In other words, suppose the Vatican’s civil justice system, as presently constituted, worked to perfection. To put it differently, the problem with civil justice in the Vatican isn’t just a particular prosecutor or a given trial. Until that underlying defect is addressed, no civil trial the Vatican conducts will ever be taken seriously by responsible jurists anywhere else, no matter how properly it may be run. That would get the Vatican out of the business of staging civil trials altogether – and if the Becciu case is any indication, perhaps that would be for the best. One hopes the “ugly mess” of the present case won’t delay that day of reckoning.