Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejía inadvertently caught up in drug-smuggling scandal
Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejía
Karl Marx may have once famously wrote that religion “is the opium of the people,” but a new drug-smuggling scandal concerning the Vatican and Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejía has indicated that perhaps cocaine or cannabis is more popular in that part of the world.
No need to jump to conclusions however — Mejía’s link to the news is tenuous and fortunately, involves only his automobile. The only charge that can be levelled against the Church, in this comedic tale, is one of embarrassment.
When French customs officials stopped a car with Vatican diplomatic licence plates at a toll station in Chambéry, in the French Alps, on Sunday they expected to find members of the Catholic Church inside. But instead, the Ford automobile, licensed and registered to the 91-year-old retired Argentine cardinal, was driven by two Italian men, who had reportedly taken Mejía’s car for its annual check-up.
The two men, according to a report by French radio station RTL, had decided to take a gamble, one involving a considerably large detour. Instead of taking the car for its MOT, the two Italians had driven to Spain where they bought four kilogrammes of cocaine and 200 grammes of cannabis. Thinking they would be protected by the Vatican’s licence plates, their plan was simple. They would just drive back to Italy, with the authorities waving them across the border with diplomatic immunity.
But the scheme didn’t quite go to plan. Customs officials, confused as to why the passengers didn’t have Vatican passports and why the car was so far from home, decided to carry out a quick search of the car, upon when they discovered the drugs, hidden in suitcases and bags.
The unnamed individuals, according to French judicial sources, deny taking the car to Spain or buying the drugs, and say they were only drivers.
Unusual participant
Cardinal Mejía, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1923, is a particularly unusual participant in the tale — he has been bedridden since March as a result of a severe heart attack. Appointed the Holy See’s librarian by Pope John Paul II in 2001, the Argentine lasted two years in the post before retiring.
Mejía is well-known in the Church and has a seemingly good relationship with his fellow countrymen currently leading the Church, Pope Francis. Mejía suffered his heart attack on the day Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected to the papacy and the pontiff visited Mejía in his hosptial bed just two days later.
Francis has spoken out against the dangers of drugs, calling addiction “evil.” He has given repeated public indications he is against the decriminalisation of drugs.
When pressed about the scandal yesterday, Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, confirmed the details of the drug-trafficking scandal but denied any of its employees or officials where involved.
“Cardinal Mejía’s car carrying drugs was effectively blocked by the French police but the cardinal (is) ill and obviously has nothing to do with this… it is totally unrelated,” he said. “It’s now up to the police to pursue their investigations.”
Lombardi said Mejía’s secretary had given the keys to a friend for a “technical check-up” and that everyone inside the Church was clueless as to how the Italian men acquired the car.
The two men, reportedly aged 31 and 40, are now in a French prison. They will appear before a magistrate shortly, charged with drug-trafficking.
@urlgoeshere
Originally published in the Buenos Aires Herald, on Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Link: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/169948/the-curious-tale-of-cocaine-and-the-cardinal.