More Vatican Scandals on Mismanagement, Greed and Conservative-Progressive Clash Outed

The Vatican arrested Spanish Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda (left) and Italian public relations specialist Ms. Francesca Chaouqui on charges of secretly passing confidential information and documents to outside Italian journalists. Ms. Chaouqui was later released for cooperating with the Vatican investigators.

Photo courtesy: cnmn.org

When Pope Francis has been emphasizing on the "Church of the poor," two recently published books in Italy disclose some of the Vatican inside information giving the opposite picture. 

These two books, Merchants in the Temple, written by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, and Avarice (greed), by journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, are based on leaked documents  that reveal the following: 

--the opposition and clash between the pre-Francis Vatican Curia officials and the Francis-appointed new ones for helping him bring about reform in the Vatican departments and offices;

-- misuse of funds and lack of financial accountability;

--greed: some officials occupying large apartments paying nominal rents, and some staff buying duty-free items at the Vatican stores and selling them outside at high price and pocketing the money;

--and other lapses that go against the official teachings of the Catholic Church.

Two officials, Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui, of the financial reform commission have been arrested for illegally handing over inside information and documents to outside journalists. The latter has been released from jail for cooperating with the investigators. 

For details, please read the following:

• Vatican's Financial Troubles Run Deep, According to New Book (The New York Times)
  
• Vatican hit by new claims of financial mismanagement and lavish spending (The Guardian, U.K.)
• Vatican Tapes Reveal Pope's Struggles to Clean Up Finances (bloomberg.com)
• 'Vatileaks' scandal a 'battle between good and evil' in the Catholic Church (The Guardian, U.K.)
• More Scandal for Vatican with Release of Tell-All Books (huffingtonpost.com) 
• New Vatican Book: Five Key Claims (The Catholic Herald, U.K.)
• New books claim widespread mismanagement of Vatican finances (The Catholic Herald, U.K.)
• Vatican makes two arrests in investigation over leaked documents (The Catholic Herald, U.K.)
• Vatican leaks intensify with new book exposing saint-makingg scandal, internal resistance to pope (National Post, Canada)
• Understanding the latest Vatican scandal: A clash of tradition against reform (National Post, Canada)
• Vatican scandal heats up with book exposing waste, resistance to Pope (ctvnews.ca) 
•  Conservatives within the Catholic Church are trying to lay 'poisoned bait' for Pope Francis, says author (The National Post, Canada)
•  New books allege financial scandals at the Vatican (CNN)
•  Francis' Friends May Be Numbered in the Vatican -- and the 'Vatileaks' schandal Is a Testament to That (huffingtonpost.com)
• Pope Francis has his work cut out for him, according to two new investigative books detailing Vatican corruption (mydailynews.com)
• New book claims to expose corruption, mismanagement inside the Vatican (foxnews.com)
• Bugged Priests and Sainthood for Sale (thedailybeast.com)
• 'Sexy bombshell' at center of new Vatican corruption scandal (New York Post)
• Vatican judge indicts 5 in leak scandal (New York Post) 
• Vatican scandal over leaked documents broadens to include Silvio Berlusconi's family (The Telegraph, U.K.) 
• Pope Francis invokes the notorious Borgias amid Vatican scandal over sex and spying (The Telegraph, U.K.) 
• Vatican: Leak of classified docs is illegal, trying to sow confusion (Catholic News Agency)
• Pope Francis prepared to battle on Vatican reform, senior cardinal says (National Catholic Reporter, USA)

(Updated on December 7, 2015)