Vatican arrests 2 on suspicion of leaking documents

(Image credit: Giorgio Cosulich/Getty Images)

published November 2, 2015

Police arrested two people this weekend on charges of leaking confidential documents to journalists, the Vatican said Monday.

Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui, a laywoman, were both part of a now-dissolved commission meant to review the Vatican's financial holdings. Balda is a high-ranking official in the Vatican's economic affairs prefecture. Chaouqui, a PR specialist, was released after saying she would cooperate with the investigation, The New York Times reports.

The Vatican has considered leaking confidential documents a crime since July 2013, after Pope Benedict's personal papers were among those leaked to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who is releasing a new book on Vatican scandals Thursday. The book, Merchants in the Temple, will reportedly suggest that Benedict — Pope Francis' predecessor — essentially had to resign once the Vatican's financial details surfaced.

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"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," the Vatican said in the statement, referring both to Nuzzi's new book and another upcoming look at the Vatican's inner workings. "We must absolutely avoid the mistake of thinking that this is a way to help the mission of the pope."

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