Vatican leaks: Book reveals dirty dealings

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican’s new leaks scandal intensified on Tuesday as a book detailed the mismanagement and internal resistance that has been thwarting Pope Francis’ financial reform efforts.

Citing confidential documents, it exposed millions of euros in potential lost rental revenue, the scandal of the Vatican’s saintmaking machine, greedy monsignors and a professional-style break-in at the Vatican.

“Merchants in the Temple,” by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi is due out Thursday. Its publication, and that of a second book, comes days after the Vatican arrested two members of Francis’ financial reform commission in an investigation into stolen documents.

The Vatican described the books as “fruit of a grave betrayal of the trust given by the pope, and, as far as the authors go, of an operation to take advantage of a gravely illicit act of handing over confidential documentation”.

“Publications of this nature do not help in any way to establish clarity and truth, but rather generate confusion and partial and tendentious conclusions,” the Vatican said.

The arrests and books mark a new phase in the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal. The saga began in 2012 with an earlier Nuzzi expose, peaked with the conviction of PopeBenedictXVI’sbutler.