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Vatican's new consultant now faces legal action

Her Twitter tweets alleged homosexuality and corruption
Vatican's new consultant now faces legal action
Published: August 15, 2013 04:30 AM GMT
Updated: August 14, 2013 05:44 PM GMT

A former Italian economy minister is suing a member of the new Vatican financial reform panel and newspaper editors over allegations that he is gay and that a senior Vatican cardinal is corrupt. "I am taking legal action against (Francesca) Immacolata Chaouqui as well as (newspaper) employees and publishers," said Giulio Tremonti.

Silvio Berlusconi's former economy minister told ANSA that one of those being sued is Alessandro Sallusti, editor of Il Giornale, the daily that printed the allegations.

The Vatican has reportedly opened a probe into the hiring of Chaouqui, 30, who made headlines last month when she became the only woman and only Italian named to an eight-member pontifical commission set up to overhaul the Vatican's financial administration. Before her appointment, the former Ernst & Young communications manager made prolific Twitter posts about affairs at the Holy See.

Among the most incendiary was a March tweet in which she called Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone "corrupt" and alleged he was involved in shady business affairs with an unidentified Italian company.

In a February post she fueled rumors that then pope Benedict XVI was suffering from cancer in the run-up to his abdication: "I confirm: the pope has been suffering from leukaemia for more than a year". The former economy minister's charges against her stem from this tweet, which was subsequently published in Il Giornale: "Tremonti held an account with the (Vatican Bank). They shut it down when they found out he is gay".

Full Story:Ex-minister sues Vatican reform panelist for tweets 

Source:Gazzetta del Sud

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