Hundreds of Vatican cables are released

Group urges public to read new Wikileaks disclosures

Almost 300 US State Department cables relating to the Vatican were released on Friday by Wikileaks. http://wikileaks.org/origin/33_0.html

Some of the information has been released previously.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/24/139914614/wikileaks-makes-cache-of-diplomatic-cables-public

The oldest documents are from 2001. The most recent one is a 1,976 word cable in February of last year about the Irish clergy sex abuse and cover up scandal. (That one has been reported on by mainstream news outlets).

More details:

--A 2005 cable - 1,361 words long - analyzes Pope Benedict’s decision to promote former San Francisco Archbishop Wiliam Levada to a high ranking Vatican post.  http://wikileaks.org/cable/2005/05/05VATICAN480.html

--A 2005 cable says that Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels was a leading candidate to follow Pope John Paul II. (Last year, the clergy abuse scandal erupted in Belgium.)

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2005/04/05VATICAN466.html

--A 2003 document says “it is clear that (disgraced Boston Cardinal Bernard) Law still has strong support at the Vatican from many who believe he was treated as a scapegoat in the sex scandal.” It also says that Law’s replacement, now Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, was initially denied a promotion to “spare” Law “ignominy.”

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2003/09/03VATICAN4461.html - See “Sole Red Hat for US”

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging citizens and Catholics to read the reports because “it’s so rare to get really unbiased views of “the usually secretive, inner workings of this insular institution.”

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, take no position on the ethics of Wikileaks’ disclosures. But the organization believes that since the documents are now available on line, the public should study them.