Pope Calls in Opus Dei Troubleshooter to Uncover Source of Vatican Leaks

April 26th, 2012

Via: Guardian:

Vatican staffers who have been leaking embarrassing letters about corruption and nepotism inside the tiny city state are to be hunted down by a crack squad of cardinals led by a senior member of the religious group Opus Dei.

Irritated by the anonymous release of documents to the press this year, Pope Benedict has named Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82, to lead a three-man team which will haul in staffers for questioning and rifle through files until they catch the perpetrators of what has been dubbed “Vatileaks”.

A short statement printed on Thursday on the front page of the Vatican’s daily newspaper warned the team had a full “pontifical mandate” to “shed complete light” on the whistle blowers, who have lifted the lid on alleged theft and false accounting.

Herranz was a long-time personal secretary to Josemaría Escrivá , the now canonised founder of Opus Dei, which has been accused of excessive secrecy, strict control over members and undue influence within the Vatican – a reputation pushed by Dan Brown’s thriller The Da Vinci Code.

One of two cardinals who are members of the group, Herranz has insisted that Opus Dei has “no hidden agenda” and is only interested in the “the message of Christ”, but he does appear to be cut out to be a Vatican troubleshooter, once stating that “men need to act decisively, like Jesus Christ – who was a real man”.

Herranz’s squad, which met for the first time this week, is just one of three inquiries now under way at the Holy See into the leak of letters in January and February that discuss the mysterious kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi – the daughter of a Vatican employee in 1983 – the likely date of Benedict’s death and an internal row over just how transparent the Vatican bank should be as it tries to shrug off allegations of money laundering.

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