A Vatican court has acquitted two journalists who published confidential documents but sentenced their source, a Spanish monsignor, to 18 months in jail.
Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre, head of the tribunal of the Vatican City State, declared that the court had no legitimate jurisdiction over Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.
The court found Mgr Lucio Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and Francesca Chaouqui, a member of the former Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, guilty of having roles in the leaking of confidential documents about Vatican finances.
Finding the Spanish monsignor guilty of stealing and passing on secret documents, the court sentenced him to serve time. The judges determined that Chaouqui’s role was one of encouraging the leak and they gave her a 10-month suspended sentence.
Nicola Maio, Mgr Vallejo Balda’s former assistant, was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges.
Shortly after the court’s ruling, Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman released a statement saying that despite criticisms of the proceedings, the trial was “necessary” to ensure that Vatican law regarding the leaking of private documents is respected.
“We cannot declare objectives or establish norms and not be coherent in putting them into practice and pursuing those who break the law,” he wrote.
The ruling brings an end to the VatiLeaks trial, which began in November. It was punctuated by long periods of recess and months of testimony on the events around the leaking of private documents about Vatican financial reform.
Venezuelan seminarians beaten and stripped naked
An attack on four school-aged seminarians by pro-government thugs has sparked outrage in Venezuela. The four seminary students, aged 14-16, and the younger brother of one of the seminarians were walking to classes in the city of Merida when they passed a protest, according to Fr Luis Enrique Rojas Ruiz, priest at Merida cathedral.
The protest was interrupted by masked individuals, who asked the seminarians: “Are you opposition or Chavistas?” according to Fr Rojas. The seminarians responded: “We’re seminarians,” which provoked a physical attack that included the assailants tearing off the young men’s clothing, robbing and beating them. The assailants also “threatened to burn one of the seminarians alive”. Thousands took to the streets of Mérida in protest at the attack.
Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardozo of Merida said the attack on the seminarians “shows us the intransigence, fanaticism and impunity that has taken over the streets”.
Last week the country’s bishops announced their decision to close the Venezuelan College in Rome because of economic difficulties.
Poor urged to pray for the rich
Pope Francis has urged pilgrims to pray for people responsible for extreme poverty, for the rich who ignore the needy, and for priests who ignore those who are hurting. The Pope was speaking to about 200 pilgrims from France who are homeless, living in poverty or coping with illness or disability. The Pope said: “I give you the mission of praying for them so that the Lord gives them a change of heart.”
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