Vatican's new number two misses own swearing-in Cardinal Bertone's departure represented a tangible sign of change for the Vatican following his scandal-marred term, which climaxed with the 2012 theft of Benedict's papers by his butler. But many other problems of Benedict's reign, from his rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop to the Vatican's initial, flat-footed response to the 2010 explosion of clerical sex abuse cases, were blamed on Cardinal Bertone's administrative shortcomings. A canon lawyer from Genoa, Cardinal Bertone had no diplomatic experience when he was named the Vatican's top diplomat in 2006 by Benedict, who clearly wanted a faithful servant as his No. 2 administrator. Cardinal Bertone had served as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's deputy when both were concerned with doctrinal issues at the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog. In his final weeks on the job, the 78-year-old Bertone made clear he did not appreciated being blamed, saying he had been victim of a "plot by crows and vipers" to bring him down. While admitting to some problems, he said overall he judged his tenure "positively."