The official's bribery charges were disclosed in a secret meeting

The publication of the Tremblay simony report is the point at which a concealed financial investigation becomes a public test of conscience and authority inside the conclave. Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli distributes redacted copies to the cardinal electors before voting, exposing a prima facie case that Cardinal Joseph Tremblay had paid for support while withholding the names of the eight cardinals implicated. The disclosure provokes Tremblay’s public counterattack, Sister Agnes’s account of Lomeli’s reasons for entering the late Pope’s rooms, and Joshua Adeyemi’s one-word condemnation.

Background and the concealed investigation

The report’s publication follows Lomeli’s discovery of documents hidden in the late Pope’s bed. Among the papers were financial records, transfers, and apartment addresses, including an inventory of Curial apartments: Lomeli’s was listed as 445 square metres, while the late Pope’s residence at Casa Santa Marta was listed as 50. An attached assessment put the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See’s property at 347,532 square metres and its potential value above €2.7 billion, against a stated book value of €389.6 million. It also reported a paid occupancy rate of only 56 percent and suspected that much of the income was not being properly declared.

One document was a confidential report prepared for the late Pope concerning alleged simony by Tremblay, dated 19 October, the day the Pope died. Lomeli’s decision to enter the Pope’s rooms had been prompted not only by the financial papers but by concern that Sister Shanumi, a sister from Sister Agnes’s order, had been brought to Rome at Tremblay’s request. Sister Agnes later confirmed that concern publicly. The report thus entered the conclave amid a dispute over both suspected corruption and the circumstances that had led Lomeli to search for evidence.

Redaction and distribution

Before making copies, Lomeli went through the report and inked out the names of the eight cardinals said to have received cash from Tremblay. He reviewed it again to ensure none of the names remained visible. His choice was deliberate: the report, he believed, needed to reach the electors, but disclosing the recipients’ identities could deepen bitterness and make the conclave less able to carry out its work. He understood that the redactions might themselves make the document look more sinister, and that the report would eventually reach the press.

Lomeli asked Sister Agnes to make 118 copies, enough for the cardinal electors. She copied each page, and they placed the reports in sealed envelopes. Before voting, the two carried them into the dining room and set them on the chairs, dividing the work between them. As Tremblay celebrated Mass in the chapel, plainsong could be heard from the dining room. Lomeli persisted despite a throbbing headache, and Sister Agnes helped complete the distribution. Her quiet assistance made the report an act undertaken jointly, even though Lomeli bore responsibility for the decision to release it.

Public confrontation

Tremblay appeared in the dining hall shortly after nine, holding a copy of the report rolled in his hand. Rather than ask to speak privately, he insisted on addressing the room, accused Lomeli of breaking into the late Pope’s apartment to manipulate the conclave, and called the report mendacious. He argued that the late Pope had been ill and confused near the end of his life, and challenged Lomeli’s impartiality as dean. Lomeli answered that Tremblay himself was responsible for the report through his actions.

Goffredo Tedesco redirected the dispute toward the evidence. He asked Lomeli to identify the eight redacted cardinals so they could say whether they had received payments and whether Tremblay had requested their votes in return. Lomeli refused to name them. He explained that he had withheld their identities to avoid creating further bitterness, while acknowledging that some electors might think he had already gone too far. He offered to stand down as dean and proposed that Aldo Bellini preside instead; Bellini immediately rejected that proposal.

Sister Agnes’s intervention and the immediate aftermath

As the dining room filled with competing voices, Sister Agnes asked to speak. She explained that Lomeli had told her beforehand why he intended to enter the late Pope’s rooms: he feared that a sister from her order had been brought to Rome to embarrass a member of the conclave. She confirmed that the sister had indeed been summoned at Tremblay’s specific request, and said that this discovery, rather than malicious intent, had guided Lomeli’s actions. Her intervention gave the electors an explanation of the search that Tremblay’s accusation had omitted.

Tremblay admitted that he had made the request but claimed he had done so because the late Pope asked him to, and denied knowing who the sister was. After several seconds of silence, Adeyemi stood, pointed at Tremblay, and called him a traitor. The report’s release had therefore done more than place a financial allegation before the electors: joined by Sister Agnes’s testimony, it had made the private dispute over Tremblay’s conduct and Lomeli’s actions impossible to contain within confidential channels.

Significance

The episode exposes a conflict between protecting the conclave from factional rancour and giving electors information relevant to their choice of Pope. Lomeli’s redactions express both sides of that dilemma: he makes the accusation available to all 118 electors but refuses to turn the report into a public roll call of alleged recipients. His decision does not settle whether the payments were made for votes, but it forces the charge into the open before the next ballot and leaves each elector to judge the evidence and examine his own conscience.

The scene also shifts the argument from the document alone to the credibility of those handling it. Tremblay challenges Lomeli’s impartiality; Tedesco demands disclosure; Lomeli accepts the possibility of surrendering his office; and Sister Agnes supplies an independent explanation for his search. Adeyemi’s condemnation closes the immediate confrontation without resolving every disputed claim. The report’s publication thus becomes an act of institutional accountability whose consequences are inseparable from the secrecy, electoral stakes, and personal judgments of the conclave.