'VatiLeaks' trial: Author says he had duty to publish private documents

By Junno Arocho
Catholic Register
April 13, 2016

http://www.catholicregister.org/faith/faith-news/item/22108-vatileaks-trial-author-says-he-had-duty-to-publish-private-documents

An Italian journalist said he was given private documents by a Vatican official detailing problems with financial reforms and that he had a duty to publish them.

Testifying at his Vatican trial April 13, Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of Merchants in the Temple, denied pressuring Spanish Msgr. Lucio Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, for access to the documents.

Nuzzi and Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of Avarice, are accused by the Vatican of soliciting the documents and exercising pressure on the defendants, especially Vallejo Balda.

The monsignor, along with his former executive secretary and assistant, Nicola Maio, and Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, are accused of "divulging news and documents concerning fundamental interests" of the Vatican.

Nuzzi said he was first informed of the challenges facing the commission's financial reform by Chaouqui, whom he had known for some time. She then organized a meeting between the journalist and Vallejo Balda at Rome's Ambassador Hotel.