Gianluigi Nuzzi faced court over his last book (Vatican SpA) for leaking confidential Vatican documents.

His new book is called Original Sin: Secret Accounts, Hidden Truths, Blackmail and the Forces Blocking Pope Francis's Revolution.

The book will be released in Italy and France on 9 November.

Some of the documents reproduced in the book are said to come from the Vatican bank archives and the Institute for Religious Works.

The book is said to cover the period from Pope Paul VI in the 1960s to Pope Francis.

Nuzzi and fellow journalist Emmanuele Fittipaldi were tried in a Vatican court in 2015 after they published books based on leaked documents.

The documents exposed greed, mismanagement and corruption among the Church's senior clergy.

After an eight-month trial, the Vatican's criminal court said it had no jurisdiction to prosecute them.

It convicted Monsignor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, who was sentenced to 18 months, and public relations consultant Francesca Chaouqui, who was sentenced to 10 months.

Balda and Chaouqui were members of a dismantled Vatican commission set up to look into the Vatican's finances.

Chaouqui received a suspended sentence, while Vallejo Balda was granted "conditional freedom" by Pope Francis shortly before Christmas 2016.

Source

• Crux
• The Salt Lake Tribune
• Image: Chiarelettere

A statement from Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said the Vatican's police force had reported the activities of Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi to the city state's prosecutors.

This was over "their possible participation in the crime of dissemination of news and confidential documents".

Nuzzi and Fittipaldi published books last week which included documents relating to a 2013 commission (COSEA) set up by Pope Francis to overhaul Vatican finances.

There is an ongoing Vatican investigation into the leaks, with two individuals who sat on COSEA - Msgr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui - questioned over them.

In his statement, Fr Lombardi said the prosecutor had "acquired evidence indicating involvement in the offense by the two journalists who are now under investigation".

It continued: "They are being examined by the investigators as well as the positions of other persons, who by reasons associated with their office, cooperated in the acquisition of the confidential documents in question."

The leaks reveal embarrassing details of financial mismanagement which the Pope was faced with soon after his election.

Since that time, however, Francis has instituted sweeping reforms to the economic management of the Holy See.

Nuzzi and Fittipaldi are being investigated for a possible breach of Law n.IX of the Vatican's criminal code, a piece of legislation the Pope instituted in 2013.

It states: "Whoever illicitly obtains or reveals information or documents whose disclosure is forbidden, is punished with six months to two years imprisonment or with a fine ranging from €1,000 to €5,000".

"If the object of the offence consists of information or documents concerning the fundamental interests or the diplomatic relations of the Holy See or the State, the penalty shall be of four to eight years imprisonment.

"If the conduct referred to in the preceding paragraph is committed due to criminal negligence, the penalty shall be of six months to two years imprisonment."

Sources

• The Tablet
• Image: Crux Now

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

"This is a choice for obscurantism, far from transparency and press freedom," Gianluigi Nuzzi said on his Twitter account.

In the scandal that globally became known as Vatileaks, Nuzzi published a book "Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI".

Nuzzi had submitted his accreditation application online on behalf of the private television channel La7.

He said he received a letter on Monday saying he had been denied without any explanation.

More than 5,600 journalists have been accredited to cover the election of the next pope.

Source

• Inquirer News
• @GianluigiNuzzi
• Image: Lanostratv.it

In a 35-page report, Judge Piero Bonnet said Paolo Gabriele — who has been charged with "aggravated theft" — felt sure Pope Benedict was not aware of what was going on.

"I was certain that a shock, even in the media, could be healthy in putting the Church back on the right track," Gabriele was quoted as saying.

Gabriele also claimed he felt "infiltrated" by the Holy Spirit and had discussed with a spiritual director his concerns about the Church and his thoughts on taking the documents.

In fact, the judge said, the priest (identified only by the letter B) affirmed that Gabriele had given him a box full of documents, which the priest told Vatican investigators he burned because he knew "they were the fruit of an act that was not legitimate" and because he feared they would be stolen from his residence which had been burgled a few months earlier.

Many of the documents were the same as those featured in a television programme by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi and later published in a book by him. Most dealt with allegations of corruption, abuse of power and a lack of financial transparency at the Vatican.

Gabriele — who will turn 46 on August 19 — told investigators how he met Nuzzi in an apartment near the Vatican and described in detail the measures he and Nuzzi took to avoid detection.

Along with Gabriele, a computer technician at the Vatican Secretariat of State, Claudio Sciarpelleti, has been charged with the lesser offence of "aiding and abetting" him.

The formal indictment of the two Vatican employees is "not the last word" in the ongoing investigation into the Vatileaks scandal, according to Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Service

Image: Welt Online