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Vatican City, Jul 18, 2017 / 11:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- One year after Vatican City charged a priest and a laywoman in the second “Vatileaks” trial, it has begun a legal process against two laymen accused of misallocating funds from the Vatican-owned children's hospital, Bambino Gesu.

The hearing, which began at 10 a.m. inside the Vatican July 18, focused on charges brought against the former president and treasurer, respectively, of Bambino Gesù, Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina.

The Vatican announced July 13 it was charging the two with illicit use of hospital funds in the amount of  more than 422,000 euro ($480,000) for the refurbishment of the apartment where Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, emeritus Secretary of State, lives.

The alleged crime is said to have been carried out between November 2013 and May 28, 2014, and to have benefited the construction firm of Italian businessman Gianantonio Bandera, which was carrying out the renovations.

Profiti and Spina were summoned to appear before the court by a June 16, 2017, decree from the president of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, with the first hearing set for July 18.

During the hearing, Profiti and Spina were accompanied by their lawyers: Antonello Basi for Profiti, and Alfredo Ottaviano for Spina.

The judicial board was made up of Paolo Papanti Pelletier, president, Venerando Marano, judge, and Carlo Bonzano, judge. The office of the Promoter of Justice was represented by the promoter himself, Gian Piero Milano, and by an added promoter, Roberto Zannotti.

After the charge was read, the lawyers made an initial request that journalists be removed from the courtroom due to noise and pressure put on the defendants from their affirmation or dissatisfaction with the proceedings, suggesting that in the future, they be placed in a separate room to watch a live stream of the hearing.

Milano refused the request, insisting it is a public hearing, and that public interest itself demands that the process be public.

A second objection the lawyers brought, but which was also immediately dismissed, was that the Vatican had no jurisdiction over the case, since the headquarters of Bambino Gesu is located in a piazza that is not Vatican-owned, and because the money was sent to England.

However, both Milano and the tribunal affirmed that the offense happened the moment the transfer was made, and since it was done through an APSA account, it was therefore a Vatican offense.

APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, oversees the Vatican's real estate and investments.

Ottaviani and Basi also argued that the defendants are not public officials, given their work for the Vatican. However, it was ruled that in the Vatican's statutes and laws, the definition of a public official does, in fact, include the responsibilities of Profiti and Spina.

The lawyers also requested that in future proceedings, all witnesses be called on the same day in order to avoid influence and pressure from the media, which was agreed on by everyone.  

Finally, at the request of the witnesses, a letter that in some way involves Cardinal Bertone was added to the trial documents.

Although the nature and contents of the letter are unknown, Ottaviani held that it was essential to the trial process, asking the tribunal permission to quote it as a testimony of the emeritus Secretary of State. Milano agreed, saying, “if needed, it will be discussed.”

The hearing closed by setting the dates for the next one: Sept. 7-9.

Among those present at the hearing from the public was Jeffrey Lena, legal adviser to the Holy See.

The Vatican reported it was conducting an investigation into this matter in 2016 after documents published in the “Vatileaks 2” scandal implicated there may have been an illicit transfer of funds from the hospital’s foundation.

Earlier this month, the Vatican held a press conference on the hospital to confirm that though it has had problems in the past, the Vatican has worked to resolve them.

The operations of the Bambino Gesù Hospital had come under scrutiny after a report by the Associated Press, which examined the hospital’s operations under its 2008-2015 administration, finding among other things that the Vatican-owned hospital had shifted its focus from its patients to profits and had subpar standards of care.  

In 2014, the Vatican conducted its own report on the hospital after fielding several complaints, and found many of the same things, including a focus on profits and breaches in accepted medical protocols including the reuse of disposable equipment, early awakening from surgery, and risk of infection due to overcrowding.

After the report, a widespread overhaul of the hospital staff and administration was conducted, and a 2015 report found that many of the previous issues had been resolved.

“For what regards the problems that were found, there was serious attention and effort to resolve them,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, said at the July 4 press conference.

The Bambino Gesù was founded in Rome in 1869 as the first pediatric hospital in Italy. In 1924 it was donated to the Holy See and became the “Pope's Hospital.” While it receives funding from the Italian government, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Italian government’s health authorities.

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Vatican City, Jul 18, 2017 / 12:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Father Giacomo Morandi secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Italian priest had been a subsecretary in the dicastery since 2015.

Fr. Morandi was also appointed titular Archbishop of Caere July 18; the date of his episcopal consecration has yet to be determined.

He was born in Modena in 1965, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola in 1990, at the age of 24.

Fr. Morandi obtained a licentiate in biblical sciences from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1992, and a licentiate and doctorate in the theology of evangelization from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2008. He has taught scripture at several institutions.

In the Modena-Nonantola archdiocese he has served as a pastor, episcopal vicar for catechesis, evangelization, and culture, archpriest of the cathedral chapter, and vicar general.

Since October 2015 Fr. Morandi has served as subsecretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Fr. Morandi's promotion from within the congregation fills the vacancy left by the July 1 appointment of Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., as the office's prefect.

Archbishop Ladaria had in turn taken the place of Cardinal Gerhard Müller, whose five-year term in the post had expired, and which was not renewed.

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When an influential Jesuit-run journal criticized U.S. politics in mid-July, it was not the first time it had caused controversy in the United States.

Stirring up controversy is nothing new for La Civilta Cattolica, which sees defending the faith as part of its mission.

Over the years, it has written articles calling professional boxing "attempted murder"; labeling distracted or impaired driving a sin that should be confessed; praising the powers of Harry Potter in getting kids to read; recommending anger management training for priests and religious; advocating Western governments regulate mosque construction; and condemning states from profiting from cigarette sales.

It also made some fur fly when it criticized animal rights movements that ignore the unique dignity and superiority of human beings over animals. It noted the hypocrisy of insisting on basic rights to life for animals but not for the disabled, sick or young children. The editorial asked if all animals have an equal right to exist, then wouldn't humans have to be responsible for protecting some species from others and "spend our entire lives keeping the cats away from the mice?''

The journal often reflects Vatican opinion and is reviewed by the Vatican Secretariat of State, so its contents are closely watched. Its authority also stems from the authority, expertise and influence of its authors, who have been top experts or leaders in the fields of canon law, theology and education or as official advisers to important Vatican offices and courts.

However, sometimes that scholarly expertise in canon law and the church's social doctrine does not mesh well with local contexts and national initiatives.

In 2002, Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda wrote an article expressing reservations over the direction U.S. bishops were taking in their national policy on clerical sex abuse. At the time he wrote the piece, he was a Vatican City appeals court judge and dean of the canon law faculty at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

Speaking from a perspective of church law, he had said bishops -- unless clearly negligent in investigating and correcting abuse situations -- generally are not morally or legally responsible for the actions of their priests. His point underlined Vatican perplexity over the U.S. legal system and the fact that dioceses had been sued because of the actions of a single cleric.

The priest also cautioned it was not good pastoral practice to notify civil authorities of all priestly sex abuse accusations; that psychological testing should not be required of suspected clerical abusers; and that, if reassigning a past abuser to active ministry, a bishop should not tell parishioners of the past abuse. Many U.S. bishops at the time, however, were doing the opposite.

Father Ghirlanda later told Catholic News Service that his article should not be seen as a Vatican "directive" to U.S. bishops as they formulated a national policy. Although the Vatican reviews the journal, Father Ghirlanda said the article represented his own opinion.

"I honestly don't know if the Holy See will accept these points," he had said.

In 2010, an article praised the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, so-called "Obamacare." It said the health care reform law marked "a needed and long-awaited beginning" of bringing greater justice to all citizens, especially the most vulnerable.

It also said the position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was against the measure because of its provisions on abortion funding and conscience protections, was morally unacceptable.

However, the Jesuit journal lamented the extreme divisiveness of debate on the measure and said it believed the different positions within the U.S. Catholic community just reflected a "clash" of differing opinions over how to implement church social teaching.

It did a follow-up editorial nine months later, saying any initial positive reactions to the health care reform law were "hasty and partial" and "not in harmony with the position of the U.S. bishops, who expressed their judgment on the basis on the moral teaching of the church, taking into account every aspect of the reform."

It said that in the eyes of the Catholic Church, the goal must be health care for all, accomplished in a way that also "guarantees the protection of the unborn and of the consciences" of Catholics who want to continue their jobs as health care workers, but cannot participate in abortions or other procedures they and the church consider immoral.

According to the journal's website, part of its mission is to "read and interpret" current events and trends in culture, history, science, art and politics "in the light of the Christian faith offered by the magisterium of the church."

The journal was founded in 1850 by a group of Italian Jesuits to provide a Catholic point of view for the political, religious and cultural upheaval of the day because of increasing hostility toward religious figures, the church's temporal authority and its teachings. The journal wanted to defend -- against threats from Masonic groups and other perceived enemies -- the values of a "Catholic civilization," which gave rise to its Italian title, "Civilta Cattolica."

Its unique relationship with the Vatican and the pope was established by Pope Pius IX in 1866 with a papal brief that spelled out the statutes for this Jesuit "community of writers" that would continue to produce a journal that would fight for and defend "with all its strength and incessantly, the Catholic religion and its doctrine and its rights." The journal's authority, then, is rooted in its mission and identity as having, according to its website, "a particular bond with the pontiff" and being "in harmony" with the Holy See.

Recent pontiffs -- St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis -- have continued to endorse and uphold the journal's unique purpose and relationship to the Holy See.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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