The Management of Saint Peter's Under a Shadow
- Gambetti is a Franciscan whom Francis appointed in February 2021 to head the Fabbrica of St Peter's, which manages St Peter's.
- Gambetti brought many of his friends to Rome, including the couple Paola Bossari and Roberto Bertozzi, who both work for him.
- The staff of the Basilica itself was reduced to a minimum, while the number of employees in the offices of the Fabbrica di San Pietro was increased.
- Gambetti has prohibited the celebration of Mass in the Roman Rite in St Peter's.
- The Fratelli Tutti Foundation has turned St Peter's "into a theatre for initiatives that are more like nightclubs than places of worship".
- There are paid aperitifs on the dome and exclusive dinners in the Vatican Museums.
- The Fabbrica has made agreements with prisons to allow prisoners to be hired as workers "for propaganda purposes".
- Every gesture, every intervention, even normal maintenance work, becomes a media event.
- Mauro Gambetti is hostile to his predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Comastri, whom Francis never liked either.
- Monsignor Fortunato Frezza, a canon of St Peter's, flirted with Francis and fuelled his prejudices against Comastri - and was made a cardinal.
- With Gambetti, the style in St Peter's changed radically: from dialogue to war, from discreet management to power plays.
- Gambetti was hostile to anyone who didn't share his personalist vision.
- Alfio Pergolizzi, a former employee, was lured to the Vatican under false pretences and then arrested on the basis of a complaint fabricated by Mauro Gambetti.
- "The Vatican is like a big brother," SilereNonPossum quotes a "cardinal" as saying, pointing out that there are cameras everywhere: "They don't even respect us [cardinals] anymore".
- During interrogations, the Vatican gendarmerie treats the accused in a crude and intimidating manner.
- Defence lawyers complain of the contemptuous and arrogant tone of both the gendarmerie and the prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi.
- It is a system that humiliates rather than judges, that ignores all procedural guarantees and is based on arbitrary practices".
- In the Vatican system, based on favours, protection and personal loyalty, those who are ousted from the centres of power, such as the Secretary of State, end up finding refuge in Gambetti's Fabbrica.
- SilereNonPossum mentions Orazio Pepe, removed by Pietro Parolin from the General Affairs Section of the Secretariat of State, who wandered between various dicasteries until he ended up in Gambetti's Fabbrica, where "he shouts in the offices, he annoys the employees, he behaves hysterically".
Picture: Mauro Gambetti, © wikipepia CC BY-SA, #newsGciwgvambz