be the "rock" that holds the church together, and by his silence in the most serious moral crisis facing the church in our times the pope failed in this basic task. I felt that the demand was being made that I give my "submission of mind and will" to the silence as well as to the words of a pope, and in the matter of abuse I could not do this. The beatification of this silent pope has been another blow to all victims. 11. A Culture of Secrecy Within Italy there is a powerful culture of bella figura , that is, of always presenting a good external appearance to the world. It goes back to Roman times and is very deeply entrenched. Those imbued with that culture would have serious difficulties in ignoring it and speaking openly about faults. For many centuries, secrecy has been an important part of the culture of the Vatican. Wrong actions can easily be pardoned, and the unpardonable sin is that of making those wrong actions public. I speak here from personal experience, for a bishop guilty of the sexual abuse of an adult female was actually promoted while I was rebuked for criticising the Vatican's handling of the matter. The Acts of the Apostles show that Peter, the first pope, was not above criticism and had to answer to the church for his actions (11:1-18). Today, on the contrary, the pope is held to be above criticism, is not answerable to the church