Two former members of a Vatican commission were taken into custody this past weekend for leaking confidential information about Pope Francis’ pontificate which will be published in two soon-to-be released books.
CNA/EWTN News is reporting on the arrest of Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui who were taken into custody after being questioned by the Vatican Gendarmerie. Ms. Chaouqui has since been released due to an agreement to cooperate with the investigation.
The Vatican office of the Promoter of Justice has confirmed the arrests of the two who had previously served on the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA), Msgr. Balda as secretary and Chaouqui as a member. The COSEA was disbanded after its work was completed.
CNA reports that the arrests came ahead of the publication of two books which reportedly contain leaked information from the Vatican. One of the books was written by Gianluigi Nuzzi, the same journalist connected with the Vatileaks scandal under Benedict XVI’s pontificate.
Entitled Avarice: The Papers that Reveal Wealth, Scandals and Secrets in the Church of Francis and Via Crucis, the books were written by Italian journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, respectively.
The Vatican released a statement saying that they were looking into the possibility of taking legal and penal action against those involved in these publications.
“As for the books announced for the next few days it should be said clearly once again on this occasion as in the past, that they are the result of a serious betrayal of the trust placed in certain individuals by the Pope, and, as far as the authors are concerned, of an operation to draw advantage from a gravely unlawful act, i.e. the delivery of confidential documents, an operation, the legal and possibly penal implications of which are currently the object of study in view of possible further measures by the Prosecutor’s Office, which will resort, if necessary, to international cooperation,” the statement reads.
“Publications of this kind do not contribute in any way to the establishment of clarity and truth, but rather to the creation of confusion and partial and tendentious interpretations. We must absolutely avoid the mistake of thinking that this is a way to help the mission of the Pope.”
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