The Rise And Fall Of The Vice Pope
A photograph taken in Argentina in 2007 shows two cardinals, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now, Pope Francis) and Tarcisio Bertone, sitting side by side, although their chairs are on two different levels. At the time, Bertone was the Vatican’s Secretary of State, having traveled to a village in northern Patagonia “in the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI†to preside over the beatification of a turn-of-the-century religious student. On May 19, the glossy, gossipy German newspaper Bild Zeitung printed a report that made immediate headlines in Italy: Vatican prosecutors had begun to investigate allegations that Cardinal Bertone, as the Holy See’s Number Two from 2006 to 2013, had embezzled 15 million euros ($20 million) from Vatican accounts, apparently to benefit an Italian television producer with a longtime membership in the powerful, ultra-conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. What a miniseries this would make!
