Vatican arrests 2 over leaked documents

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Monday it had arrested a high-ranking priest and another member of a papal reform commission on suspicion of leaking confidential documents - a stunning move that comes just days before the publication of two books promising damaging revelations about the obstacles Pope Francis faces in cleaning up the Holy See's murky finances. 

The developments threatened to become a new "Vatileaks" - the 2012 scandal that began with the publication of a blockbuster book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi detailing the corruption and mismanagement in the Holy See. The scandal ended with the conviction of Pope Benedict XVI's butler - and Benedict's resignation a year later. 

The latest arrests of two advisers hand-picked by Francis to help in his effort to overhaul Vatican finances threatened to further expose infighting and rifts surrounding the pontiff's efforts at reform and a more open church. 

Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a Spaniard, and Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations executive, had served on a now-defunct financial reform commission set up by Francis in 2013 as part of his drive to clean house at the Vatican, especially in its scandal-tainted economic affairs. 

A Vatican statement said the arrests followed a monthslong investigation and that the two had been interrogated over the weekend. It said Vallejo Balda was being held in a jail cell in Vatican City, while Chaouqui was released Monday because she was cooperating with the investigation. 

The Vatican's statement stopped short of linking the latest leaks probe to the two potential bombshell books that go on sale Thursday. 

But a clearly irritated Vatican contended publication of such exposé works risk hurting Pope Francis' clean-up drive. 

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, noting that "the leaking of confidential information and documents is a crime" under a law enacted in the first months of Francis' papacy. 

Nuzzi's 2012 best-seller, His Holiness, based on leaked papal correspondence detailing corruption, infighting, and intrigue in the Vatican has been cited by some as inspiring Benedict XVI's stunning resignation in 2013. 

According to the publishers, Nuzzi's new book, Merchants in the Temple: Inside Pope Francis's Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican, promises to reveal "heretofore untold, unbelievable stories of scandal and corruption at the highest levels." 

"A veritable war is waging in the Catholic Church," a news release quotes Nuzzi as saying. "On one side, there is Pope Francis' strong message for one church of the poor" and on the other, "there is the opaque and aggressive power systems within the Vatican's hierarchy." 

The other book, Avarice: Documents Revealing Wealth, Scandals and Secrets of Francis' Church, is by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi. According to the publisher, the book maps out the church's financial empire, from the luxurious lives of the cardinals to the big businesses of Catholic-run hospitals in Italy.