Vatican Transfers Corruption Whistleblower

Italy is reeling from news last night that a high-ranking official of Vatican City who tried to blow the whistle on corruption was ignored and was forced to transfer positions, reports Reuters. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was the No. 2 man at Vatican City in charge of maintaining the city-state's infrastructure from 2009 to 2011, sent letters to Church leaders, including Pope Benedict, warning about fraud and millions of dollars in waste.

Vigano cited a single financial transaction that lost the Church $2.5 million, a $773,000 Nativity scene whose cost he reduced to $263,000 the following year, as well as "so many situations of corruption and abuse of power that have been rooted in the management of so many departments." Because of Vigano's anti-corruption activities, he was criticized heavily and commanded to become ambassador to Washington three years before his post as deputy-governor was to expire. The Vatican confirmed the contents of Vigano's letters, although it expressed "sadness over the publication of reserved documents," calling the reports "partial and banal." (More Vatican stories.)