Holy See Press Office suspends credentials of journalist who leaked encyclical

June 16, 2015

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, has suspended the credentials of Sandro Magister, the Vatican reporter from L’Espresso, the Italian journal that leaked a version of Pope Francis’s upcoming encyclical on the environment.

Attendance at Vatican press conferences is typically limited to journalists who have been granted credentials by the press office.

In reporting on the suspension, the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero argued that L'Espresso did not violate the terms of the press office’s embargo on the encyclical since it did not obtain the draft from the press office, but from a source in the Curia.

Magister himself has said that a draft of the encyclical was given to the editor of L'Espresso, who asked him to write an introductory piece. Thus the veteran Vatican journalist says that he was not the direct recipient of the leaked document.

 

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Further information:

• Enciclica, il Vaticano punisce il giornalista che ha diffuso la bozza: accredito sospeso (Il Messaggero)
• Whodunit playing out as Vatican reels from encyclical leak (AP)
• Leaked version of papal encyclical is not final draft, Vatican says (CWN, 6/15)