This article comes from Zenit.
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Vatican Urges Prudence to WikiLeaks Readers
Says Documents Don't Reflect Holy See Views
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 12, 2010 (Zenit.org).- In response to the Wikileaks publication of several confidential and secret communications of the U.S. State Department, the Vatican is urging prudence in the evaluation of these documents.
The Wikileaks Web site obtained 251,287 confidential cables containing communications between 274 U.S. embassies throughout the world and the State Department over the years 1966-2010.
The site began publishing these documents on Nov. 28 and plans to post the rest over the next few months; some 1,340 have already been publicized, including at least 16 that are on topics related to the Vatican.
The Vatican press office released a statement Saturday, noting, "Without venturing to evaluate the extreme seriousness of publishing such a large amount of secret and confidential material, and its possible consequences, the Holy See Press Office observes that part of the documents published recently by Wikileaks concerns reports sent to the U.S. State Department by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See."
It continued, "Naturally these reports reflect the perceptions and opinions of the people who wrote them and cannot be considered as expressions of the Holy See itself, nor as exact quotations of the words of its officials."
The statement concluded, "Their reliability must, then, be evaluated carefully and with great prudence, bearing this circumstance in mind."
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See released a statement condemning the leak of confidential information in the "strongest terms."
The Wikileaks Web site obtained 251,287 confidential cables containing communications between 274 U.S. embassies throughout the world and the State Department over the years 1966-2010.
The site began publishing these documents on Nov. 28 and plans to post the rest over the next few months; some 1,340 have already been publicized, including at least 16 that are on topics related to the Vatican.
The Vatican press office released a statement Saturday, noting, "Without venturing to evaluate the extreme seriousness of publishing such a large amount of secret and confidential material, and its possible consequences, the Holy See Press Office observes that part of the documents published recently by Wikileaks concerns reports sent to the U.S. State Department by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See."
It continued, "Naturally these reports reflect the perceptions and opinions of the people who wrote them and cannot be considered as expressions of the Holy See itself, nor as exact quotations of the words of its officials."
The statement concluded, "Their reliability must, then, be evaluated carefully and with great prudence, bearing this circumstance in mind."
The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See released a statement condemning the leak of confidential information in the "strongest terms."
