Pope Sets up Criminal Investigation into Vatican Leaks

By Nick Squires
The Telegraph
March 18, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9151418/Pope-sets-up-criminal-investigation-into-Vatican-leaks.html

Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope has taken the unusual step of setting up an internal, criminal investigation to identify the source of damaging leaks of compromising Vatican documents.

The inquiry will seek to punish the insiders who leaked the papers, whom the Vatican hierarchy regard as "disloyal and cowardly".

Pope Benedict XVI had been "hurt" by the leaks, said Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Vatican's deputy secretary of state and third most powerful Vatican figure, in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, the city state's daily newspaper.

Documents leaked to the Italian press over the last few weeks have shed light on dark power struggles between senior cardinals, alleged corruption and nepotism in the running of the Vatican administration, and a mysterious prediction that the 84-year-old pontiff would die within a year, possibly as a result of an assassination attempt.

Msgr Becciu described whistle-blowers as "cowardly" and "deeply disloyal" and warned that they would face the full force of the law from Vatican prosecutors. They had abused the trust placed in them by leaking the documents, he said.

The investigation will be conducted by a tribunal and will probe all departments in the Vatican administration.

Msgr Becciu also defended the reputation of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, saying it was wrong to depict it as a hotbed of "plots and careerism".

The investigation will draw on an inquiry already opened by the Vatican's own police force, the Gendarmerie, into how the leaks happened.

The Pope also decided to launch a special commission into the affair, composed of cardinals whom he had chosen personally, in order to re-establish "trust" within the Holy See.

It is rare for the Vatican to launch criminal investigations. One of the best known was set up after a young member of the Swiss Guard gunned down the corps' commander and wife before turning the pistol on himself.

Questions still linger over the 1998 scandal and the mother of Cedric Tornay, the young guardsman and alleged assassin, has called for the case to be fully reinvestigated.

The Pope, who turns 85 next month, is meanwhile preparing for an official trip to Mexico and Cuba.

The six-day visit, which starts on Friday, will take him first to Mexico and then to the Cuban capital, Havana, and the city of Santiago.