US embassy cables, critical of an out of touch Vatican leadership, were described as 'potentially unreliable'

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

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."