The establishment of the commission coincides with the Vatican's launch of an internal criminal investigation into leaked personal confidential and financial documents which have exposed power stuggles inside the organisation.

Monsignor Angelo Becciu, undersecretary in the Vatican's Secretariat of State, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that those "disloyal" and "cowardly" officials who leaked the documents would face penal and administrative sanctions.

Telling the media, those involved were guilty of "cowardice" and "slander", Becciu described the investigation as a full-scale internal investigation across all levels and departments of the Holy See that will be headed by the Vatican prosecutor, who will head up the criminal probe. The Secretariat of State will handle the administrative sanctions.

"The hope is to be able to reconstruct the basis of our work: reciprocal trust," he said.

The Vatican's sostituto-the deputy secretary of state who supervises the flow of paperwork within the Roman Curia-said that those who have leaked Vatican documents to the media are guilty of "cowardice" and "slander."

The Pope's commission and Vatican investigation come at a time when the Vatican is keen to put an end to the leaks, dispel suggestions of money laundering and win European approval for its financial management.

They follow on from a three-day visit to the Holy See of a team of inspectors from the Council of Europe.

The inspectors were reviewing the Vatican's processes to ensure they were in line with those required by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) and their anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing procedures.

Associated Press reports that amid reports in the Italian media FATF had been delayed by the complete rewriting of the Vatican's anti-money laundering law after the first FATF evaluation round in November, and the eruption of the "Vati-leaks" scandal, the Vatican maintains the FATF evaluation process remains on track.

The Holy See will learn whether it complies with the FATF's 49 recommendations in early July.

Sources:

• Associated Press
• BBC
• Vatican Insider
• Image: Times of Malta

The leaked letters expose a failed effort by Bertone to take control of an important Catholic university and hospital system. The aftermath, also documented, shows Pope Benedict siding with the local bishops in the attempt to centralise church power in the Vatican.

The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart is a Milan-based organisation but with outposts around Italy, is the largest private university in Europe. It has 1,400 faculty members and some 7,000 employees.

The university is controlled by the Giuseppe Toniolo Institute of Superior Studies whose president is the Archbishop of Milan, the then Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi.

Bertone's letter ordered Tettamanzi to step down and was proposing to replace him with the powerful Cardinal Angelo Scola, whom some see as a leading candidate to succeed Pope Benedict, however after Tettamanzi met with Benedict on April 30, 2011 no changes were made.

Allen predicts there will be more revelations, however for three reasons sees the this revelation as significant.

• It is rare that Benedict would side against his longtime friend Bertone and shows Benedict's support and esteem for Bertone is not limitless.
• The popular perception is Rome is trending towards centralisation and it is rare for pope to side with local bishops, particularly when Scola is also a close friend of Benedict.
• This latest round of Vati-leaks shows the scandal is not over, and material is continuing to be leaked, or as Allen advances, has been leaked in bulk and is being selectively rolled out by media outlets.

Sources

• NCR
• Image: KonserVat