The new Pope and the knot of that Vatican swamp …
On the one hand, there are those who bring their personal desires into the office, as we explained in relation to Matteo Bruni, making the atmosphere unbreathable. On the other, there are those who experience the spaces of the Holy See Press Office as genuine places of power. Andrea Tornielli, Paolo Ruffini, Andrea Monda: three figures who interpret their roles not as a service, but as trenches from which to manage and fuel internal struggles and factions. Tornielli has always done this: even when he was at La Stampa, where he was used by cardinals and bishops precisely for this kind of work. That is what he is known for. And that is also what Bergoglio knew him for.
This system of power is built on knowing. Not knowing in the intellectual or cultural sense, let that be clear: there is very little of that in these people. It is gossip-knowledge: stories, acquaintances, appointments before they become public, measures, indiscretions. Knowing things that others do not know. That is what, in their magical bubble, gives them power. I know, you do not. I matter, you do not. And if I know, I can blackmail. I can exert pressure.
This system was disrupted when Silere non possum began its work in 2021. And it drove them mad. On the one hand, because Silere non possum brings to light dynamics that no one has the courage to speak about, but which many people inside here know about. On the other, because Silere non possum does not get its information from them - and this has always infuriated them - and, above all, reveals it before they can use it as a source of power. If the news is public, everyone knows it and no one can use it as leverage. In other words, Silere non possum broke their toy. And entire careers have practically gone to ruin...
...We have seen proof of this over the years: not only genuine Vatican correspondents, but also various impostors have begun to wander around the magical and playful para-Vatican galaxy, convinced that they are somebody, or that they could become somebody by writing about the Vatican. Copying here and there, recounting here and there the little they had learnt from their friar friend - duped for the occasion - a friar whose profession, in practice, is gossiping. Someone, however, made him believe that what he did in the halls of politics could be transplanted here into the Vatican: groupings, “background briefings”, “exclusives”. All of them duly contradicted by the facts. But this is precisely what we can no longer afford, and this is precisely what Leo XIV began to dismantle from the very first day of his pontificate.
Take Fabrizio Mastrofini, for a long time an employee of the Dicastery for Communication and spokesman for Vincenzo Paglia during the years of the Academy for Life. During the pontificate of Francis, he spent his time shouting - with that good breeding that belongs to him - at anyone who honestly and politely dared to criticise the Pope. Today, again honestly and politely, he spits venom at Leo XIV and his collaborators for the simple reason that they showed him the door and no longer take him into consideration. One of those whose salary we paid, and whose pension we now pay. In the end, it is only about power, interests and the grand ambitions of figures who, by chance, found no space elsewhere. For years, the Vatican has become the refugium peccatorum of those who, in a country such as Italy - already embarrassing in itself - cannot find a place. And they all end up here, in this funnel called Via della Conciliazione. This is why people should be hired who have nothing to do with Italy and these circles.
Today the drama is particularly dangerous for the Pope himself. With Francis, at least, they had an interest in praising him. With Leo XIV they have chosen to side with the ranks of the dissenters. And not those transparent dissenters who, with intellectual honesty, some knew how to be during the time of Francis: they do it in a devious way, with that clerical hypocrisy learnt from Beniamino Stella and Pietro Parolin. To your face they smile; behind your back they stab you. I criticise the Pope in conversation, in exchanges with other journalists, with friends, with people; but in front of the camera and in the “major editorials” I present myself as professional. The problem is that they sponsored the previous pontificate so heavily that their current coldness is noticeable. Very noticeable.
One year after his election, Leo XIV must free himself of these figures as soon as possible...
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