VATICAN CITY
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor March 17, 2016
ROME — In an ideal world, doing the just thing and doing the wise thing would always coincide. Real life, however, is often not that simple, and the “Vatileaks 2.0” trial currently playing out in Rome may be a classic case where justice and wisdom collide.
To recap, the trial pivots on five people accused of stealing and publishing secret Vatican documents about finances, including three former members of a papal commission known by its Italian acronym COSEA and two journalists. If convicted, the defendants could face up to eight years in prison, although it’s not entirely clear how that sentence could be enforced on those who are Italian citizens and neither clergy nor employees of the Vatican.
Just like the first Vatileaks affair under Pope Benedict XVI four years ago, this one seems more of a soap opera with every passing day.
This week, testimony in the trial resumed after it was suspended in November. Day one featured an admission by Spanish Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda that he did, indeed, pass documents to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, including a set of 87 computer passwords that allowed Nuzzi to access the material.
Vallejo Balda insisted that he acted under “enormous pressure” from his alleged co-conspirator, PR expert Francesca Chaouqui, who supposedly convinced him that she was connected to the Italian secret service, and also supposedly once told him that the only force that could help him was the Mafia.
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