Pope Francis on Tuesday freed a Vatican monsignor convicted of leaking confidential documents to journalists, granting him a Christmas-time clemency.
Francis granted "conditional freedom" to Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda after he served half of his 18-month sentence, the Vatican said late on Tuesday. Fired from his job as a high-ranking Vatican financial official, Mgr Vallejo now falls under the authority of his local bishop in Astorga, Spain.
In July, a Vatican court convicted Mgr Vallejo of conspiring to pass documents onto two journalists, although it cleared him and a co-defendant of forming a criminal organisation to do so.
