The China Mail - Orgies, murder and intrigue, the demons of the Holy See

"The Church is holy, but made up of sinners," summed up historian Martin Dumont, quoting a homily by Pope Benedict XVI.

Today, clerical sexual abuse against minors and nuns is hands down the most serious crime facing the Catholic Church, despite the efforts made by Pope Francis, whose death last month has renewed world focus on the ancient institution.

The late Argentine pontiff, following in the footsteps of his German predecessor Benedict, also attacked other forms of depravity -- particularly financial crimes.

While not the only defendant convicted in 2023 after a massive fraud, embezzlement and money-laundering trial, one man at the Vatican symbolises those efforts to clean house: Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

The most senior cleric ever to be convicted by the Vatican's criminal court, the former adviser to Francis is appealing.

But for many he embodies the sins of venality and corruption that for centuries have plagued the Roman Curia governing the Church, whose overflowing coffers often went unchecked.

After a dispute over whether Francis had barred him from the conclave, Becciu this week agreed not to take part.

Whoever is elected pope at next week's secret ballot, much remains to be done.

Against the resistance he is bound to encounter, he may remember the words of Francis -- that reforming the Curia was like "cleaning the Sphinx of Egypt with a toothbrush".

- Wedding orgy -

Ambition and money -- even murder -- are woven through the Vatican's dark history.

Since its origins 2,000 years ago, the Church of Rome has experienced "some truly scandalous periods in terms of morality", a senior prelate told AFP on condition of anonymity.

They are so numerous that only a few of the most emblematic need be mentioned.

Nestled in the heart of the Italian capital whose hills bear silent witness to the most decadent customs throughout the ages, the Vatican is the city-state governed by the Holy See where the pope, heir to the throne of Peter, exerts his power.

The smallest state in the world, it is made up of the Curia -- the government of the Church -- countless departments, institutes, and museums, religious and lay people, and the Swiss Guard, responsible for the security of the sovereign pontiff and his territory.

A simple human community, made up of good and bad. While the pope is the spiritual guide for the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, he and his legions of flesh and blood are not infallible.

In the 10th century Pope John XII is said to have turned the Lateran Palace in Rome into a harem.

Five centuries later, the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, organised an orgy for his daughter's wedding.

- Hanging from Blackfriars Bridge -

History or legend, it matters little.

"The popes of the Renaissance were not great role models. Above all, they were warriors, people who defended a territory," explained the prelate.

The papal dynasties -- Medici, Pamphili, Borgia -- were immensely wealthy, granting their relatives honorary positions and vast estates.

"Nepotism was one of the cancers of the Church at that time," when the pontiffs were remembered as 'pope-kings'," the prelate said.

"The first thing a pope did when he came to power was to enrich his family and impoverish others -- when he didn't kill them."

Fast forward a few centuries later, and money was again at the root of a major scandal over the Banco Ambrosiano -- majority owned by the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), or the Vatican bank.

It collapsed in 1982 amid accusations of money-laundering mafia money while its director, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging that same year from London's Blackfriars Bridge.

A commander of the Swiss Guards, Alois Estermann, also met with an unfortunate fate. In 1998, he and his wife were shot dead in their Vatican flat by one of his men, who then committed suicide.

The desperate act of a bullied soldier? A foreign spy service's blunder? An infidelity drama? The mystery remains unsolved.

Whatever their nature, whatever their era, the depravities of past popes and their Curia collided with the "demanding" moral teachings of the Church -- with the result of "displacing" some of them, said religion historian Dumont.

Those consequences are sometimes drastic.

Reformer Martin Luther, whose denounced the Church as "Babylon" with its sale of indulgences, initiated the schism with Rome that began the Protestant Reformation.

P.Ho--ThChM