Courtney McGrailVatileaks II suspect linked with property scam
The home of Francesca Chaouqui and her husband Corrado Lanino has been raided by police because of suspected access to computers linked to a probe into suspected irregularities in the sale of a 14th-Century castle.
Mrs Chaouqui, a former member of a Vatican advisory council, is already facing a Vatican court with two others for the alleged illegal dissemination of confidential documents to the journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, both of whom are also on trial.
She and her husband are now under investigation for irregularities in the sale of San Girolamo castle, a one-time Franciscan monastery in the Diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia. In late September, the diocese’s one-time bishop, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the Pontifical Council for the Family, was dropped from the criminal investigation, with a judge ruling that documents proved he had been “completely un-involved” in a scheme to buy and profit from the sale of the castle.
Police confirm terrorist threats against Pope Francis
Italian and Kosovar police have confirmed that they have taken action against four people who were terrorist risks and had made online threats against Pope Francis.
The four had been active in a Facebook group with apparent links to Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a Balkan terrorist fighting with ISIS, and had posted images of themselves bearing arms in poses characteristic of ISIS militants. They are accused of publishing messages “against the person of the Holy Father”, and saying, “remember, there will not be another Pope after this one; he will be the last”.
State Police in Brescia said that two of the four had been expelled from Italy, one had been arrested in Kosovo, and a fourth had had his travel documents confiscated and been placed on a terrorism watch list.
Pope is PETA’s person of the year
Pope Francis has been named as Person of the Year by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In a statement, PETA said the Pope earned the title “for asking all citizens of the world to reject domination over God’s creation, treat animals with kindness and respect the environment”. The Pontiff’s appeal, they said, seemed to them impossible to interpret except “as a subtle call to go vegan, given the well-established role of animal agriculture in climate change”.
In his encyclical Laudato Si’, the animal welfare group said, the Pope stressed the importance of treating animals kindly, quoting how he said “the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty towards any creature is ‘contrary to human dignity’.”
“With more than a billion Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis’ animal-friendly teachings have a massive audience,” PETA said.
Tolerance depends on freedom of religion – Holy See
“The Holy See has a particular duty to insist on the centrality of the freedom of religion or belief,” the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States said at the 22nd ministerial council of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), “not because it ignores other freedoms, but because the freedom of religion or belief is the litmus test for the respect of all other human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
OSCE’s 22nd ministerial council is on the theme of the defence of religious liberty.