FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis is seen at the Vatican walking next to Domenico Giani, Inspector General of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the police and security force of Vatican City, before boarding a bus heading to Ariccia, south of Rome, to make his Lent spiritual exercises March 5, 2017. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
October 14, 2019
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Domenico Giani, the Vatican’s longtime security chief and Pope Francis’ main bodyguard, resigned on Monday over the leak of information from an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing in the Vatican.
The departure of Giani, 57, a former member of Italy’s secret services who had been in the Vatican post since 2006, follows an unprecedented and unexplained raid by his men on two key Vatican offices, the Financial Information Authority (AIF) and the Secretariat of State, on Oct 2.
Since then, the Vatican has been in turmoil over the leak of an internal police notice bearing pictures of five Vatican employees, including the number two at AIF and a monsignor in the Secretariat of State.
Vatican sources said the pope was furious over the leak of the notice, which showed the five, including a woman, in a format similar to a “most wanted” flyer. It was issued to guards at Vatican gates telling them the five could not enter because they had been “preventively suspended”.
The pope ordered an investigation into the leak, the Vatican said. Sources said the pope was upset that the five had been branded in such a way even though they formally had not been suspected of anything specific and that the investigation, into an international real estate deal, was still in its infancy.
When police raided the offices, seizing documents and electronic devices, the Vatican said it was a follow-up to complaints filed in the summer by the Vatican bank and the Office of the Auditor General, and were related to “financial operations carried out over the course of time”.
Giani’s resignation was announced by the Vatican.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Kevin Liffey/Mark Heinrich)
