Those of you who follow the news from abroad or, more specifically, from Vatican City may be aware that the Pope’s butler is in a heap of trouble. Apparently the Pope’s butler, who has access to the body of His Holiness, was alleged to be the person who has leaked salacious gossip to the Italian press. If my understanding is halfway correct, the Pope directs an army of high-level workers in Vatican City. There are those who think that with the ecclesiastical calling of the Pope and his brethren, there would be no gossip. But apparently that is not the case at all.
But now let me give you some background which comes from years of watching developments inItaly. As anyone might suspect, the staff at all levels in Vatican Cityare Italians. This is fine with me, but there is no love lost between the Italians and the Germans. And His Holiness happens to be German. I am a pious observer in that I was the recipient of hospitality and warmth on the occasion of my escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. If anyone is interested, those events were recorded in an essay called, “They Never Betrayed Me.”
But that was nearly 70 years ago and we have a new crop of prelates manning the forts in the Vatican City.
Now, as a matter of full disclosure, in my estimation the Vatican City/state is not a city or a state at all. It is merely the headquarters for the Roman Catholic faith. Somehow, the United States treats Vatican City as though it were a full-fledged state. It even appoints an ambassador there. If I were President, which I am not, one of my first moves would be to incorporate whatever we had to do with the Vatican into the job description of the Ambassador to Rome.
But the facts are, basically, that the full staff of the Vatican is populated by Italians. This seems to me to be just fine, in that I am not a Catholic nor am I Italian either. However, in recent weeks the press has noticed clear signs of infighting among the officials of Vatican City. I hesitate to mention this to my readers, many of whom are Catholics, but what takes place in the Vatican is not necessarily all a matter of love and happiness. Apparently there is a title of Secretary of State in the Vatican which is a powerful position but also one in which a good bit of controversy resides. In recent months, it has become clear that someone inside the Vatican is feeding stories to the press which are critical of other people, including the Secretary of State and the Pope as well.
As it turns out, I know a little bit about Italian affairs. What we have here in the Vatican is an organization presided over by a chairman, the Pope. One way or another Joseph Ratzinger, who was the head man of the former office of the inquisition, welcomed all of the cardinals to Rome when there was a Pope to be picked. As I said, I am not a Catholic but I said at the time that it would be my guess that Ratzinger would wind up being the Pope. And in fact that is exactly what happened. It was a lot like the situation in 2000 when George W. Bush asked Dick Cheney to help him find a vice president. You may be surprised to know that in the end, Mr. Cheney offered himself as the very best bet to be the vice president. I suspect that the same thing happened when the Cardinals were in Rome to pick the next Pope.
But it is clear now that tranquility does not obtain in the affairs of Vatican City. There are jealousies. No matter how you cut it, there was a mole at the highest level inVatican City.
This may account for the recent attacks on American Catholic nuns. The nuns, who go by the name of “women religious,” are an organization of some 60,000 and they are an easy target for the prelates who govern the affairs of Vatican City. They are accused of being sufficiently irreligious because they are not following the dictates of the Vatican right down to the last tee. It seems to me that when there is a controversy, rather than dealing with the controversy, the tendency is in Vatican City to attack someone else. Sinners like myself are accustomed to being so attacked. But for the love of Mike, I cannot figure out why Ratzinger and the rest of the high muckety-mucks of the Catholics would go after American nuns.
This is a moving story and I suspect that several more chapters are left to be laid out. The mole, as we understand it, now appears to be the Pope’s butler. Apparently he has saved some letters or correspondence which reflect poorly on such people as the Vatican Secretary of State. But this is an unfolding story and unless someone tries to stop it, I suspect it will be sort of a salacious story as well.
This essay has gone a bit off track in view of the fact that the author intended for it to question whether the Pope had worn a tee shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. When I could see, I never saw the Pope in anything but ceremonial garb. Apparently he has a personal butler who is in charge of picking out his garb for the day. What I was wondering was whether the Pope, who is Joseph Ratzinger, ever permitted himself to wear tee shirts, short shorts, and flip-flops. I know a little bit about the weather inRomeduring the summer months and it can be quite warm. Judging by photographs of the Pope, he always seems to have a heavy robe around him. Now I would like to ask a very impertinent question. Does the Pope sweat? If he wears those elaborate costumes during the summer months in Rome, he must sweat. On the other hand, the Pope may have a de-sweating device concealed under those monstrous robes.
Now that the butler to the Pope has been identified as the mole, do you think that he will be purged? If he is so purged, is there an ecclesiastical penalty that goes with his purging? Would he be required to spend an inordinate amount of time in Purgatory before he reaches the heavenly gates? These are questions to be answered. We do not know the answers at the moment. But I am studying them.
Now as we wind up this essay, I am struck by the same thought that must have occurred to theologians at the time of the Protestant Reformation. On this occasion, my thoughts go back to October 31, in the year 1517, when Martin Luther found that the Pope was selling indulgences, which exonerated people from sin. If I may be excused for this thought, it seems to me that there are those in the Vatican who somehow never became aware of the Protestant Reformation which took place more than 500 years ago. They don’t want to recall Martin Luther’s “Ninety-Five Theses” that were nailed to the door of a church at Wittenburg.
I do not know why, when I started out to write about the question of whether the Pope ever wears tee shirts or flip-flops, I was distracted to a discussion of other matters. I can only conclude that this is a matter of divine intervention and I am simply the instrument through which this divine intervention has occurred. If that is the case, I would submit to the head man that he had better keep me around for a while so that more divine interventions may be brought to the attention of the readers of Ezra’s essays.
E. E. CARR
May 28, 2012
662
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Pop follows Vatican affairs more closely than most Catholics I know. I have begun to suspect that he does this simply so that he does not miss out on a good opportunity to mock them.