Three months ago, this official communication announced that the Holy See's auditor general resigned in agreement with the Vatican, without giving more details.
His name was Libero Milone, and he had been president of Deloitte Italia.
Now he has broken his silence for journalists from four media outlets: Corriere della Sera, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Sky news Italy.
He says the Vatican forced him to resign because he was gathering evidence of possible irregularities. He continued to say that there are people inside the Vatican who do not want to advance the financial reform promoted by Pope Francis. The Vatican's response came a few hours later.
With their statement, the Holy See explained that 'he has failed to maintain the agreement to keep confidential the reasons for his resignation from the Office.' It also revealed that the Office under Milone's direction was 'exceeding its powers, illegally engaged an external company to conduct investigative activities on the private life of Holy See personnel, a crime that has irretrievably crippled the trust placed in him.'
The number three in the Vatican, Angelo Becciu, says the former auditor general 'freely agreed to submit his resignation' when he was shown the evidence that incriminated him. He asserts that it was a way to protect Milone's reputation, because the alternative would have been to arrest him.
In addition, Becciu considers it 'false and unjustified' to say some people want to stop Pope Francis' reform.
