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Vatican arrests two advisers over alleged links to leaked documents
By Anthony Faiola
BERLIN — The Vatican on Monday said it had arrested two members of a papal reform commission on suspicion of leaking classified information, opening a week of intrigue as the Holy See braces for two potentially damaging books purporting to reveal inside corruption. The upcoming books — including one by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi whose 2012 book on a so-called “Vatileaks” scandal rocked the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI — are set to offer fresh revelations into fraud and mismanagement as well as challenges to Pope Francis’s push for reforms. [Conservative dissent is brewing inside the Vatican] In a statement, the Vatican appeared to tie any bombshells in the upcoming books to two sources: Spanish priest Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, former secretary of Francis’s financial and bureaucratic reform committee, and Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations executive tapped in 2013 to bring a touch of modern thinking to the Holy See and who became known in some circles as the “the pope’s lobbyist.” The Vatican said both suspects were brought in for questioning over the weekend, and were later held under arrest. Chaouqui was released on Monday after pledging to cooperate with the investigation, the Vatican said. Balda, however, was still being detained. Both were arrested following a months long criminal investigation carried out by the Vatican gendarmerie, and face potential charges under a 2013 law that made it illegal in the Holy See to disclose confidential documents and information. [Spilled secrets claim to show Vatican’s own sins] In announcing the extraordinary arrests, the Vatican seemed to foreshadow the pending release of potentially damaging information and suggested it may pursue legal action against the authors. “As for the books announced for publication in the next few days, let it be clearly stated at this time, as in the past, that such actions are a serious betrayal of trust granted by the Pope,” the statement said. It called the authors part of “an operation that takes advantage of a seriously unlawful act of unlawful delivery of confidential documents – an operation whose legal implications and possibly penalties are under study.” [The pope’s powerful German ally] The books appear to touch on Vatican’s internal tensions from Francis’ push for more openness within the vast network of offices and panels that guides the administration of the church, whose inner workings have been widely veiled in secrecy for centuries. The Vatican’s bureaucracy covers major decisions such as how money is spent and how church appointments are made, to smaller details such operations of the Vatican postal service. Francis’s efforts at more accountability have met resistance from groups within the Vatican, where conservatives also have opposed the pope’s outreach to divorced Catholics and others once shunned by the church. The probes into Vatican leaks reach back before Francis assumed the papacy in 2013. In 2012, a papal butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested after Holy See documents were found in his Vatican City apartment. He later agreed to cooperate with investigators. Last week, Italian media reported that Vatican forensic experts were investigating alleged tampering of the computer used by the church’s top auditor, Libero Milone, who was appointed a few months ago Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
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