The arrests came after Italian prosecutors seized “documents and electronic devices” from some of the Vatican’s highest offices as part of a finance probe.
“This morning activities were carried out to acquire documents and electronic devices from certain offices of the First Section of the Secretariat of State and the State Financial Information Authority,” the Vatican said in a statement.
The Vatican added that the operation, authorised by prosecutor Gian Piero Milano and his deputy Alessandro Diddi, was “linked to the complaints presented at the beginning of last summer by the Institute for Works of Religion and the Office of the General Auditor, regarding financial transactions carried out over time”.
It said the heads of the departments in question had been informed ahead of the raid but gave no further details regarding the results of operation.
The Secretariat of State is the Catholic Church’s governing authority and most powerful office, which works closely with Pope Francis.
The AIF is an anti-money laundering body designed to lend transparency to operations by the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), which acts as the Vatican Bank.
The IOR handles the accounts of Vatican employees as well as clerics, religious congregations and diplomats affiliated with the Holy See.
It has been at the centre of numerous political and financial scandals in recent decades.
Two former heads of the IOR were handed prison terms in 2017 over “dubious transactions”, while an Italian businessman was last year found guilty of money laundering by a Vatican court.
In 2018, a former head of the Vatican bank also faced trial over money laundering and embezzlement associated with property deals.
Such scandals prompted efforts to clean up the bank, and around 5000 bank accounts have been closed in recent years, first under Pope Benedict XVI and then under the current pontiff, Pope Francis.
