Police said Fr Raja Reddy engineered the kidnapping and attack on Bishop Prasad Gallela last month and this was motivated by "greed for money and power".

According to police, the suspects confessed to four earlier attempts to kidnap the bishop between April 6 and 15.

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The souvenirs carried the Pope's photo without permission, as well as illegally carrying the Vatican coat of arms and the emblem of the papal tiara.

The merchants selling the trinkets wanted to take advantage of increased tourism to Rome associated with Jubilee Year of Mercy, police said.

Three people were arrested on charges of counterfeiting, receiving stolen goods and breaching copyright.

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It said in a statement that the two had been interrogated over the weekend, and that Holy See prosecutors upheld the arrests.

The pair were identified as Francesca Chaouqui and Msgr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda.

The monsignor is a Vatican employee and secretary of COSEA, the body set up in 2013 to advise the Pope over the reform of Vatican finances, which Chaouqui was also a member of.

A Vatican spokesman said Msgr Vallejo Balda was being held in a jail cell in Vatican City, and that Chaouqui was allowed to go free because she co-operated in the probe.

The arrests came after an investigation into the "misappropriation and disclosure of classified documents and information", the Vatican stated.

The arrests come just days out from the release of two books detailing alleged financial wrongdoing and mismanagement at the Vatican.

Gianluigi Nuzzi's book "Merchants in the Temple" is scheduled for release on November 5.

This comes in the wake of his 2012 blockbuster "His Holiness", from which the Vatileaks scandal ensued and after which Pope Benedict XVI's butler was convicted for leaking documents.

Publicity ahead of the launch states the book will set out the real reasons why Benedict resigned.

It also examines the funding required to get a saint named, misdirected charitable donations and the "black hole" of the Vatican's pension system.

Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi is also releasing "Avarice: Documents Revealing Wealth, Scandals and Secrets of Francis' Church".

This book will map out the Church's financial empire, from the luxurious lives of the cardinals to the big businesses of Catholic-run hospitals in Italy.

The Vatican denounced the publication of the two books, stating: ". . . it is clear that this time too, just as in the past, they are the fruit of a serious betrayal of the Pope's trust".

Italian media reports at the weekend stated that Vatican police were investigating the attempted theft of a laptop belonging to Libero Milone, the head of the Vatican's new finance office.

Other reports spoke of the hacking of Mr Milone's computer.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• AFP
• Associated Press
• Vatican Insider
• Image: CNN