Vatican airs dirty laundry in trial over London property

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s sprawling financial trial may not have produced any convictions yet or any new smoking guns. But recent testimony has provided plenty of insights into how the Vatican operates. The takeaways from recent hearings are of a church bureaucracy that used espionage, allowed outsiders with unverified qualifications to gain access to the Apostolic Palace and relied on a pervasive mantra of sparing the pope responsibility until someone’s neck was on the line. The trial so far has produced an unusual airing of the Vatican’s dirty laundry. Pope Francis sought to have a trial to show his willingness to crack down on alleged financial impropriety.