In the last 48 hours there have been two big Vatican stories. First, revelations about the Holy See's financial crisis; second, and more bizarrely, a furious dispute over statues being thrown into the Tiber. But really it's all one story, the big story of contemporary Catholicism: a disastrous failure of leadership at the top of the Church.
Vatican finances may not usually be a subject to set the pulse racing, but the last month has been dramatic: Vatican police raided offices and confiscated computers, after finding — to quote a leaked search decree — "serious indications of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, money-laundering and self-laundering."
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