VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service
By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A former consultant to a pontifical commission who denied to a Vatican court that she leaked documents about the Vatican’s financial reform to an Italian journalist had admitted to sending the documents when she was first interrogated, a Vatican policeman said.
Stefano DeSantis, an officer investigating the leaking of the documents, testified May 24 that Francesca Chaouqui told Vatican police officials that she sent documents regarding the Vatican Asset Management (VAM) to Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of “Merchants in the Temple.”
“We never assumed that she gave the documents, she admitted to it,” DeSantis told the court.
Chaouqui is on trial, along with Msgr. Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and Nicola Maio, the monsignor’s former assistant, for “committing several illegal acts of divulging news and documents concerning fundamental interests of the Holy See and (Vatican City) State.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.