A former Vatican official who had sat on a top level papal commission overhauling the Holy See’s finances admitted giving confidential financial documents to journalists.
“Yes, I passed documents. I did it spontaneously, probably not fully lucid,” said Monsignor Angelo Lucio Vallejo Balda during a Vatican City trial on Monday.
“I was convinced I was in a situation without exit,” said Balda, former secretary of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs.
Balda is one of five people, including two journalists, who face up to eight years in jail, for breaking a Vatican law created by Pope Francis in 2013 criminalizing the leaking of documents.
The priest admitted passing material to journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi who both wrote books revealing widespread financial mismanagement in the Vatican.
Balda said he was under pressure from fellow defendant and member of the commission, Francesca Chaouqui, a 34-year-old PR expert.
He explained that he felt under pressure from Chaouqui who at one time he had been close to.
The priest said he believed Chaouqui mingled in a “dangerous world” of Italian power brokers.
Sources
The Guardian
AFP/Yahoo News
Catholic News Agency
The Tablet
Image: Getty Images/The Guardian