The woman arrested in connection with the leaking of confidential Vatican documents may have been released early because she is pregnant.
Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, 33, and Msgr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, 54, were arrested by the Vatican Gendarmerie following an investigation.
Their arrests came days before the publication of two books about Vatican finances and associated scandals.
But while the priest was held in a Vatican prison, Dr Chaouqui was released after being detained for a day and a half, as she had reportedly begun to collaborate with the investigators.
Her detention was reportedly in a convent for women religious inside the Vatican, not in a jail cell, as other accounts reported.
America magazine has learned that her rapid release may be connected to the fact that she is two months pregnant.
America reported sources as saying that Pope Francis did not want Dr Chauoqui held in a prison because of her condition.
Dr Chaouqui reportedly asked Pope Francis to pray that she and her husband would have a child.
Msgr Vallejo Balda is in the same prison cell that was occupied by Benedict XVI’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, 3 years ago.
After Dr Chaouqui’s release, she has maintained her total innocence in conversations with journalists, and on Facebook and Twitter she stated: “I am not a mole. I have not betrayed the Pope. I never gave a page to anybody.”
She blames Msgr Vallejo Balda for dragging her into all this.
Both were members of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (COSEA) set up by Pope Francis in July, 2013, but which is now defunct having completed its work.
The priest was secretary of that commission and she was one of its members.
Both had access to the confidential financial and organisational information that appears in the two books just published.
Since her release, Dr Chaouqui has been interrogated on at least one occasion by Vatican investigators.
A source close to Pope Francis told Italian newspaper La Stampa that “the Holy Father is saddened by the betrayal of the two disloyal collaborators”.
On Sunday, Francis said the leaks were “deplorable act that does not help” and “a mistake”, but added that he is continuing with reform.
Sources
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News category: World.
