ROME
Huffington Post
Sébastien Maillard
Vatican Correspondant for La Croix, Rome
“Following Francis” is a monthly blog on the latest happenings of Pope Francis. It is prepared exclusively for The WorldPost by Sébastien Maillard, Vatican correspondent for La Croix, Rome.
ROME — On Oct. 14, Pope Francis started his weekly catechesis in St. Peter’s Square with an unusual declaration: “I would like, before beginning the catechesis, on behalf of the Church, to ask for your forgiveness for the scandals that have happened in recent times both in Rome and in the Vatican.”
He did not specify what he was referring to. But, in fact, these past weeks have been jeopardized by scandals of all kinds, as never witnessed since the beginning of his pontificate in March 2013.
The latest and biggest scandal yet is called “Vatileaks 2.” On Nov. 5, two books will be published by Italian investigative journalists: “Merchants in the Temple” and “Avarice.” Both publications focus on mismanagement of and resistance to the pope’s financial reforms in the Holy See. Before the books reached the bookshelves, a high-ranking monsignor and a laywoman were arrested by the Vatican on suspicion of leaking internal information, including secret recordings of meetings, to the books’ authors. One of them, Gianluigi Nuzzi, led the first “Vatileaks” affair under Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
The laywoman suspected by the Vatican to have leaked the documents, Francesca Chaouqui, denies her involvement: “I put the Pope before all else.”
She and the monsignor had been appointed by Pope Francis in July 2013 on a committee set up to reform the financial structures of the Roman Curia. Throughout his book, Gianluigi Nuzzi claims to side with the pope and the lay experts who assist him in cleaning up the financial mess in the Vatican’s management.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.