Pope Francis handed box of papers over ‘most difficult and painful’ Vatican scandals by Benedict
Pope Francis has said he inherited a “large white box” full of documents concerning the “most difficult and painful” scandals within the Catholic Church.
The pontiff makes the revelation in the much-anticipated autobiography, Hope, published on Tuesday.
Following Benedict XVI’s departure in 2013, Francis was elected pope, placing the Argentinean in the almost unprecedented position of having an in-person handover when he took office.
Pope Francis writes that he visited Benedict at Castel Gandolfo, the papal vacation palace south of Rome, shortly after he was elected pope.
“He gave me a large white box,” Francis writes. “‘Everything is in here’, he told me. ‘Documents relating to the most difficult and painful situations. Cases of abuse, corruption, dark dealings, wrongdoings.’”
Benedict then told him: “I have arrived this far, taken these actions, removed these people. Now it’s your turn.”
Pope Francis then writes: “I have continued along his path.”
The Pope does not, however, reveal the contents of the box.
Benedict resigned in February 2013, citing his ailing health. He became the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. The church’s sexual abuse scandals marred the papacy of the highly conservative pope. He died in December 2022.
The last year of Benedict’s tenure was also tarnished by the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal, which exposed allegations of corruption, conflict and financial mismanagement.
Pope Francis writes that the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy, particularly the effort to impose international accounting and budgeting standards on its finances, have been the most difficult task of his papacy and one that generated “the greatest resistance to change.”
“I have been summoned to a battle,” he writes.
He also blasting traditionalist Catholic priests as rigid and potentially mentally unstable. “This rigidity is often accompanied by elegant and costly tailoring, lace, fancy trimmings, rochets. Not a taste for tradition but clerical ostentation,” he writes. “These ways of dressing up sometimes conceal mental imbalance, emotional deviation, behavioral difficulties, a personal problem that may be exploited.”
The pontiff strongly defends his decision to authorize a sweeping trial of 10 people, including a cardinal, accused of alleged financial misconduct related to an investment in a London property. The trial resulted in several convictions, but also cost the Holy See reputational harm, given questions about whether the defendants received a fair trial and Francis’ own role in the saga.
