Giulio Tremonti, a former economy minister in Italy, said he was suing 30-year-old journalist Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a member of the new Vatican financial reform panel, over tweets she made claiming he is gay.
Tremonti said he was also suing Alessandro Sallustri, editor-in-chief of Il Giornale daily that printed tweets by Chaouqui.
Chaouqui has been named last month the only female and only Italian on a panel to review the Vatican’s financial administration.
“Having nothing to do at all with two well known Vatican ‘lobbies’, I am taking legal action against Chaouqui,” Tremonti was quoted as saying in news reports.
Chaouqui reportedly made a number of controversial posts on Twitter before her appointment, including one in March when she called Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone “corrupt”.
Sources
Image: news.com.au