The Vatican has described the release of Wikileaks cables depicting its inner workings in an unflattering light as a matter of "extreme seriousness".
The
cables from the American embassy at the Vatican, which describe an out
of touch Vatican leadership and its refusal to assist an Irish inquiry
into priestly abuse, were potentially unreliable, the Vatican said in a
statement.
"Naturally these reports reflect the perceptions and
opinions of the people who wrote them and cannot be considered as
expressions of the Holy See itself, nor as exact quotations of the words
of its officials," the Vatican said over the weekend.
"Their reliability must, then, be evaluated carefully and with great prudence, bearing this circumstance in mind."
In
the cables, Rome-based diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes states that Irish
attempts to involve the Vatican in its abuse probe were considered "an
affront to Vatican sovereignty".
Britain's ambassador to the
Vatican is reported as warning that the pope's welcoming into the
Catholic church of disaffected Anglicans risked inciting a violent
backlash against British Catholics.
Pointing out that only one
senior papal advisor uses a Blackberry, one cable states the
"technophobia" in the hierarchy has prompted numerous gaffes and PR
mishaps, followed by attempts to protect the pope from bad news.
Pope
Benedict's number two, secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, is
dismissed as a "Yes Man" in the cables, an epithet that drew an curt
response.
"I am very proud to be described as a 'yes man', given
that this colourful description truthfully reflects my support for the
pastoral work of the pope," Bertone was quoted as saying by Italian
newspapers.
Apart from its short statement, the Vatican offered no
other comment, with the leaks going unreported in its daily newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano.
The newspaper's editor, Giovanni Maria Vian,
said the Vatican's "brief and elegant" declaration "distanced itself in
an sober and very clear fashion from the perceptions and opinions"
contained in the cables.
Italian newspapers were keen to defend
the Vatican against charges of being out of touch.
Il Giornale pointed
out that Cardinal Bertone was not monolingual, as the cables claim, but
speaks French and Spanish as well as Italian.
"But the American embassy
would not forgive him for not speaking English," it wrote.
In the
run-up to the publication of the cables, the US embassy to the Vatican
condemned "in the strongest terms" any leaking of documents, promising
that cooperation with the Holy See would not suffer.
President
Barack Obama also joined in the damage control exercise over Wikileaks,
calling Turkey's prime minister on Saturday to mend ties after released
cables reported Recep Tayyip Erdogan had money in Swiss bank accounts,
while his friends were taking advantage of Turkey's business deals in
Iran.
In the conversation, Erdogan said the incident will not harm
diplomatic relations and that he had appreciated U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton's expression of regret on the matter, the
office said.
"It is important that the agenda between us not be
allowed to be changed artificially," Erdogan's office cited him as
telling Obama.
"The fact that information based on gossip has been
reflected in official documents, as well as the wording and
allegations, is of course disturbing. However we are ready to do
together whatever is needed during this process."
SIC: TG/UK