The troubling rise of 'Msgr. CB' [Vatican Secretariate of State once again in middle of scandal]

Catholic Culture/ RorateCaeli ^ | 11/30/11 | Phil Lawler/Diogenes/RorateCaeli

[Brian Kopp DPM]

The troubling rise of 'Msgr. CB'

By Phil Lawler

November 30, 2011 3:02 PM

Let’s suppose that in the town where you live, a mid-level manager at the largest local corporation was arrested. Let’s say that he was caught in a neighborhood known as a homosexual enclave, suspected by police of cruising for teenage boys—and that his defense was that he had been looking for adult companions.

To spice things up, let’s say that when the police flagged down this man, rather than stopping he led them on a high-speed chase, damaging other vehicles and endangering pedestrians. Then, when finally caught, he threw a few punches at the arresting officers, and told them they’d be sorry for bothering such an important person.

Do you think that mid-level manager would be likely to remain in the employ of that local corporation? If he did keep his job, would the incident harm his chances for promotion? Five years later, would you expect to find him in charge of the division in which he had been working? Not likely.

If the Vatican Secretariat of State has less demanding standards, that is troubling.

it isn't as it wasn't, or was it?

By Diogenes

May 16, 2006 12:08 PM

An old blues number bore the elegantly pleonastic title, "Do What You Did When You Did What You Done Last Night." Well, whatever Monsignor CB of the Vatican Secretariate of State did last night, he didn't do what he did when he done what attracted the attention of the Rome police, and then the Italian press, this past Thursday.

According to a story in La Repubblica, later amplified by the news service ANSA, an office functionary of the Secretariate of State was stopped by cops while cruising late at night in a park known to be frequented by obdurate Albigensians. He fled, denting three cars in the chase, then got into a fist-fight with the cops. The story supplies the edifying detail that the cleric, identified only as "Monsignor CB," excused himself to the police on the grounds that he was scouting only for adult schismatics -- not minors. We are an Easter People.

Yesterday the Holy See's Press Office issued a statement so artfully packed with escape hatches as to defy translation. A coarse approximation:

Being in receipt of the necessary information from the Secretariate of State, this Press Office is in a position to (in grado di) make it clear that the information disseminated this morning by the newspapers concerning an ecclesiastic working at the Vatican is wholly without foundation.

If the first you'd heard of the incident came from this statement, you could be excused for feeling less than fully enlightened. The statement continued:

To be foreseen is recourse to legal measures against those who have contributed to defaming the good name of said official.

Well, at worst the man's good initials were defamed, since his actual name hasn't made it into the media reports yet. At any rate, the newspapers announced they're sticking by their story. Strangely -- or perhaps not-so-strangely, given Cardinal Sodano's superintendency of the persons involved -- the Press Office has taken down Monday's statement from its website and the link is now broken.

If you're one of those many Catholics who've been puzzled at how often the Holy See's own diplomatic corps succeeds in torpedoing the initiatives of the papacy itself, you may find the episode eerily familiar. Arguments from silence are weak, but presumably we're now meant to be free to think that the foundationlessness of the disseminated information is not on the brink of being demonstrated as expeditiously as it was yesterday morning. Clear, I trust? Either Monsignor didn't not do what he was said to have not did when he done it -- or he did:

~(~(~(~ P))) \/ Q

Pick one.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Wait, what?!?
Msgr. absolved in court

In order to avoid saying anything ourselves, we pass the word to Catholic Culture's Phil Lawler:

The troubling rise of 'Msgr. CB'

By Phil Lawler | November 30, 2011 3:02 PM

Lawler links to this announcement published on Nov. 21, to which we had paid no attention:

The Holy Father: ...
- Appointed Msgr. [C.B.], official of the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, as bureau chief of the same section.

This could seem very worrisome - thanks to a commentator, we post here the following as a matter of justice:

Città del Vaticano, 21 nov. (TMNews) - He was involved in an unpleasing event of the judicial pages, and now, after being absolved for the inexistence of the alleged facts, he has been "compensated" with a promotion in the Vatican State Secretariat.

In May 2006, Monsignor Cesare Burgazzi, at the time a minutante of the Vatican State Secretariat, was detained near Valle Giulia, in Rome, by some policemen in plain clothes who were conducting an operation against prostitution. In October 2009, however, the priest was absolved of the accusation of damages, injury, and resisting a public official by the Rome Court because the fact did not constitute a crime. "The decision of the Rome Court - Fr. Claudio Rasoli, the director of the press office of his diocese of Cremona stated in a note - puts an end to a true calvary that began for Monsignor Burgazzi on the night of May 7, 2006, when some agents detained him in the road between Villa Borghese and Valle Giulia in an anti-prostitution control [operation]. According to the testimony of law enforcement officers, the priest had fled in a car and, once stopped, had assaulted and manhandled some agents. The Court has, however, believed in the version of Mons. Burgazzi who, thanks to the deposition of eye-witnesses, has disassembled the edifice of accusations, fully demonstrating his non-involvement with the disputed facts. At last, after over three years, Mons. Burgazzi has given back to him that honorability which the Church of Cremona had never put in doubt."

Today, the Pope has named Monsignor Burgazzi office head of the section for general affairs of the State Secretariat.

Posted by New Catholic

at 11/30/2011 11:15:00 PM

[Brian Kopp DPM]

This is just another example that despite all the worldwide pederasty scandals in the Church, things go on as usual at the Vatican Secretariate of State.

The Vatican Secretariate of State has long been the nexus of equivocation and compromise with the spirit of the world, undermining the spiritual leadership of a number of Popes.

It should be noted that it was the Vatican Secretariate of State that orchestrated the "release" of the Third Secret of Fatima in 2000, and the spin that the prophecies had all been fulfilled with the assassination attempt on Pope JPII.

I am a firm believer that there remains a "Fourth Secret" of Fatima, i.e., a further written explanation of the Third Secret vision itself, which was not revealed by the Vatican Secretariate of State in 2000, and that this second part of the Third Secret is still actively being suppressed by political machinations of Secretariate of State's office.

Pray for our Holy Father. I think he believes his "friends" in the Secretariate of State's office do his bidding, but I cannot help suspecting they are actively undermining him and the Church.

[johngrace]

Thanks for the Heads up.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Embarrassing denial by the Holy See

The Bollettino of the Holy See Press Office reports (other link to the same content):

COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE PRESS OFFICE

Having checked the necessary information with the Secretariat of State, this Press Office is [now] in a position to clarify that the news published this morning by newspapers regarding a cleric in the service of the Vatican is completely devoid of any [factual] foundation.

It is assumed that legal remedies will be pursued against those who contributed to defame the good name of aforesaid employee.

What is this strange communique about? The news is unpleasant, and though I had been aware of it before, I would not mention it if the Holy See Press Office ITSELF had not raised the issue: La Repubblica, Il Giornale, and other respectable newspapers published the information.

From Il Giornale:

"He was in his car, a Ford Focus, between Valle Giulia and Villa Borghese, perhaps waiting for a date with a transexual. When policemen approached the vehicle to check, he, C.B., 48 years old, a monsignor with the Secretariat of State and resident in the Vatican, tried to escape, hitting three cars. Still not satisfied, and in panic, the prelate, stopped by police officers, would have reacted [physically] and the 'cops' ended up in the hospital. The prelate will now respond before a judge for disrespect [of authority] and [unlawful] resistance."

La Repubblica adds that the priest lives "in the Saint Martha Residence" (Domus Sanctae Marthae, where the Cardinals are housed during conclaves) and tells its readers that the area in which the priest parked his car, in the middle of the night, "is known as an area of male prostitution and transexuals". La Repubblica reports that, after being questioned, the priest "admitted having been" in the area "to meet only adults, not minors".

Well, so the Press Office denies this scandalous piece of news -- but it is still full of embarrassing details, which would probably not be picked up by many different serious newspapers, of opposite editorial positions, out of thin air... The very fact that such news is considered believable and that it is not immediately dismissed as absurd by the serious press is, by itself, a terrible sign. Vatican officials must not only be innocent, but must never be under the suspicion of impurity, as CÆSAR declared of his family: "Quoniam meos tam suspicione quam crimine iudico carere oportere." ("Because I maintain that the members of my family should be free from suspicion, as well as from accusation.")

Posted by New Catholic at 5/14/2006 05:37:00 PM

[Brian Kopp DPM]

This is serious. Look at this guy's boast to the police, in bold. He knew he had powerful men behind him who would cover for him, and they did, and he has subsequently been promoted within the Secretariate of State office::

Italy: Vatican priest cleared after police chase in red-light district

Rome, 13 October (AKI) - A court in the Italian capital Rome has acquitted a Vatican priest of causing damage, injuries and resisting arrest, because "it is not a crime". Monsignor Cesare Burgazzi, a Vatican civil servant and master of ceremonies at Saint Peter's Basilica was stopped in May 2006 by undercover police officers at Valle Giulia, an area of Rome that is well known for prostitution and transsexuals.

The undercover officers said they stopped 51-year-old Burgazzi for a routine check of 'regulars' in the area because the driver was clearly looking to pick up a young male prostitute.

When officers then asked Burgazzi for his documents, he hit the accelerator pedal, driving into three policmen and ramming his car against the unmarked police vehicles. The three police officers sustained light injuries.

Burgazzi then fled the scene through the streets of Rome in a high-speed car chase followed by two other police cars. Twenty minutes later the priest gave up but hit yet another police car.

Upon turning himself in, Burgazzi, who works at the Vatican's State Department, reportedly told police officers:

"You all have no idea who I am. Do what you have to do, you will see later."

In court, Burgazzi said he was afraid he would be kidnapped which is why he reacted the way he did. Burgazzo also said a year earlier he had had a similar 'kidnapping' experience.

Burgazzi's lawyer told the court that the priest was on his way home after a night out at a restaurant.

"My client is not a user of prostitutes or transsexuals. He was simply on his way home after a night out at a restaurant."

The lawyer also said Burgazzi contested the police's claim that his front seats were reclined.

Public prosecutor Maria Bice Barboni had asked the judge for an 18 month jail sentence for the priest while the injured officers asked 20,000 euros each for damages.

This kind of pull - protection within the courts - often comes with associations with powerful Italian Freemasons.

[Domestic Church]

This guy is writing the sequel to Windswept House!

[rzman21]

It’s time to crackdown on the homosexuals infesting the Church hierarchy because they have brought the Catholic Church to its knees.

[Alex Murphy]

It’s time to crackdown on the homosexuals infesting the Church hierarchy because they have brought the Catholic Church to its knees.

You might want to reword that.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'd go for the "fire from heaven" option, or "the abyss opening at his feet."

Is one allowed to pray for this?

[Domestic Church]

Yes a celestial spanking is long overdue.