“Cleaning is good, but it goes to the end” – Libero Quotidiano

Benedict XVI has already tried to clean up the intricate and dark financial issues of the Vatican and there was the feeling of a very tough undertaking that bordered on the impossible, to the point of raising doubts in some that it had influenced the “resignation” of the pontificate. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, in 2013, was also chosen “to clean the finances of the Vatican”, as Cardinal George Pell recalled. In fact, he tried from the beginning, but these seven years have been a succession of tries and failures. Here too, with a series of quotes, torpedoes, contradictions, errors and cases never well clarified, to the point of falling into the drama of these hours that has invested one of the main collaborators of Pope Francis: Cardinal Angelo Becciu, ” dismissed “on the spot by pontiff for the management of Vatican funds.

He who was – as Matteo Matzuzzi writes – “the most powerful cardinal, considered the closest and most trusted by the Pope.” It is such a sensational case – also because of its possible developments – that yesterday a newspaper titled: “The Church is in chaos. We are all against all.” There are those who rejoice, like Card. Pell, because he believes that this time the right path has been taken (besides, Pell is considered a conservative) and those who believe they are witnessing an incomprehensible collapse. In fact, the media that have always supported Pope Bergoglio no longer know what score to play, because what is called “gang warfare”, which broke out with the “Becciu case”, is completely internal to the Bergogliano establishment. And it is a significant paradox that this war breaks out beyond the Tiber just as the Pope is about to sign his new encyclical, All Brothers. Looking at his Curia, it would be necessary to comment: brothers knives. What is disconcerting about the history of these hours is – first of all – the seriousness of the accusations this time against one of the Pope’s closest collaborators, whom he always supported and promoted Cardinal; secondly, the modality of “torpedoing” without explanations and without convictions, which caused Luis Badilla, director of the ultrabergogliano site Il Sismografo, very well introduced in the Vatican, to sign an editorial on fire entitled: “Vicenda Becciu: a typical case of media cannibalism animated from within the walls of the Vatican. “

A DRAMA AT THE BEGINNING
After recalling that Becciu “is not on trial or under investigation”, Badilla writes: “The gesture of the Pope yesterday looks like an” execution “: they accuse you but you cannot defend yourself (except through the press)”. According to Badilla, “Becciu must be tried like Pell and everyone must await the final sentence. The Pope, despite his powers, is neither judge nor court. Despite everything, there are the rights of the accused and the guarantees as well as the presumption of innocence so dear to Francisco. We must remember “Badilla added” that there are dozens of people, some close collaborators of Pope Francis, who have suddenly finished their duties, without receiving explanations, proofs or thanks. It is not possible to continue like this also because it causes gigantic damage to the hearts of simple, humble and faithful Christians ”. Bergogliano Badilla’s trial is similar to that of Riccardo Cascioli, director of the Catholic newspaper La nuova Bussola: “Cardinal Becciu’s is the umpteenth purge at the top of the Holy See that occurs in this pontificate. Purges worthy of South American military boards, which avoid knowing the truth.

However, this time, beyond the harshness of power and the controversial formalities, he seems to perceive in Pope Bergoglio a kind of consternation, bewilderment and disappointment, as of someone who faces a mass of unexpected problems by which he feels crushed. so it reacts hastily and convulsively. Becciu himself made it clear in his press conference, saying: “I found him in difficulty, I saw that he was suffering.” Matteo Matzuzzi, Vatican expert on Foglio, made a dramatic fresco: “The decadent Bergoglian pontificate is taking on the traits of Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy, we are the nemesis of the pontificate: after having eliminated without too many compliments the doctrinaire opponents, perhaps loyal , but not too much in line “with their revolution and” having replaced them by very reliable men of the apparatus with little smell of sheep and a long history in the offices of the curia, now the knife has gone to hit the latter “. The drama is only at the beginning, because you cannot think of silencing such a sensational story without clarifying all the responsibilities. But now the enormity of the economic problem looms over the Pope from other sides as well. On September 30, just when the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Rome for the burning problem of relations between the Vatican and China, the inspection of the Moneyval Committee of the Council of Europe will also begin, which must decide on the permanence of the Vatican on the list. virtuous countries for budget management, the fight against corruption and money laundering.

DECREASE IN OFFERS
There is also another rock: the collapse of the offerings of the faithful. The Vatican fears that even economic cases like the present one will fuel the strong distrust of believers who in recent years have already cut the offers of 8 per thousand, the Saint Peter Pennies and other donations: suffice it to say that the Saint Peter Pennies passed from 101 million in 2006 to 70 in 2015. At this point the newspapers are openly shaking the specter of the Vatican default, which would really be a singular tragedy considering that from the beginning Pope Bergoglio claimed to dream of a poor Church. Now perhaps it will be understood that the ideal of poverty, of austerity of life, should rather belong to people (from simple Christians to high prelates), but the Church as such needs great financial means for her missions, for her educational works, charitable and welfare, for priests and religious, for their presence in the four corners of the globe.

Is it possible that the Pope reconsiders many of his “revolutionary” slogans of these seven years? We’ll see. The Church is in a storm and there are those who have realized that in recent times signs have arrived that would make us think of a Pope Bergoglio worried about the confusion in which the faithful find themselves after these “revolutionary” years. For example, his stop at the ordination of married men or certain recent positions on the end of life and abortion or the recent Vatican “no” to intercommunion with Protestants. These are signs that could make us think of a permanent correction of the pontificate (welcome, for example, to the American Church). But there are also signs that irritation will increase (already evident in recent months) from the catastrophic sectors (especially the Germans). On these positions, the Pope knows that he has the support of that faithful Church that has not forgotten John Paul II and Benedict XVI and that in recent years has been relegated to the margin. That is the Christian people who always remain faithful.