Presidents since Washington have had to deal with people within their adminstration who were leaking to the press to get some sort of advantage in internal debates. Now, it seems that the problem with leakers has spread to the Vatican. Captain Ed links to this story about a leaked diary from a cardinal about the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope. It seems the vote was closer than usual and that an Argentinian, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the runner up.

While Bergoglio never threatened Ratzinger's lead -- and made clear he didn't want the job, according to the diary published in the respected Italian foreign affairs magazine Limes -- his runner-up status could signal the next conclave might elect a pope from Latin America, home to half the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics.

The diary of the anonymous cardinal is also significant because it shows that Ratzinger didn't garner a huge margin -- he had 84 of the 115 votes in the final ballot, seven more than the required two-thirds majority.

And it appears that there might be political reasons for breaking the vow of secrecy.

While Bergoglio never threatened Ratzinger's lead -- and made clear he didn't want the job, according to the diary published in the respected Italian foreign affairs magazine Limes -- his runner-up status could signal the next conclave might elect a pope from Latin America, home to half the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics.

The diary of the anonymous cardinal is also significant because it shows that Ratzinger didn't garner a huge margin -- he had 84 of the 115 votes in the final ballot, seven more than the required two-thirds majority.

His two immediate predecessors, Pope John Paul II and Pope John Paul I, are believed to have garnered 99 and 98 votes respectively, and that was when there were only 111 voting cardinals.

"It does seem that somebody wants to indicate that the conclave was a more complex process than was being depicted and that Benedict's mandate was not a slam dunk," said David Gibson, a former Vatican Radio journalist who is writing a biography of Benedict.

It seems that the cardinal who leaked the diary is an Italian, perhaps one not happy with the choice of the German Ratzinger.

It is rather dispiriting to think of a cardinal breaking that sacred vow of silence in order to get some sort of advantage. It makes you wonder about what other vows that cardinal would break.