One of the major focal points of this Conclave is the lack of wide spread acceptance of Benedict’s stated reason for resigning: his failing health. Dario Fo perhaps put it best when he noted:
It was the attrition in the Curia, Vatileaks and all the sharks who surrounded the Pope, spied on and betrayed him. Age certainly isn’t the only thing that burdens him.
So perhaps Machiavelli better understands the Pope’s resignation than Truthers searching yet again for another smoking gun. Like all institutions, at the center of any power struggle are groups with vested interests. In the Vatican, these reside in the Curia.
The Roman Curia is the administrative body of the Holy See and the central governing body of the Church. Click here to see the current structure from the Vatican website. In general terms, the Curia is divided into various departments or congretations.
The power struggle suggested by Vatileak documents hints at several groups and implies croynism, financial impropriety, and corruption. They are intertwined and have conflicating and complementary interests. One group is referred to as “a network of gay prelates,” another group as “subject to external influences” (this probably refers to the Vatican Bank known as the Institute for Religious Works), and there are other groups and interests.
Recent moves by Benedict (the appointment of a new director of the Vatican Bank and the transfer of an Under Secretary of State Msgr. Ettore Balestrero to Colombia) offer evidence of the intensity of the struggle.
This raises the specter of a complex Conclave: one that faces the challenge of controlling the Curia’s power grabbing while also facing complex doctrinal and structural issues. Click here for more on this from Corriere del Ticino. Perhaps no recent conclave better fits Churchill’s dictum: “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”