Vatican Assails New Leaks

By Paul Moses
Dotcommonweal
May 19, 2012

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=19040


The Vatican issued a statement Saturday calling a new leak of its internal documents "a criminal act" that must be prosecuted. The statement called for prosecution not only of the leaker but also "those who received stolen property" – that is, evidently, Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist who came up with a trove of papal records for his new book, Sua Santita, or His Holiness.

The Vatican said it will seek "international cooperation," which I assume means that it will press Italian authorities to prosecute even the journalist. The publication of the leaked documents is not a "journalistic initiative," the Vatican insists, but a crime.

I don't know what protections Italian journalists have; Nuzzi seems to be reveling in the attention, as any author might.

One imagines that only a fairly small circle of people would have access to the private papers of Pope Benedict XVI. Despite what the Holy See says about the vile nature of these leaks, I continue to suspect that the leaker is taking the only available avenue to reform a bureaucracy that treats corruption too casually. Who is the leaker? Someone with a conscience, is my guess.