VATICAN CORNER
On November 2, 2015, a$er several months of inves!ga!on, Va!can City police arrested two people on suspicion of removing and sharing confiden!al Va!can documents. Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, and Dr. Francesca Chaouqui were arrested for ques!oning. Ms. Chaouqui, a 33-year old public rela!ons expert, was later released when no reason to hold her was found, and in view of her coopera!on with the inves!ga!on. Spanish Monsignor Balda, 54, was the number 2 man on the Pope’s 2013 commission to study reforms of the Economic / Administra!ve Structure of the Va!can. Dr. Chaouqui, a laywoman, was also on that same commission. Monsignor Balda is believed to be the highest-ranking member of the Va!can’s central bureaucracy ever to have been arrested. Divulging confiden!al documents is a crime under the Va!can criminal code. This is one of the biggest internal scandals to hit Francis’ papacy and it was reminiscent of the leaks and furor preceding the resigna!on of former Pope Benedict in 2013. In 2012 Benedict’s butler was arrested for stealing documents from the pope’s desk and leaking them. The documents included le+er to the pope complaining about alleged corrup!on. The butler was convicted and served several months in Va!can jail before Benedict pardoned him. He is now working in a Va!can-run hospital. The Va!can said the current leaks represented a “serious betrayal of the trust bestowed by the Pope”, without providing any details. The arrests came just days before two Italian authors were due to release books that their publishers say will reveal new evidence of scandals in the Va!can and alleged conspiracies by the old guard to undermine Francis’ reform efforts. The Va!can said that as far as the authors are concerned, they are considering legal ac!on against them for receiving stolen documents and they may ask for coopera!on from Italian authori!es. The Va!can said publica!ons of this kind do not contribute in any way to the establishment of clarity and truth, but rather to the crea!on of confusion. We must absolutely avoid the mistake of thinking that this is a way to help the mission of the Pope. At the end of his Sunday Prayer, Pope Francis said that the recent stealing and leaking of the Holy See’s confiden!al documents was “a crime” and “deplorable act that does not help.” But at the same !me he said this “sad event” definitely does not in any way deter him from pressing ahead with his planned reforms of the Roman Curia with the help of his advisers.
Sources: News.VA, Reuters.com, Washingtonpost.com, : news.com.au, foxnews.com