Vatican tribunal convicts historian-journalist of slander against Church officials

The Vatican City State Tribunal has found Nicola Giampaolo guilty of slander and sentenced him to three years and six months in prison.

In a press release from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, dated 30 October, it was announced that the tribunal had found Giampaolo, a historian from Italy’s Puglia region and a journalist by training – and who had served as postulator, the official responsible for guiding a cause for beatification, for the late Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro – guilty of slander.

In addition to his prison term, Giampaolo has been barred from holding public office for the same duration. He must also pay the Vatican’s legal costs and damages totalling €50,000: €20,000 to Father Bogusław Turek and €15,000 both to Cardinal Angelo Becciu and to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican department overseeing canonisation and beatification processes.

The case stems from accusations Giampaolo made on RAI’s investigative programme "Report", in which he alleged that Church officials had offered him bribes to advance Moro’s cause for sainthood. The Vatican court ruled that Giampaolo was “colpevole di calunnia”, guilty of slander, against Fr Turek, Cardinal Becciu and the Dicastery itself, concluding that his claims were false and defamatory.

Vatican officials had previously rejected the allegations by Giampaolo. In 2021, Fr Turek publicly denied the charges, and the Dicastery noted that Giampaolo had been removed from his role as Moro’s postulator in April 2018, several months before the supposed incident. “The alleged financial request could not have been made to Mr Giampaolo in June 2018,” the Dicastery said at the time, “as he was no longer a postulator." 

The Tribunal’s decision highlights the seriousness with which the Vatican treats defamation under its own legal system. The Vatican City State, though small, maintains a fully functioning judiciary.

At its centre is the Vatican City State Tribunal, composed of a panel of three judges appointed directly by the Pope. These judges hear both civil and criminal cases arising under the Vatican’s own penal code, which is based largely on Italian law as it stood in 1929, when the Lateran Treaty established the state.

The tribunal operates under the oversight of the President of the Tribunal, who functions similarly to a chief justice, while appeals are heard by the Court of Appeal and, ultimately, by the Supreme Court of Vatican City State, presided over by the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura – the highest judicial authority after the Pope himself.

Prosecutorial duties fall to the Promoter of Justice, roughly equivalent to a public prosecutor.

Slander is a punishable offence under Vatican law, and recent high-profile trials such as the 2012 so-called “Vatileaks” affair have drawn growing international attention to Vatican justice.

So far, there has been no public comment or indication of appeal from Giampaolo. Thus, for now, the ruling stands as the final word from the Vatican’s judicial authorities on the matter.

Photo: Vatican guards stand by the Governorato Palace before the opening ceremony of the Vatican Tribunal's 2008 term in Vatican City, 12 January 2008. The vast majority of cases for the Vatican's secular court reportedly involves tourists and pilgrims who become involved in disputes during visits to the Vatican. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images.)

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