Two people, one of them the Spanish religious Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, were arrested on charges of theft and dissemination of news and confidential documents, today confirmed the Holy See.
Monsignor Vallejo Balda was dissolved secretary of the Commission of Inquiry and the economic and administrative offices of the Holy See (COSEA), reminded a Vatican statement.
Vallejo Balda was arrested by the Italian secular Chaouqui Francesca, who was also a member of the same commission and has already been released, said the Holy See.
The Holy See reported that the two arrested were detained after questioning being Saturday and Sunday, as part of investigations being carried out in relation to an alleged reserved access to the Vatican archives.
He also explained that investigations are still open and recalled that "dissemination of news and confidential documents is a crime" referred to in the law of the State of Vatican City.
The Holy See made reference to the forthcoming book by reporting the arrests and said that would be "a grave betrayal of trust of the Pope".
Italian media reported today by the appearance of two titles with documents allegedly from Vatican archives: "Greed" by Emiliano Fittipaldi, and "Via Crucis" by Gianluigi Nuzzi
The Vatican said that those who are involved in these acts "take advantage of a gravely illicit act as delivery of classified documents".
"The publications of this kind do not help in any way to clarity and truth, but generate confusion and partial and tendentious interpretations. You need to avoid the mistake of thinking that somehow helps the papal mission, "the statement added.
In February 2014, the Spanish Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda released to the media that he would be named number two in the Ministry of Economy, a "ministry" created by Pope Francisco to deal with managing all financial and administrative activities of the Holy See, but eventually his appointment was announced.
In May 2014 he participated in a luxurious food that religious attendance, entrepreneurs and Italian journalists on the roof of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs for the canonization of Pope John XXIII and John Paul II, an act that had the sympathy Pope Francisco, then they echoed by Italian media.
Born in 1961 in Villamediana de Iregua (La Rioja, north-central Spain), Vallejo Balda's degree in Spiritual Theology at the Faculty of Northern Spain in Burgos, and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Salamanca.
He also earned a law degree from the National University of Distance Education, specializing in economic issues.
Vallejo Balda, called by reporters "the book of God", was secretary of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
As for Chaouqui, 32, was named last in 2013 by the Pope as one of the eight members of the commission of the agency created by the Pope for the transparency of all financial institutions of the Holy See, except the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).
Chaouqui previously worked for the multinational Ernst & Young Italy.