THE TABLET THE I NTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY
Founded in 1840
NEED FOR VATICAN TRANSPARENCY
Countless connections exist between the Catholic Church and ancient Rome, not least its location in the Eternal City and its official language. It remains to be seen whether the Roman principle of natural justice – that some legal notions are self-evident – has also been adopted by the Church. The case of the papal butler, so far, gives cause for grave concern that it has not. Paolo Gabriele, who served Pope Benedict for six years as one of his closest aides, was charged this week with aggravated theft following the leaking of substantial numbers of documents and letters belonging to the Pope. The material was handed over to journalists and formed part of the “VatiLeaks” scandal which caused suspicion as well as deep embarrassment over the revelations of rivalries between cardinals, administrative dysfunction, financial mismanagement and allegations of corruption. Mr Gabriele’s indictment came after he was incarcerated for 50 days without charge, spending the majority of the time in a 12ft by 12 ft cell in the Vatican police barracks and the rest under house arrest in his Vatican City State apartment. He was kept in solitary confinement, although allowed visits from his wife and lawyer, and was permitted to attend Mass. No date for his trial, which will be conducted by three laymen judges, has been set; there is no jury.
The principle of natural justice requires that legal procedures should be fair and carried out by an objective decision maker. The person accused has the right to be heard, given the chance to present their defence, and should not judge their own case.
Those investigating and making decisions should be unbiased,
and evidence should be available for scrutiny. The capacity for the Vatican system to be fair, given Mr Gabriele’s solitary incarceration in the heat of a Rome summer and his continuing house arrest until his eventual trial, is open to question.
But concern about the plight of the papal butler should not divert attention from an issue of even graver importance. The documents revealed by the VatiLeaks affair highlighted something rotten in the Vatican system: administrative chaos, rivalries rather than partnerships between those in the highest levels of the Roman Curia, allegations of financial mismanagement. A group of clerics, headed by Cardinal Julian Herranz, was ordered to run an investigation into the leaks alongside the police inquiry. But no similar committee has been set up – or at least, has been publicly mandated – to investigate the allegations in the documents.
The newly appointed Vatican media adviser, Greg Burke, said this week that Pope Benedict is determined to come to grips with VatiLeaks. Admitting that the Vatican’s media relations need improving, Mr Burke used a medical metaphor, stating that VatiLeaks “is not a cancer. It’s an injured toe that will heal. The body is healthy”.
How can he be so sure? As an ex-journalist, Mr Burke knows full well that those words, without clear evidence, will be taken by reporters – and the faithful – as mere PR spin. The Catholic Church’s reputation has been sullied in recent times by its reluctance to be open about its handling of the child-abuse scandal. Unless there is a transparent inquiry into the manifest flaws in its governance, that reputation may be further undermined.
MOVE THAT IS BAD FOR SOCIETY
The Coalition Government has been toying with relaxing the Sunday shopping-hours restrictions for some time. It was reported that such a proposal almost made it into the 2011 Budget. After George Osborne’s announcement in his 2012 Budget that the restrictions were being lifted during the Olympic Games period this summer, the media was briefed that this would be reviewed to see what impact it had had, and possibly made permanent if that was positive.
Some ministers, including Eric Pickles at Communities and Local Government, are now actively promoting that idea, which is also said to have the backing of a number of influential Tory MPs. Others are strongly opposed, though it is easy to see which way the argument is moving. But abolishing the Sunday trading restriction would be a profound mistake. A party that bears the name Conservative appears not to understand the ordinary meaning of that word. The former Tory MP Paul Goodman recently asked, with this among other issues in mind, “Is this the most anti-Christian Government in British history?”
statutory opt-outs for shop employees – turned out to be a workable compromise. It made Sundays feel busier, but left them different from the rest of the week. Thus it paid more than lip service to the Commandment “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy”.
These are moral arguments for leaving things as they are, to set against the claim that restrictions on trading are bad for economic growth. It is hard to see, in any case, how extending the time when people can spend their money will somehow encourage them, overall, to spend more of it. And even if it did, would that be a good thing? The example of Germany – one of the world’s most successful economies, that still maintains long-standing restrictions on Sunday work and trading – suggests that the economic argument for relaxation might be seriously flawed. But the moral point is even more significant. Restrictions like those on Sunday trading exist to protect what is valuable about British national culture. Even if they are an impediment to profit, which in this case seems doubtful, that is not a sufficient reason for dismantling them.
Before trading restrictions were relaxed in 1994, Sunday was the one day in the week when virtually everyone had a break from work. That was good for the social fabric, for family life, for sport and for voluntary activity of all kinds. It may also have made a difference to church attendance, though not necessarily a large one. But it also made Sundays rather dull. The concession – to allow shops to open for any six-hour period between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. as they saw fit, with
Britain’s major Churches will oppose further relaxation over Sunday trading, and the Catholic bishops have already registered their disapproval. But Churches need to avoid taking a stand that seems mainly self-interested. It is not extended Sunday trading’s possible effect on church attendance nor the desire to honour the letter of the Ten Commandments that will commend their opposition to the wider public, but their sincere regard for people’s well-being.
2 | THE TABLET | 18 August 2012
