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always celebrated as the defender of faith in God against the satanic hordes of Lucifer.)
    The most popular saying among the members during their meetings was in Spanish, the language of Bergoglio: “ Aquì la gracias de dios es mucha pero el demonio está en persona ”—Here the grace of God is great but the devil is here in person.
    The utmost attention and discretion was required to protect the sensitive information that was being gathered. A revolution was about to begin and the Pope’s men knew the risks involved. To prevent wiretaps, Zahra immediately signed an agreement with Vodafone (a multi-national mobile phone company): every advisor would receive a special Maltese phone number and an iPhone 5. The members called it the “white telephone,” after the color of the cover. A private line would be used to send all the passwords for access to encrypted documents, which would be sent by email. At the cost of 100,000 euros, an exclusive server was also provided that would be accessible only to the computers of the COSEA members. Don Alfredo Abbondi, the office chief of the Prefecture, requested from the procurement office of the Governorate a safe in which to keep the most highly classified dossiers. The members of the Commission felt protected by these measures. Little did they realize that every precaution would prove to be useless.

    Objective Number One
    Four days after the formal act of establishing the Commission, COSEA was already operative. The members were excited and highly motivated. The work promised to be both delicate and massive. “The Holy Father has identified seven key elements to be evaluated in the Holy See,” according to the preliminary document. 10 The most important ranged from the “over-expansion in employees” and the “lack of transparency in expenditures and procedures,” to “insufficient control over suppliers and their contracts.” They needed to find out the “number, physical condition and rents of real estate whose status was unclear,” as well as the revenue, to counter the “inadequate oversight of investments in terms of risk and ethical standards.” There would also be a careful examination of the so-called “satellite administrations” and the cash-flow and financial transactions in certain dicasteries.
    On July 22, the Coordinating Secretary, Monsignor Vallejo Balda—who handled communications between the Commission and the various representatives of the Curia—asked Cardinal Versaldi, the President of the Prefecture and his direct superior, to circulate a letter prepared by COSEA addressed to every administrative body within the Vatican walls. Versaldi did so a few hours later. In the letter, the Commission requested the following documentation: financial statements from the past five years, lists of employees, lists of outside collaborators and their résumés, all wages and compensation, and, finally, contracts for the supply of goods and services that had been signed since January 1, 2013.
    The next to the last paragraph of the long letter containing COSEA’s requests set off the loudest alarms within the Curia. It was a specific, targeted request on a very sensitive issue in the Church that touched the hearts of millions of the faithful: saints, who through their actions set an example of universal goodness and love. For many Catholics, saints were objects of worship. The Commission wanted to receive immediately the financial statements, movements, and banking documents “of the economic entities relative to postulators of beatification and canonization causes.”
    The first battle front had been opened. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints was being summoned for questioning. This structure manages the complex process for conferring sainthood or beatitude on individuals who have distinguished themselves by their good deeds. Every cause is handled and proposed by a