VATICAN CITY
Crux

By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor November 2, 2015

One of contemporary popular fiction’s best-loved characters is Jack Reacher, the former military policeman turned wandering problem-solver who’s the hero of a series of best-selling novels by Lee Child. Perhaps Reacher’s best-known maxim is, “Get your retaliation in first.”

If you know a fight is coming, in other words, don’t wait for the other guy to swing first. Take him off the table before he has the chance.

That appears to be the Vatican’s approach to two new blockbuster books containing leaked documents about the Vatican’s internal financial operations, set for release in the next few days.

Those books are “Avarice: The Papers that Reveal Wealth, Scandals and Secrets in the Church of Francis” by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, and “Via Crucis,” by Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist at the heart of the Vatileaks affair…