It is unfortunate for Pope Francis that, at the same moment he publishes an important new encyclical calling for fraternity, friendship and unity, allegations of a sinister Vatican conspiracy involving senior cardinals, money and sex abuse also emerge.
Such are the travails of the Catholic Church and the 83-year-old Argentine Jesuit who leads it today.
The encyclical is called Fratelli Tutti. It's a detailed and thoughtful document and laced with the concerns and priorities characteristic of this Pope.
Although the title literally translates as 'all brothers', the Vatican has been at pains to stress that this should not be seen as exclusive, sexist language but rather as a faithful, direct quote from St Francis of Assisi.
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Beyond taking his name, "this saint of fraternal love, simplicity and joy" has been an obvious and acknowledged source of inspiration to Pope Francis, and this is the second time that he has used a phrase drawn from St Francis as the title of an encyclical.
That earlier contribution, Laudato Si', concerned 'care for our common home' and was a passionate hymn calling humanity to look after creation.
Fratelli Tutti can be thought of as the inevitable sequel - it's concerned that people care for each other through what Pope Francis calls fraternity and social friendship.
It opens with a thorough critique of contemporary society. It's not a barrel of laughs - "dark clouds over a closed world," he writes - as he laments everything from "a growing loss of the sense of history" and discourse "where victory consists in eliminating one's opponents", to a throwaway world where "some parts of our human family... can be readily sacrificed for the sake of others" and "the dream of working together for justice and peace seems an outdated utopia".
The Pope's analysis of a broken, disconnected world is made all the urgent by Covid-19, the pandemic "exposing our false securities".
Pope Francis discusses "a better kind of politics". One doesn't have to look beyond our own shores to see the need for this, though Donald Trump's deranged Dexamethasone-fuelled FEELING GREAT SPACE FORCE tweets this week rather emphasise the point
But Fratelli Tutti isn't all doom and gloom; Francis points to "new paths of hope", drawing on the parable of the Good Samaritan to call people of good will to "bear the pain of other people's troubles rather than fomenting greater hatred and resentment".
He also discusses "a better kind of politics". One doesn't have to look beyond our own shores to see the need for this, though Donald Trump's deranged Dexamethasone-fuelled FEELING GREAT SPACE FORCE tweets this week rather emphasise the point.
Vatican politics, meanwhile, are far from being beyond reproach. This perhaps weakens the Church's interventions into the secular sphere.
The latest scandal centres on Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was sacked by the Pope last month, and also involves Cardinal George Pell, who had a child sexual abuse conviction overturned in April after serving more than a year in jail in Australia. He has just returned to the Vatican.
Cardinal Becciu, formerly a close associate of Francis, got the heave-ho for a financial property scandal apparently more exotic than 'the money was only resting in my account' Father Ted variety.
Embezzlement is bad enough, but it has now been colourfully alleged that Cardinal Becciu transferred €700,000 from a Vatican account to one in Australia during Cardinal Pell's trial, with the funds going to influence proceedings.
Cardinal Becciu has denied he interfered in the case but that hasn't stopped the speculation; before the legal action forced him from the Vatican, Cardinal Pell had been tasked by the Pope to reform the Holy See's finances, with his proposals bringing him into conflict with, among others, our friend Cardinal Becciu.
This Dan Brownesque plot will doubtless take more twists and turns before the full story is known.
As Francis himself says in Fratelli Tutti, "We need to learn how to unmask the various ways that the truth is manipulated, distorted and concealed in public and private discourse."
That applies as much to the inner workings of the Catholic Church as it does to the rest of us.
