Vatilix

The beginning of the scandal

The journalist published some of the documents received, and then released the book “ His Holiness: Secret Letters of Benedict XVI ”, which was published in May 2012. The book of Nuzzi talks about corruption in the Vatican and sexual scandals , in the center of which were representatives of the Roman Catholic Church .

At the first stage of the scandal’s development, the Vatican’s bank, the Institute of Religious Affairs (Istituto per le Opere di Religione, IOR), was in the spotlight, as the documents published by Nuzzi gave grounds for accusing the bank of financial violations. On May 24, 2012, the IOR Supervisory Board unanimously voted for the resignation of President Gotti Tedeschi ^[4] (on February 19, 2014, the investigation dropped all charges against Tedeschi, continuing the investigation of IOR’s illegal activities ^[5] ).

Beginning of Church Investigation

On April 24, 2012, Benedict XVI appointed 82-year-old Spanish Cardinal Julian Erranz , who since 1949 was associated with the organization Opus Dei , chairman of the Cardinal Commission to investigate the incident. The commission included the Slovak cardinal and Archbishop Josef Tomko , as well as the Italian cardinal and Archbishop Salvatore De Georgi . Some observers noted that Cardinal Errans in 2006 himself published a book on the inner life of the Vatican, entitled “Nei dintorni di Gerico” (“In the Outskirts of Jericho”). The activities of the cardinal commission were carried out in parallel with the official investigation ^[6] . In 2002, while still the head of the Vatican Council, Archbishop Julian Errans, in the context of the scandal that erupted in the United States then, opposed the transfer by bishops to secular justice of materials about priests suspected of sexual harassment ^[7] .

All members of this commission at the time of its creation were at rest. They were faced with the task of interviewing at their choice suspects from among 2843 people working in the Roman Curia, and about 2000 people working in the administration of the city-state of the Vatican. Only the cardinal commission has the right to interrogate the cardinals ^[8] .

Police Investigation

On May 25, 2012, Paolo Gabriele was arrested at his Vatican apartment, where he lived with his wife and three children. He spent two months in a detention center in the Vatican. During a search of the apartment, several boxes with confidential documents were found, including private letters from the pontiff, a check for 100 thousand US dollars and a gold bar, as well as special equipment for copying classified papers.

The Trial of Gabriele

The trial of the former valet, nicknamed the Vatilix reporters, began on September 30. Four meetings were held at which eight witnesses heard, including the pontiff's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Genswein, and several Vatican gendarmes. At the hearing, Gabriele stated that he acted out of love for the Roman Catholic Church and did not consider himself a thief. According to him, he "acted solely at the behest of deep love for the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI", which two clans close to him tried to manipulate. In preliminary interrogations, Paolo Gabriele claimed that he hoped that through the publication of secret papers "he would reveal the evil and corruption that he had observed in the Vatican, which would help the Catholic Church return to the right path." At the same time, at court hearings, he constantly repeated: "I betrayed the trust of the holy father, whom I love as a son."

The prosecution, in the person of prosecutor Nicola Picardie, required three years in prison for Gabriele. In turn, the representative of the defense, the lawyer Christian Arru, demanded that all charges be dropped and Gabriele should be released in the courtroom.

Together with Paolo Gabriele, the Vatican State Secretariat programmer Claudio Charpelletti, who was charged with aiding the former valet, was also in the dock. However, at the request of Charpelletti's lawyers, the court set aside his case in a separate proceeding.

The indictment did not mention the names of two other persons associated with Gabriele: his clergyman don Giovanni Luci, to whom the valet handed copies of the documents, and his former clergyman don Paolo Morocutti , from whom he received them ^[9] .

The outcome of the process, which lasted only a week, was the sentence of Gabriele to three years in prison, which was reduced to 18 months, since Gabriele had previously apologized to the Pope. It was assumed that the 46-year-old Gabriele would serve his sentence in prison in Italy , since the Vatican has no conditions for long-term prison sentences.

Sharpelletti Trial

On November 5, 2012, the trial of the Vatican State Secretariat programmer Claudio Charpelletti began, and on November 10 he was sentenced to two months of suspended imprisonment, with a 5-year deferral of execution ^[10] . Charpelletti was found guilty of aiding Gabriele, which helped him avoid the investigation for some time. The programmer received back a thousand euros of bail, but he was charged with paying legal fees. During the hearings, in addition to Charpelletti and Gabriele themselves, testimony was also given to the Director of the State Secretariat's Information Department, Monsignor Carlo Maria Polwani, the Deputy Commander of the Swiss Guard Wilhelm Clotter and the Vatican Gendarmerie officer Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti ^[11] .

In his testimony, Paolo Gabriele denied any allegations of involvement in the scandal of Monsignor Carlo Maria Polwani. The clergyman, nephew of the papal nuncio in Washington, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano (in whose letter the term “Vatilix” was first used), according to Charpelletti, handed him an envelope with the incriminated documents for transfer to Gabriele. The butler, on the contrary, stated in the courtroom that he himself had given these documents to the programmer, and that Polwani had nothing to do with it. Charpelletti was accused of aiding, as the investigation discovered the said envelope, the origin of which he could not explain. At the time of the arrest, the technician stated that he had received it from Gabriele, the next day he changed his testimony and gave the name of Monsignor Polwani ^[11] .

Pardon of Convicts

On December 22, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI personally visited the cell in the premises of the Vatican Gendarmerie, where, contrary to the initial expectations of the press, Gabriele was detained and informed the condemned of the pardon ^[12] . According to the press secretary of the Holy See Federico Lombardi , the conversation lasted 15 minutes, was very tense and personal. The former butler, who has received freedom, is forbidden to live and work in the Vatican. On the same day, programmer Claudio Charpelletti was pardoned, who, after his soft sentence, continued to work in the Vatican's State Secretariat, moving from the Information Department of this dikster to the Statistical ^[13] .

Finish Church Investigation

On December 17, 2012, the Cardinal Commission, led by Cardinal Errance, presented a secret report to Benedict XVI on the results of his investigation into the Vatilix case, but continued to work further, focusing on the activities of the Institute of Religious Affairs . Information leaked to the press about the presence in the mentioned document of information on the activities of the “gay lobby” in the Vatican. On February 25, 2013, Benedict XVI personally received the members of the Cardinal Commission and announced the need to transfer the materials collected to her to the disposal of the new Pope ^[14] .

On November 21, 2015, by decision of the Vatican Court, the Secretary of the Prefecture of Economic Affairs of the Holy See Priest , his secretary Nicola Maio and Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui (members of the Commission on Economic Activities of the Holy See) ( Italian: Commissione referente sulle attività economiche della Santa Sede , abbreviated Cosea), as well as journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi ( Italian. Emiliano Fittipaldi ) based on Art. 116 of the Vatican Penal Code have been charged as defendants in the case of embezzlement of secret documents of the Holy See in connection with the publication of Nuzzi's book “Via Crucis” (“ The Way of the Cross . Unpublished notes and documents on the difficult struggle of Pope Francis for changes in the Church”) ^{[15 ]} .

On November 24, 2015, the first court hearing was held ^[16] .

On July 5, 2016, the day after the closing speech of the prosecutors, the lawyers Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaoukui in their speeches substantiated the need for acquittals ^[17] .

On July 7, 2016, the court sentenced Vallejo Balda to 18 months of imprisonment for disclosing classified documents, Chaoukui to 10 months of imprisonment for complicity (with a 5-year deferral of execution), Nicola Mayo was acquitted. With respect to Nuzzi and Fittipaldi, it was decided that they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the court (they are Italian citizens and have never committed unlawful acts on the territory of the Vatican) ^[18] .

On December 20, 2016, Pope Francis blessed the early release of Vallejo Balda from imprisonment in the premises of the Vatican Gendarmerie due to the expiration of more than half of his sentence ^[19] .

On December 24, 2016, the Vatican court published an 86-page document - the motivation part of the July 7 conviction, which stated that the disclosed documents did have a restricted access stamp, but did not contain critical state secrets ^[20] .

• The valet of the pope was sentenced to one and a half years in prison // Lenta.ru , 10/06/2012