Two journalists went on trial at the Vatican today in an unusual proceeding in which they’re accused of illegally publishing claims of Vatican mismanagement based on confidential documents.
Reporters Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi both showed up before the Vatican court and, in theory, could face up to eight years in prison. The Vatican operates a different legal system than Italy and, though there is an extradition agreement between the two entities, it’s unclear if the two journalists could actually wind up in prison if convicted.
The early stages Tuesday included the judge spurning Fittipaldi’s request to dismiss the charges. The journalists’ fellow defendants are three individuals accused of leaking them the documents for use in two separate books.
“I am not afraid, I am calm,” Nuzzi wrote on Facebook, minutes before the first hearing.
“I have no intention to repent. It’s those who squandered money of the poor and weak, those who enjoy themselves in super attics at worshippers’ expenses that will have to repent,” he added in reference to revelations contained in Fittipaldi’s “Avarice” and his own “Merchants in the Temple.” “I will be in court at the Vatican to denounce a system of censorship that bans freedom of thought and information.”
Fittipaldi contended the the trial is an attack on press freedom. “In no other part of the world, at least in the part of the world that considers itself democratic, is there a crime of a scoop, a crime of publishing news,” he told AP.
The three others on trial include a monsignor, Father Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda. They’re accused of being the whistle-blowers who provided Nuzzi and Fittipaldi with material for the two books. The books were in part based on documents from a papal committee the three other defendants were part of and that reflected Pope Francis’ desire to overhaul the Vatican’s financial administration.
The journalists’ revelations included how substantial donations for a children’s hospital were instead used to redecorate the Rome attic of a controversial cardinal. In addition, they alleged that religious groups paid significant sums to secure sainthood for certain candidates.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is among the groups that have urged the Vatican to drop the charges against Nuzzi and Fittipaldi.
