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: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @07:34AM
the vatican is basically the catholic version of the islamic state
anyone who lives/works/visits there should expect to be subjected to laws dictated by religious whackjobs
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday November 25 2015, @03:46PM
Fairly sure people don't get beheaded in St peters square.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @06:03PM
Parent post was obviously exhagerated but as an Italian living a few kilometers from there, I find disturbing that though the Vatican is a foreign state wrt Italy, still it often has a voice into Italian affairs, laws etc.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by isostatic on Thursday November 26 2015, @12:23PM
still it often has a voice into Italian affairs, laws etc.
More than the Vatican has a say in Irish affairs and laws?
How about compared with Rupert Murdochs say in the UKs affairs and laws?
Or Israel's control of the US government?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Wednesday November 25 2015, @08:21PM
Not recently, but they used to burn them alive.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @09:28PM
Not to mention they used the rack, stocks, pillories, thumb screws, the pear and Judas' Cradle (look these two up at your own risk. I'm not going to explain them) on pretty much anyone that didn't agree with them. Those with historic amnesia dutifully ignore these facts because after all, the church is alright now right? Oh, what's going on back there? uh... Private Church business (tm).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by isostatic on Wednesday November 25 2015, @10:23PM
So ISIS is as bad as the church used to be. Whoopee.
Yes, Islam is about 600 years behind christianity, doesn't mean we have to like it, or go through another inquisition.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @10:26PM
Protestants used to burn people too. In England, they even dug up dead people they were mad at and "killed" them a second time.
Nut cases exist in every religion. Hell, there are even nut-case atheists. Trying to make out like it's a problem with only one religion is nothing short of ridiculous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @08:32AM
they protect child sex offenders instead
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @08:39AM
that might not happen anymore (though it probably did once upon a time)... now they just protect child molesters and pedophiles instead
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @08:43AM
derp. thought first one didn't work. my bad
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 25 2015, @09:15AM
While the world's all in a fluster about how evil Islam is, and some of them are "praying" for the victims and their families, I get irate - Islam's not the problem, and praying certainly isn't the solution. Organised and proselytising religions are the problem. The bloody Catholics have caused more suffering in the world than IS ever can (I don't even need to go back to their terroristic period, which is clearly a phase all religions go through when they're only 13*, let's start with millions of Indians born into a life of suffering, for some way more brief than others, because the evil Mother Theresa forbade the use of contraception).
[* centuries]
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by massa on Wednesday November 25 2015, @12:30PM
the funny twist is that she confessed that during a lot of her life she didn't believe that God existed. [telegraph.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday November 26 2015, @12:10PM
Praise be unto her, as she's apparently a fucking saint.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday November 25 2015, @11:33PM
My gripe with religion is that it tries to make a lot of people to all believe the same thing, but people do not naturally end up believing the same thing. This is exactly why religions splinter off and form different sects: a large enough group of "believers" find that their beliefs differ enough from the "true" beliefs of their religion and thus go off to create their own religion.
This is only a symptom of the disease, however; the disease itself is religion forcing people with inherently different beliefs to believe the exact same thing.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(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.