Doubts grow about motives for ‘retiring’ as Italian and Greek sources offer further clues

Smoke gets in your eyes?

If I recall correctly, it was some time in May last year that a reliable and generous media tipster for The Slog, now largely retired, told me to start looking more closely at financial corruption within the Vatican, and the emergence of a powerful clique using the Papacy’s assumed innocence as a front for its activities. I did note what he said, and I did use a Roman contact to fill me in on anything of relevance. But as so often happens in a world where the unexpected has become commonplace (and invention almost ubiquitous) I moved onto urgent stories and ignored the importance of that one. Big mistake.

Having arrived to a techno-blackout here in France, three days into it I (briefly) got a signal on my mobile and texted…