‘Spying’ on Pope: Vatileaks reveal dirty dealings

The Pope’s private conversations allegedly wiretapped by a racy social climber and a Spanish prelate — the latest scandal to hit the Vatican has unearthed claims of theft, debauchery and betrayal within the Catholic Church.

Leaked documents set to be published in two books on Wednesday purportedly reveal how charity money was allegedly spent on refurbishing the houses of powerful cardinals, while claiming the murky Vatican bank continues to shelter suspected criminals.

PR expert Francesca Chaouqui and Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, arrested at the weekend for allegedly stealing and leaking classified documents, risk up to eight years in prison if the case gets to court.

While Vallejo Balda languishes in jail, Chaouqui (33) was released after assuring investigators of her cooperation in a case which has thrown light on Pope Francis’s struggles to clean up a centuries-old institution unwilling to give up its privileges. “I am totally innocent and I’ll prove it,” La Stampa daily quoted the dark-haired woman dubbed a “sex bomb” by Italian media as saying, adding that Vallejo Balda “did everything, I tried to stop him”.

The recording and publication of the Pope’s private conversations “is the most controversial aspect of all the dust blown up by the second Vatileaks,” the Repubblica daily said, comparing the scandal to a similar one three years ago. Then, it was Pope Benedict XVI’s butler who leaked documents revealing fierce infighting in the highest echelons of the Church and allegations of serious fraud. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, before being pardoned by the pope but banished from the Vatican forever.

In wiretaps transcribed in Merchants in the Temple by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, Francis can be heard asking, “if we don’t know how to look after money, which we can see, how can we look after the souls of the faithful, which we cannot ”

A Vatican statement Monday slammed the upcoming work.