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The Vatican has charged five people, including Italian journalists in connection with leaked documents exposing corruption in the Church:
Two journalists and three former Vatican officials have been formally charged with "criminal misappropriation" and other crimes, the Vatican says, in a case tied to allegations of financial misdeeds by Catholic Church officials.
Those arrested include Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda and Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, who served on a special Vatican commission on economic reform that was assembled by Pope Francis shortly after he was elected in 2013. Vatican police arrested the pair earlier this month; Chaouqui was released after a brief detention, due to her cooperation with the authorities.
Also facing charges are Vallejo's secretary, Nicola Maio, as well as Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi — two journalists who published books this month that promise a rare glimpse into scandals and corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. Fittipaldi's book, Avarice, is currently No. 3 on the list of bestsellers on Amazon's Italian site, just behind Nuzzi's Way of the Cross. Nuzzi was also involved in the original "Vatileaks" scandal of 2012, when he published a book containing private Vatican documents and letters. Some say that scandal contributed to Pope Benedict's resignation.
In the current case, the reporters and Vatican officials formed an "organized crime association," according to the Holy See Press Office.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Kilo110 on Wednesday November 25 2015, @01:00PM
I listened to an interview with Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers, a few months ago. He said he genuinely had high hopes for Francis when it came to reform and weeding out corruption.
These arrests disappoints me. I suspect it would also disappoint him.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @06:19PM
Roman citizen here. Francis is the result of a well crafted PR campaign; the Vatican was in desperate need of a new face after all those scandals, people was literally flocking away from churches and donations suffered as well, so they had to find a new good face.
The propaganda became clear by the amount of media produced after his rigged election which was abnormal even compared to JPII, he wouldn't walk a single meter without a camera broadcasting it; no politician had the same coverage, not even Berlusconi on his own tv channels. Pages and pages on newspapers, hours on tv, books, movies, documentaries. Should a presidential candidate in the US have the same exposure, he/she would get the Office in no time.
It's very hard to overlook the evidence of this well orchestrated propaganda, but believers over here are easy to fool because they are fed what they actually want to see.