A VATICAN trial of a pregnant public relations consultant has been quietly shelved as Pope Francis fights to salvage a reform agenda overshadowed by scandal.
Francesca Chaouqui, a 34-year-old PR, is accused of leaking secret Holy See papers while Francis is beset by calls for the resignation of some of his closest allies.
Chaouqui told The Sunday Times last week that “proceedings are at a standstill ”, adding that she did “not know if it [the trial] will resume”.
It had been adjourned on December 7 but failed to restart on schedule at the end of February. A Holy See spokesman said no new date had been set.
With Chaouqui due to give birth to a son in July, any delay in the trial is bound to invite questions about whether the Vatican is getting cold feet over publicity surrounding the case.
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Francis initially backed the prosecutions of Chaouqui and four others and even denounced the leaks from the balcony in St Peter’s Square.
He has said it had been a mistake to appoint two of the accused, Chaouqui and Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, to a special commission to reform Vatican finances and administration.
The body was entrusted with sensitive financial information that subsequently appeared in books by the journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.
Francis is facing sustained internal opposition to his attempts to overhaul the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administration.
Meanwhile, the cardinal charged by Francis with cleaning up the Holy See’s finances is in trouble in his native Australia where he told a royal commission that he had failed to act on tip-offs of sexual abuse by other clergy.
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Cardinal George Pell had cut an increasingly isolated figure in the Vatican even before the late-night admissions by video link.
Chaouqui claims to know that Francis is “angry” that he was persuaded to support a trial that has now rebounded to embarrass his papacy.