The Vatican has launched an investigation into the funding of the restoration of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s apartment while he was Vatican secretary of state. Greg Burke, assistant director of the Vatican press office, said two executives from Rome’s Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital – former chairman Giuseppe Profiti and former treasurer Massimo Spina – are being Read more
The Vatican announced that it has adjourned the trial of journalists and others after one of the five accused, PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui, was advised to rest by doctors. Chaouqui, a former member of an economic reform commission established by Pope Francis, is accused of conspiring with Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda to leak documents. Vallejo Read more
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 Read more
The “Vatileaks” scandal was one in a long series of recent Vatican scandals, and sadly it was not the last. Something of the dark irony of the scandal – “the Butler done it” – may have prevented people from seeing the seriousness of the incident. In reality it’s one of the most serious security breaches Read more
Only the truth behind the Vatileaks scandal can free the Catholic Church. It has all the makings of a Hollywood adaptation of a Dan Brown novel. Secrets of the Vatican exposed, documents stolen from the Pope’s desk, rows and rivalries between cardinals, vast sums of money, the involvement of the cultish organisation Opus Dei. And Read more
The mood at the Vatican is apocalyptic. Pope Benedict XVI seems tired, and both unable and unwilling to seize the reins amid fierce infighting and scandal. While Vatican insiders jockey for power and speculate on his successor, Joseph Ratzinger has withdrawn to focus on his still-ambiguous legacy. Finally, there is clarity. The Holy See has Read more