Distressed by disloyalty, Pope Benedict has set up a special commission to investigate what has been popularly dubbed “Vati-leaks”.
The establishment of the commission coincides with the Vatican’s launch of an internal criminal investigation into leaked personal confidential and financial documents which have exposed power stuggles inside the organisation.
Monsignor Angelo Becciu, undersecretary in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that those “disloyal” and “cowardly” officials who leaked the documents would face penal and administrative sanctions.
Telling the media, those involved were guilty of “cowardice” and “slander”, Becciu described the investigation as a full-scale internal investigation across all levels and departments of the Holy See that will be headed by the Vatican prosecutor, who will head up the criminal probe. The Secretariat of State will handle the administrative sanctions.
“The hope is to be able to reconstruct the basis of our work: reciprocal trust,” he said.
The Vatican’s sostituto–the deputy secretary of state who supervises the flow of paperwork within the Roman Curia–said that those who have leaked Vatican documents to the media are guilty of “cowardice” and “slander.”
The Pope’s commission and Vatican investigation come at a time when the Vatican is keen to put an end to the leaks, dispel suggestions of money laundering and win European approval for its financial management.
They follow on from a three-day visit to the Holy See of a team of inspectors from the Council of Europe.
The inspectors were reviewing the Vatican’s processes to ensure they were in line with those required by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) and their anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing procedures.
Associated Press reports that amid reports in the Italian media FATF had been delayed by the complete rewriting of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering law after the first FATF evaluation round in November, and the eruption of the “Vati-leaks” scandal, the Vatican maintains the FATF evaluation process remains on track.
The Holy See will learn whether it complies with the FATF’s 49 recommendations in early July.
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