Open Season?

I am beginning to come to the conclusion that it is permissible for lay persons in official or semi-official Vatican positions to say what they like of members of the hierarchy, it can be slanderous, even actionable, it need not be supported in any way by evidence or testimony - and there might be no repercussions from anyone in authority over them.

An unnamed Vatican employee, asked who in the Vatican disliked [a cardinal], answered that only question was "who dislikes him most".

A commission member goes on tv to call a curial official "almost sociopathic."
Apparently ignorant that absence of evidence is not quite the same thing as the evidence of absence, he reports his findings as to the feelings of a man whom he has never met:

"In all the interviews, in all I've read, in all I've heard, I have seen not a shred of evidence that [he] has any sympathy, empathy or any kind of understanding or concern for victims and survivors.

Wonder how that Vatican PR woman who created a little dust-up via Twitter is prospering?