing information to Italian journalists.

Issues in this caper include the Vatican's legacy of shady payments and complicity in criminal or otherwise corrupt activities. The Catholic Church's hierarchy has desperately attempted to maintain as much opacity in its financial activities as is possible for a worldwide religious organization. Rumors of Vatican financiers' involvement with organized crime figures, which have bubbled up in cases such as the Sindona affair,  have never been put to rest. For an institution dedicated to its flock's spiritual well-being, association with and assistance to the underworld seems at variance with the church's divine mission.

Part of the Vatican's appeal to darker forces is its status as a tax haven. It's not difficult to imagine favors being traded in a realpolitik environment. However, the Vatican always positions itself as above censure from Caesar, so to speak, when the light of reason and evidence points to its illegal activities. Meanwhile, the Vatican's local arms have continued to aggressively meddle in the world of politics. We're seeing that currently in the United States, with the Church's anti-abortion legal endeavors, support of right-wing political candidates, and intent to undermine rigorous separation of church and state in education.

For now, it's hard to take a corrput, reactionary bureaucracy seriously as a positive moral force. Time for the Vatican to clean up its act.