A Vatican official said it would be a “grave sin” if the church was forced to turn over texts and emails in a UK trial stemming from a London real estate deal.
(Bloomberg) — A Vatican official said it would be a “grave sin” if the church was forced to turn over texts and emails in a UK trial stemming from a London real estate deal.
A representative for the Vatican said in a court filing that WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and email messages between an archbishop and a cardinal were protected by “pontifical secret,” a rule that applies to sensitive information related to aspects of church governance.
“The violation of the pontifical secret is deemed a grave sin,” Carlos Fernando Diaz Paniagua, a Roman Catholic priest and lawyer said in a witness statement filed with the London court last month.
The fight over electronic evidence is the latest twist in a sprawling dispute in multiple countries involving the Vatican’s €350 million ($383 million) investment in a former Harrods warehouse in London’s Chelsea district. Ten people, including an Italian cardinal, are on trial in Vatican City on various charges linked to the deal.
Raffaele Mincione, a defendant in the Vatican case, sought refuge in the UK courts. The financier sued the church for damages, saying his reputation has been tarnished by the Vatican’s accusations.
As part of the civil case in London, Mincione’s lawyers asked to see communications between Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Argentinian Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, two high ranking church officials. Pena Parra said on March 16 in a Vatican Court that the church was deceived by a defendant in the criminal trial, comparing the events with Jesus’s march toward crucifixion.
Diaz Paniagua said in his witness statement that Parolin had found no documents relevant to the Vatican proceedings in his emails and personal documents. Diaz Paniagua said it was not reasonable or proportionate to undertake a search of the documents given Parolin’s “peripheral involvement” with the transaction.
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The Vatican is arguing that both Parolin and Pena Parra deal with “high level” political matters, meaning their WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and meeting notes and documents should be considered state secrets, known in the church as pontifical secrets.
Senior church officials make a “solemn oath” not to reveal matters under the pontifical secret. Violating this can lead to church employees being suspended or fired. For priests, the implications are far more serious, Diaz Paniagua said.
“Public officials of the Holy See and the Vatican City make a solemn oath not to reveal matters under the pontifical secret regardless of any grave or urgent considerations or the need to protect the common good,” Diaz Paniagua said in the witness statement.
The Vatican said in a statement that the more than 30,000 documents that were part of the church investigation have been turned over to Mincione’s lawyers and can be used in the U.K. proceedings. It said that pontifical secrets are the broad equivalent of state secrets and the doctrine “serves to protect the internal deliberative process of the Holy See, just as any other state has the right to protect its own security, sovereign interests and diplomatic activities.”
Lawyers in London representing Mincione declined to comment.
The underlying controversy dates back to 2018 when the Vatican’s Secretariat of State — equivalent to the prime minister’s office — claims it was defrauded by Mincione after his companies allegedly sold it the former Harrods warehouse for an inflated price. The Vatican said the development, which was slated for luxury apartments, could have resulted in losses of as much as £150 million ($186 million).
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An investigation led to charges against the 10 people, including financial brokers, Vatican officials and a lawyer.
In 2020, Mincione asked the London court for a declaration that he had acted in good faith on the deal. If the court in London rules in his favor, Mincione hopes it will help rehabilitate his battered reputation and give him a possible defense at the Vatican.
The church sought to dismiss the London case, but an English appeals court ruled last year that Mincione’s claim could go ahead.
Mincione has maintained that his client throughout the transaction was Credit Suisse. He filed a separate claim in Luxembourg against Credit Suisse in June 2022, alleging the Swiss bank failed to tell him that investments in his fund came from the church’s charitable arm known as Peter’s Pence.
Credit Suisse, which isn’t involved in either the London or Vatican court proceedings, referred to a separate 2022 statement in response to the Luxembourg case, which it called without merit. “The allegations seem to be designed to merely divert attention away from Mr. Mincione,” the bank said last year.
The pontifical secret, also known as papal secrecy, was designed to protect sensitive information such as communications between the Vatican and papal embassies. It has also been applied over the years to judicial cases, to protect the privacy of victims and the identifies of those accused.
Critics said that pontifical secrecy had been abused by some church officials to avoid co-operation with the police in abuse cases. In 2019, the Pope declared that the rule of “pontifical secrecy” no longer applied to the sexual abuse of minors.
Vatican officials have until April 28 to decide whether to continue asserting the pontifical secret as a grounds to oppose the evidence request.
–With assistance from Alessandro Speciale.
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