Vatican accuses media of ‘imitating Dan Brown’ in coverage of Vatileaks scandal

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Vatican City, June 19: Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone has accused journalists of trying to imitate ‘The Da Vinci Code’ author Dan Brown in their reporting of the so called Vatileaks scandal.

Bertone, who ranks second only to the Pope, in a rare interview with the Italian Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana, accused the media of ‘intentionally ignoring’ the good things the Church does while dwelling on scandals.

“Many journalists are playing the game of trying to imitate Dan Brown,” The Telegraph quoted Bertone, as saying.

“They (journalists) continue to invent fairytales and repeat legends,” he added.

The scandal involves the leak of sensitive documents, including letters written to Pope Benedict whose butler, Paolo Gabriel, was arrested last month after a large number of stolen documents were found in his home.

Bertone said the media were full of ‘pettiness and lies spread in these days.’

According to the paper, he also said that ‘outside Italy people have a hard time trying to understand the vehemence of some Italian newspapers’.

Bertone said the Church was ‘an unequivocal reference point for countless people and institutions around the world’.

“This is why there is an attempt to destabilise it,” he added. (ANI)