Marco Tosatti and korazym.org have AT LONG LAST told the story of Eugenio Hasler.
I’ve known Eugenio for many years. It’s about time that his story be told. And, as Marco notes, Eugenio was reluctant. And he truly is a good man.
UPDATE: 28 April 2020
A friend of mine sent an English translation of Tosatti’s post about Eugenio. Below:
Marco Tosatti
Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, it seems right to us to re-launch an appeal and a battle that a site we have talked about several times, Korazym.org, has re-proposed in recent days. Korazym dedicates a long article to the topic, to which we refer you. We report only a part, the one concerning the incredible story of the dismissal of an honest and competent person, Eugenio Hasler, without motivation, from the role – important – that he played in the Governorate, that is the Vatican “Town Hall”; but not only, because it is from the Governorate (through Museums, the general department store, the production of postage stamps) that the State obtains its only income, those which serve to make the Vatican City State and its services live. For three years Eugenio Hasler has been asking for an investigation to be opened into him, so as to understand why he was let go, and what the reproaches or accusations that led to the decision are. So far he has hit a wall of silence. We fear that it is another case of a layman, honest, professionally prepared, generous in his service, done out because his work bothered some – or more – obscure interest, not very admissible, of some prelate. We think of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the Auditor General Milone, Matthew Festing, General Domenico Giani, Mattietti, Greg Burke, Paloma Ovejero … and we probably forget a few.
We have not dealt with this case so far, because it seemed that the person concerned – whom we do not personally know – wanted to remain silent, with great dignity and trust in the supreme Vatican authorities. Eugenio Hasler is the son of a major of the Swiss Guards, and has worked in the Secretariat of the Governorate under several Secretaries, as you will see.
We didn’t deal with the matter, we said. But yesterday, after the article published on Korazym.org, we spoke with a high prelate, who has performed an important function for several years within the Governorate. This is the story of Hasler as we were told by the high prelate.
Eugenio Hasler was the head of the general secretariat of the Governorate for years, before the appointment of Msgr. Viganò to the Governorate. Our interlocutor believes that he is a person of the highest quality. Aside from the knowledge of languages, he is honest and has great organizational skills.
In 2011 Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello was appointed President of the Governorate, at the request of the then Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone. Bertello was being talked about, just a few days before his appointment, as Prefect of Propaganda Fide; it was an open secret that he was uncomfortable in the Governorate. After Msgr. Viganò was moved to Washington because his cleaning up job bothered Bertone and his protégés, first Mgr. Sciacca, and then Father Vérgez, who later became bishop, were appointed Secretary General. The latter was very good in services and communication, but without great government and command skills. Eugenio Hasler remained as his secretary, and he was the only one who oriented himself well in that complex world also economically, because even the Adjunct Secretary General who was appointed even though he is a priest of Opus Dei, and perhaps an engineer, did not intervene in the government .
Hasler, being the only one with experience, tried to help his superiors, Bertello and Vérgez; especially the latter. But it bothered the strong man, who has always been there, and about whom Msgr. Viganò wrote several letters in a negative way in his attempt to clean up the Governorate, that is Msgr. Paolo Nicolini, who had in his hands all the administration of the Vatican Museums (the strongest source of income for the Vatican State). Our interlocutor thinks that Hasler, to defend his direct superior, Vérgez, stood in the way of Nicolini taking over the management of the Governorate.
One day in March 2017 without the knowledge – as has been said – of the direct superior, the Pope summoned Eugenio Hasler directly. Reason for the hearing not specified: you could even think of a promotion.
Our prelate tells us how the conversation between the reigning Pontiff and Eugenio Hasler unfolded. And it’s not hard to recognize other similar conversations in this format, always ending with a beheading.
“They say you have a bad temper, are unfriendly, are domineering …”.
– I try to help my superiors in carrying out their task …
“You also has a reserved place to park your car at the Governorate …”.
– Yes, but we all have it …
(Eugenio was always the first to arrive, at 7.30 he was already there, twenty minutes before the others).
“But do you also change the car often?”
– They are service cars. After a year and a half or two of service, the Swiss guards, who have the car without paying tariffs and registered with a Vatican license plate, return to Switzerland, so they bought the car and gave it away …
And in the end, the conclusion:
“Don’t worry about your superiors, I’ll talk to them.” And then ex abrupto: “But from tomorrow don’t set foot in your office”.
– Move me to another department ?…
“No, no, it’s okay.”
The following day the pope received Msgr. Paolo Nicolini, and entrusted him, in addition to the rest, with responsibility for tourist visits to Castelgandolfo.
Below you can find passages taken from Korazym.org. A final consideration. I think that if all the beautiful words that the Pontiff utters in terms of equality, justice, solidarity, and so on are not a mere rhetorical exercise, he should have the honesty to open an inquiry, transparent and in the daylight, on a person whose life was devastated in a way worthy of the worst despotism.
And here are some excerpts from the Korazym.org article:
«Spes contra spem. The post coronavirus “finds us with the necessary antibodies of justice, charity and solidarity”. It is the exhortation-hope that Pope Francis formulated in an article written for the Spanish magazine “Vida Nueva” and translated by “L’Osservatore Romano”, with which he outlines what he calls “plan para resuscitar”. “A plan to rise again”.
“In this case, the list of lay people” pursued “by Pope Francis gets longer. We mention only a few illustrious personalities of the highest rank, “hunted on two feet” in an unusual way, without regular proceedings: the former Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard Corps, Colonel Daniel Rudolf Anrig (31 January 2015); the former General Auditor of the Holy See and of the Vatican City State, Dr. Libero Milone (June 21, 2017); the former Director of Security and Civil Protection Services of the Vatican City State, and Commander of the Gendarmerie Corps of the Vatican City State, Dr. Domenico Giani (14 October 2019). We place this modus operandi under our lens, since all this shows that the reform of this pontificate appears to be in fact ” expulsion”.
Finally, we found that inside the Governor’s Palace of the Vatican City State (S.C.V) an investigation should be undertaken. We think that the situation is getting very hot in there, because someone leaked two letters before they were officially issued, from the number one and number two of the Governorate S.C.V. And this is a very serious fact. We repeat our suggestion that this investigation could be conducted with much profit, perhaps with the support of those who have already directed this office, that is, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, “transferred to Washington” on October 19, 2011 and his subordinate, “terminated” on March 31, 2017, that is, the particular Secretary of the Secretary General of the SCV Governorate, Eugenio Hasler, who has remained silent ever since.
Respect for a man, and an embrace for his and his family’s dignity
Today, treating this man with respect, we want to embrace his dignity, his mother and his father.
It is an established practice – and I can testify to it ex professo (there were several anonymous letters against me, drawn up by the Vatican officials on duty, delivered to the Secretariat of State and ritually destined to be forgotten) – that in the pontifical administrations, anonymous letters are always trashed. In the case of the first anonymous letter, there was a decision to bring it to the attention of the Pope and to have the SCV Gendarmerie make checks on Eugenio Hasler’s account. Those who govern the Vatican City State cannot make these decisions; it is the responsibility of the Secretariat of State. The result was a criminal record with “NOTHING” … and “the expulsion”.
Today we want to be the voice of those who have remained silent for three years. We want to give voice to those who have been removed in an unspeakable, rather than inexplicable way, in an equally unspeakable and unquestionable operation, in all respects, without a minimum of regular disciplinary measures, from which every human being should be able to defend himself . But we know how a regime state works. And at this point it’s scary.
Eugenio Hasler has asked several times, even in writing, to have a regular disciplinary or criminal trial. He never received a response. Letters signed by former colleagues, relatives, friends and his mother were also sent to the reigning Pope. Nobody ever got a response.
It is not difficult to imagine why Eugenio Hasler has not spoken to anyone in these three years, both because of the “veiled” threats received “by those who count” and because he would have had no chance of finding justice.
From one day to the next, his life – and that of his family – were literally destroyed. Without a minimum of justice, of mercy, of pity. His expulsion by order of the reigning Pope was completely unusual, irritable and arbitrary, without any notice and without any letter of dismissal (to date there is no trace of it), without being given the opportunity to defend himself from unfounded accusations . These defamatory accusations were filtered through an unscrupulous Vaticanist and even aggravated compared to those which were verbally listed by the reigning Pope to his subordinate official and citizen. This filtering was undoubtedly diffused artfully by poison-pen letter writers from the inside, managed by a very refined mind.
No respect for privacy, name and surname heralded in the four winds, in “news” artfully packaged to arouse media sensationalism, with the very heavy consequences easily imaginable on his human and professional future.
Those who “take work away from men do a very serious sin,” said Pope Francis to the workers of Sky Italia in the general audience of March 15, 2017.
“No worker without rights,” wrote Pope Francis in the “Letter to Popular Movements” of April 12, 2020.
What could this young and brilliant official do, a Vatican citizen, son of a very respectable family in the state, trusted by four successive General Secretaries of the Governorate S.C.V., his direct superiors?
His dignity was trampled on, and libelous, defamatory, slanderous, never verified news about him was artfully proliferated. And this after having given his highest service in the Governorate S.C.V. with dedication, generosity and passion, until that terrible March 27, 2017. Aware of the honor and privilege of which he felt himself the recipient and custodian, he was faithful to the oath he had taken. Trying to give the best of himself, as he had behaved in the performance of his previous work in Rome, with all the limits of his nature and some character defect, which he does not deny and which he does not hide.
His willingness to apologize was not taken into consideration, because the reason for his “expulsion” was quite other.
So many vicissitudes, which Eugenio Hasler has faced in his about twelve years of service in the Governorate, during which he has accumulated many influential enemies, because he was not corrupt and did not become corrupt. And I know something ex professo, because I have had many opportunities to get to know the environment – and the “influential” characters – from within the Governorate, in almost 30 years of service to the Holy See.
Silence didn’t pay off and after three years …
After exactly three years, on March 28, 2020 Eugenio Hasler decided to speak, with a post on his Facebook diary:
«Today we are three years from the” fact “or the” case “: in short, call it what you want. On March 27, 2017 I received a cold, impersonal convocation note, in which I was addressed as I said I didn’t want to: as cavaliere. And I know very well who and why, instead, he told reporters that I loved being called a cavaliere, or, rather, that I even insisted on being called this.
However, it all started several months earlier with the sending of “anonymous” letters to various prominent personalities in the Vatican, almost all recipients being manoeuvred. In fact, in ten years of work in the General Secretariat I have seen anonymous letters: all of them, promptly trashed without giving any notice. It was the rule. Some were very detailed and precise, I dare say, hypothetically truthful. The one of which I have published some excerpts, was taken as a starting point to charge me with faults in the interview of March 28, 2017, exactly three years ago.
Now, it is not difficult to understand the dynamics of by whom and how untrue accusations may have been made to seem truthful, things of which there is irrefutable evidence to the contrary (obviously never taken into consideration).
As well as it is extremely easy to understand and know who produced the numbers of overtime hours in detail, forgetting to say that it was not the undersigned who decided to undertake them and to arrange them at will, who ordered the mandatory payment of the arrears vacation time (a person who wanted to do it for all employees and not just for me) and consequently who knew the exact amount that was calculated to define the amount I refused but that I was obliged to accept, who went to the bank branch personally?
Finally, those who discovered that the fiberglass roofing of a terrace had been made of asbestos and had put at risk the safety of who knows who …
Of course, these are people who are distinguished among themselves, who have gladly promoted and executed the orders of one mind.
After three years some things come to the surface, others will take some more time. But it is right that we know. Since almost all of these people, I underline almost all of them, are at their command posts and some hold even more prominent positions (or promotions) than before… They are not just lay people.
Three years later, it cannot be said that Hasler chose the path of silence. However, Hasler is not a mercenary and does not speak for money. Hasler speaks only and exclusively because he wants the truth, well aware that it is a term unknown to some. Hasler has been fooled for too long, because “he does not speak” … The creeping and less creeping blackmails have been many. The rumors put about are also many.
Three years is a long time … Silence has not paid off. The case is closed without any if ands or buts…
Nobody wanted to verify anything. And above all nobody wanted to ask me. Just avoid me, cross the sidewalk, etc. And provide cell phone numbers and names to journalists.
Rumors about interest in the case, about helping me and my family … All rumors spread around like “chatter of the washerwoman”. We know from whom and why. Besides, the laundry has many employees. Employees who also boast credibility.
The memory, like an annual anniversary of the wounds that still bleed in abundance.
For those who want to read and continue to follow the “case”.
To all of you, to all of us, a hug (at a distance) and the hope that this period of collective and community difficulty can be overcome soon! ”
(Eugenio Hasler – Facebook, 28 March 2020 – III Anniversary).
I had a note from one of the organizers of the great Pentecost Chartres Pilgrimage.
Years ago I was outside the Paul VI audience hall waiting for my bishop. There were there various drivers, priests waiting for their bishops, newsies, etc. An old Italian bishop, tired of the yakking inside the meeting of their conference, had come outside. Since the German college inside the Vatican walls was just nearby, I described the beautiful Corpus Christi procession we had had in the Vatican Gardens, with Swiss Guards carrying the canopy. The old man nodded with approval and growled:
