Former Vatican Employee arrested in Vatican Sting Operation for alleged Fraud

Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Former Vatican Employee arrested in Vatican Sting Operation for alleged Fraud

A former Vatican employee has been arrested in a sting operation and is currently behind bars awaiting formal charges for trying to sell back a manuscript he allegedly pilfered from the archives of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican confirmed last Thursday, after the incident was first reported in the Italian newspaper Domani.

At least one individual with knowledge of the manuscript in question, however, has raised doubts about whether it actually ever was part of the basilica’s archives.

Although the report in Vatican News, the official state-owned news agency, does not name the suspect, Domani and other Italian outlets have identified him as Alfio Maria Daniele Pergolizzi, an art historian who ran the communications office for St. Peter’s Basilica from 1995 to 2011.