Polluting priests

Rome

A Roman court this week convicted two Vatican Radio officials of “polluting the environment” with electromagnetic waves from a transmission tower. Cardinal Roberto Tucci, Vatican liaison for the station, and the Rev. Pasquale Borgomeo, the station’s director general, were each sentenced to 10 days in jail. Italian law automatically suspends short sentences for first offenders, though, so the two won’t actually serve time. Residents of a Roman suburb had been complaining that the Vatican’s huge transmitter was causing high rates of leukemia among children. The court has yet to rule on the amount of civil damages the Vatican must pay.