Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

This one isn't covered in the standard laws of crisis management. People will say "be the source of your own story" or "never say 'no comment'" but I have never heard it suggested that you should not blame your woes on Satan and his horde of little demons. Maybe this one should be added to the list.

The Holy See has been engulfed in a scandal since January, when it emerged that Carlo Maria Vigano – formerly the Pope's administrative number two – had begged not to be transferred to another role as a result of uncovering financial corruption in the Vatican. Since then a great deal more has emerged, including documents featuring the Pope's personal banking details and letters fingering Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, as being the source of allegations against "an Arrchbishop with a reputation for wanting to clean things up" – presumably the same Vigano.

It is Bertone who has offered the novel defence that Satan is behind the Vatican's crisis, though a valet of the Pope's has been arrested for stealing document from his private office. Perhaps the valet could pleasd not guilty and cite the authority of an archbishop that Satan was actually responsible? This may not work. I don't claim to be an authority on the legal system of the Holy See.