Monsignor Angelo Becciu,
substitute for general affairs at the Vatican, said that
portraying the Holy See Vatican as a "den of theives" in the
wake of the Vatileaks 2 scandal is "an absolute falsehood".
"I find it supremely unjust that our employees, proud of
working in service to the pope and for the church, for a while
now have come to the point of feeling ashamed to tell people
they work here," Becciu said in a excerpts released Wednesday of
an interview in weekly newsmagazine Panorama set to hit
newsstands Thursday.
Two recently-published books written by investigative
journalists documenting alleged Vatican waste and mismanagement
and lavish spending by clergymen are at the heart of the
document-leaking scandal and current trial, and the authors are
two of five defendants.
The other three defendants - Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda,
who is currently in a Vatican jail; PR expert Francesca
Chaouqui, and Balda's former assistant Nicola Maio - are charged
with allegedly passing confidential Vatican financial documents
to the journalists.
"The right of journalists to publish news in their
possession is not under discussion," Becciu said.
"The doubts regard the way in which they came to have this
news.
"I ask myself: why are the sources of the two books that
Mr. Nuzzi has written both in jail?" Becciu said, referring to
Nuzzi's previous book "His Holiness", which brought the 2012
arrest of Paolo Gabriele, former personal butler to Pope
Benedict XVI.
Regarding claims in the books that Peter's Pence, the
pope's traditional donation fund financed by the faithful, is
used mainly to repay Roman Curia debts and is only in small part
destined to the poor - two euros out of every 10 donated -
Becciu was defiant.
"Do we want to bring the amount destined to the poor from
two euros to six euros? Out of four thousand employees, we'd
have to fire 400. We prefer not to give the Italian government
this additional weight and hold to Pope Francis's recommendation
- reform, but in a way in which no one loses their job".
Becciu called the alleged actions of Vallejo Balda and
Chaouqui, who were both members of the now-defunct COSEA
commission set up to advise Pope Francis on the reform of the
Holy See's economic and administrative structure, "a slap in the
face to the pope".
"They swore on the Holy Gospel to never reveal what they
saw, heard, and read during the course of their work".
Regarding the most recent declarations by Chaouqui, who
held a press conference last Thursday, Becciu was decisive.
"I don't comment on nonsense," he said.
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