this pressed: Vatican arrests two advisers over alleged links to leaked documents – The Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola November 2 at 10:04 PM Follow @Anthony_FaiolaThe arrest of two Vatican insiders on suspicion of leaking damaging internal documents signaled the return Monday of an unwelcome guest at the Holy See’s ancient gates: scandal.Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, a 54-year-old senior Vatican bureaucrat, and Francesca Chaouqui, a 33-year-old Italian public relations maven known in some circles as “the pope’s lobbyist,” were taken into custody over the weekend.The arrests came as the Vatican, which denounced their actions as a “grave betrayal” of Pope Francis’s trust, braced for the release of two potentially explosive books this week based on leaks that the Holy See appeared to link to the two suspects.[Spilled secrets claim to show Vatican’s own sins]The books — which reportedly contain fresh revelations about corruption and mismanagement in the Vatican and about challenges to Francis’s push for internal reform — include one by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. Nuzzi’s 2012 book on a “Vatileaks” scandal rocked the papacy of Benedict XVI by detailing behind-the-scenes power struggles revealed in documents stolen by Pope Benedict’s butler. Nuzzi’s new book, according to his Italian publisher, is like a “crime novel” and even quotes from recordings of Francis chastising his “top brass.”Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, member of the special commission on economic reforms of the Vatican, poses for a portrait at her home in Rome on Sept. 16. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)At a time when the pontiff is grappling with deep divisions among his hierarchy over the direction of his papacy, the surprise weekend detentions could further expose the internal rifts between his ideological allies and factions that oppose his efforts to reform the church. They could also signal a new phase for a Vatican that has generally basked in the glow of good press under Francis and may now need to revert to damage-control mode again.

Source: Vatican arrests two advisers over alleged links to leaked documents – The Washington Post