Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state with Cuban “President” (just ask Saladrigas)
The Vatican’s No. 2 has dismissed suggestions that Cuba’s Communist government could exploit Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming trip as a propaganda tool, saying the visit should help promote democracy on the island.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said he expects an outpouring of support for the pope because he is the head of the Catholic Church and the visit will only make things better for the Cuban church.
“I don’t believe the visit will be exploited by the government,” Bertone told the Turin daily La Stampa
“Keep repeating and repeating it Cardinal…Me and my handlers chanted the the same thing about my Cuba visit…Just keep an eye on that Mauricio Claver-Carone guy, who dug up my signature for Free The Cuban Five. That skunk can really rain on your parade.”
Bertone looks like deranged loon. Herman Munster, anyone?
“I don’t believe the visit will be exploited by the government.” If Bertone is being sincere, he’s a fool, which I doubt. If he’s not being sincere, well, then he’s lying, isn’t he? A lose-lose scenario. Way to go.
By the way, are there any photos like this one of a top-level Vatican figure publicly and openly beaming with good humor with someone like Pinochet?
Is there any real difference between a Bertone and a Moratinos as far as Cuba is concerned? You tell me:
http://www.lanuevacuba.com/main/images/stories/moratinos-raul-castro-2007.jpg
My guess is he knows full-well they will. But from the Vatican’s standpoint–and in the big scheme of things–the Pope’s opportunity to “reach-out” to his Cuban flock overrides the Castro propaganda victory…
Bertone sounds far more like a politician than anything else. His ecstatic smiling next to a murderous dictator, which he knew would be photographed and disseminated, was a gratuitous and grotesquely insensitive insult to the victims of said dictator. No doubt the Vatican thinks it knows what it’s doing, and presumably it thinks it’s doing the right thing, but every Cuban has eyes, ears and a brain and the God-given right to use them, and the Vatican looks worse by the day.
Ditto asombra,
In regards to Cuba, the Vatican and the top RCC hierarchy (including the Pope) is in bed with the Devil and will pay a price for it…