Vatican probing Bertone attic case

(ANSA) - Vatican City, March 31 - The Vatican on Thursday confirmed that a probe has been opened into the funding of rennovations to the penthouse apartment inhabited by former Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
    Former chairman of the Bambin Gesù pediatric hospital Giuseppe Profiti and former treasurer Massimo Spina are under investigation, the deputy director of the Vatican press office Greg Burke said.
    The suspects are allegedly being probed for misappropriation.
    Cardinal Bertone is not under investigation, Burke said. The statement came after L'Espresso magazine reported that judicial authorities at the Vatican have launched a probe into the two ex pediatric hospital managers following revelations made by journalist Emiliano Fittipladi in his controversial 2015 exposé Avarice examining the Vatican's financial empire.
    Fittipaldi is on trial along with four others in the so-called Vatileaks 2 case involving the alleged leaking and publishing of confidential Vatican documents.
    "Pope Francis' judges have already found documentary evidence to show that the renovations to the apartment were paid for by the Bambin Gesù pediatric hospital foundation," wrote Fittipaldi in Thursday's report.
    The paediatric hospital operates in the Italian national health system but is owned and administered by the Holy See.
    Cardinal Bertone has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over his penthouse in Via della Conciliazione near St Peter's Basilica.
    "I used my savings," Bertone wrote in Genoa-based Catholic weekly Il Cittadino last November.
    "I have the paperwork to prove I paid roughly 300,000 euros to the Vatican governorate from my own account.
    "I later discovered that the Bambin Gesu' Foundation had made a contribution for the same purpose," he continued.
    "I rule out having ever given indication or authorised the foundation to make any payment," the cardinal said.
    Cardinal Bertone also denied living in luxury.
    "The apartment measures 296 square metres and I don't live there on my own. I live with a community of nuns who help me," the prelate told Corriere della Sera newspaper at the time.