A Holy See court on
Monday ruled that the Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin
should be called as a witness at the Vatileaks 2 trial.
The court granted a request by the defense team of one of
the accused, Francesca Chaouqui, to call as witnesses Parolin
and Santos Abril y Castellò, the president of the Commission of
Cardinals of the Vatican bank, IOR.
The court rejected a petition by Chaouqui's lawyers
challenging the Vatican's jurisdiction for the case on the
grounds that the alleged crimes took place in Italy.
The court agreed to the Chaouqui team's request for an
expert to analyze electronic communication via email, text and
Whatsapp messages between her and Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo
Balda, a senior Spanish clergyman who is also among the five
people in the dock.
But it rejected a request from Vallejo Balda's lawyers for
evaluation of his psychological state.
Vallejo Balda and PR expert Chaouqui were both members of
the now-defunct COSEA commission set up to advise Pope Francis
on reform of the Holy See's economic-administrative structure.
The trial was then adjourned without a date being set for
the next hearing.
Investigative journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano
Fittipaldi and Vallejo Balda's former assistant Nicola Maio are
also on trial.
Chaouqui, Balda and Maio are charged with leaking the
confidential material and Nuzzi and Fittipaldi with using it in
two recently published books - one titled Avarice, the other
Merchants in the Temple - documenting alleged Vatican waste and
mismanagement and lavish spending by clergymen.
The trial opened last month and the second hearing last
week, like Monday's, was quickly adjourned.
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