The Associated Press reports that Vatican officials are very upset over the leak of a draft of the much-anticipated papal encyclical on the environment yesterday. I find the concluding paragraph of the AP report most interesting:

In the aftermath of the “Vatileaks” scandal, the Vatican City State updated its criminal code to include severe penalties for anyone who leaks a Vatican document or publishes news from it: Up to two years in prison and a 5,000 euro ($5,600) fine.

Well, I suppose if the Vatican wants to keep its documents of this sort secret until it’s ready to release them, it has the authority to do so, just like any other sovereign nation. But it’s not as if some national security rides on them. Quite the contrary, having read (a rough English translation of) the climate-change portion of the leaked (draft) of the encyclical, I’m convinced that had the Vatican shared the earlier drafts with scientists, economists, and theologians worldwide while developing it, the encyclical could have been much improved. In the form leaked, the climate section shows every sign of having been informed exclusively by the alarmist perspective. Pope Francis’s advisors have served him very poorly.