VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jul. 19, 2013 NCR Today

A Vatican spokesman today called a report “not credible” charging that a cleric hand-picked by Pope Francis to reform the troubled Vatican bank led a double life while serving as a papal diplomat in Uruguay a little more than a decade ago, including having a live-in male companion and visiting gay bars.

The charges appeared in a report published today by veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister for the magazine L’Espresso. They concern Monsignor Battista Ricca, a veteran Vatican diplomat appointed on June 15 to serve as the pope’s “prelate,” or representative, at the Vatican bank.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, issued a statement to journalists calling the report “not credible.”

L’Espresso swiftly replied with an acerbic statement “confirming point by point” the details in Magister’s story, which it said had been “confirmed…