Vatican Radio Convicted

Vatican Radio Convicted

A Time Line

In 2000, a small number of cases of childhood leukemia, first reported by a local physician, were blamed by residents on the strong radio-frequency fields generated by the Vatican antennas.

Local residents and environmentalists have sought to have the Vatican close down the complex since 2000.

Source 2005-Oct-01 https://spectrum.ieee.org/sins-of-transmission

April 23 -- The Vatican is reported to be using its diplomatic immunity to hinder investigations of claims that Vatican radio transmitters are causing cancer in the a northern suburb of Rome.

Residents of Cesano, which is near the Vatican's antennae at Santa Maria de Galera, have complained about the transmissions. Investigations have shown an incidence of tumours around a third higher than the national average and electromagnetic energy in the area was three times the legal limit.

The Vatican is reported to have returned paperwork sent to them by investigating magistrates on the grounds that the antennae complex has extra-territorial status.

Source 2000-Apr-23 https://radionewsweb.com/2000-04.html#Vatican1

October 9 -- Despite attempts by the Vatican to claim diplomatic immunity for its radio station in a northern suburb of Rome, three executives from Vatican Radio look likely to face trial over harm its emissions have allegedly caused.

Italy has no specific laws on electromagnetic radiation so the three -- Vatican Radio's president, director-general and technical director - - are to be charged with "dangerous throwing of things."

Source 2000-Oct-9 https://radionewsweb.com/2000-10.html#Vatican1

..... a complaint [was] filed in 2001 by Cesano residents who alleged health hazards posed by the electromagnetic waves.

Source 2010-Jul-15 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Vatican-radio-waves-blamed-for-high-cancer-risk.html

Vatican Radio [in 2011]: ''Since an agreement with the Italian government in 2001, the limits set by Italian law have been attentively respected, as shown by repeated measurements carried out by the competent Italian public institutions."

Source 2011-Feb-25 https://www.ansa.it/.../visualizza_new.html_1583011632.html

A 2001 investigation by Italy's environment ministry showed that magnetic fields in the area were six times more powerful than allowed, while Rome's Lazio region estimated that the rate of deaths from leukaemia among children in the Cesano area was three times higher than in adjoining areas.

Mr Lombardi, who [in 2020] is also the Vatican spokesman, added: "Vatican Radio has always observed international directives on electromagnetic emissions and since 2001 has observed more restrictive norms set by Italy to allay the concerns of the neighbouring populations."

Source 2020-Jul-15 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Vatican-radio-waves-blamed-for-high-cancer-risk.html

April 11 -- Italy has again threatened to shut down Vatican Radio if it fails to reduce levels of electro-magnetic radiation from its transmitters within the next week. The threat came despite a Vatican offer to cut some of its transmissions after Easter. Italian Environment Minister Willer Bordon said the offer was "absolutely insufficient". The minister has accused Vatican Radio of exceeding Italian laws on radiation and of being a health hazard.

Last month [March 2001], Mr Bordon said the National Agency for the Protection of the Environment had registered three times the legal limit for electro-magnetic radiation during one evening broadcast.

Vatican Radio spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the government had raised "unjustified alarm" and rejected allegations that the Vatican did not care about the health of local residents. On Monday [9 Apr 2001] the station, ....., said it would reduce half of its medium-wave transmissions, after tests ordered by the environment ministry confirmed that the transmissions violated Italian standards.

Source 2001-Apr-11 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1271092.stm

April 17 -- Italy's Environment Minister has threatened to cut the electricity supply to Vatican Radio following a dispute about electromagnetic emissions from the site which have registered up to three times Italy's legal limit.

The Vatican has been claiming extra-territorial immunity under a 1951 agreement with Italy for the radio site which, like the Vatican itself, is considered part of a sovereign state. It refused to pass on summons issued against three officials: Father Roberto Tucci, who was made a cardinal last month and who is chairman of the radio's management board; Father Pasquale Borgomeo, its director general; and Costantino Pacifici, the deputy technical director.

The transmission centre at Santa Maria di Galeria, a few miles north of Rome, has 58 antennae, some as tall as 300 feet, which beam religious ceremonies and the spiritual messages of the Pope round the world. When it was first built, the area was open countryside but now it is in a built up area and a recent health service study found children living within one and a half miles of the transmitters were six times more likely to develop leukaemia than children living in Rome.

Residents in the nearby village of Cesano have complained that emission levels in their homes are up to eight times the legally allowed level permitted under a law that was passed in February and say it's like living a microwave oven.

Source 2001-Apr-17 https://radionewsweb.com/2001-03.html#Vatican1

April 19 -- The Vatican is, of course, arguing that there is no proven link between the transmitter complex and a greater incidence of cancer and leukaemia in the nearby area and on Friday [16 March 2001], it broadcast an hour-long programme entitled: "Listen to believe" - explaining its position.

As well as claiming that its transmissions are within international standards, which are less strict than those of Italy, the Vatican is claiming extra-territorial immunity.

Source 2001-03-19 https://radionewsweb.com/2001-03.html#Vatican2

A first trial was stopped in 2002 when a judge ruled that Italy had no jurisdiction over the radio station because it was part of the Vatican City, an independent sovereign state. But that decision was later overturned [in 2003] and Cardinal Tucci, the station's president, and Rev Borgomeo, its director general, went back on trial.

Source 2005-May-09 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4531247.stm

A team of researchers led by Paola Michelozzi of the Local Health Authority, in Rome, reported in 2002 that the incidence of childhood leukemia from 1987 to 1998 was twice the expected rate, but the actual numbers were very small. ..... Because of the small number, Michelozzi considers the result statistically insignificant. But ..... Michelozzi's survey determined that if leukemia incidence was measured in concentric circles around the radio complex, rates dropped off with increasing distance from the transmitters.

Source 2005-Oct-01 https://spectrum.ieee.org/sins-of-transmission

The first epidemiological study [Michelozzi 2002] into the possible effects of the Vatican's radio waves, led by Paola Michelozzi of the Local Health Authority in Rome, reported an increase in childhood leukemia in the local population of 60 000 within a radius of 10 km of the antenna complex: 8 cases instead of the expected 3.7.

Source 2010-Jul-20 https://spectrum.ieee.org/vatican-radio-still-making-waves

But in 2003, Italy's Supreme Court overturned those rulings [of 2002, that the Italian government had no jurisdiction over the transmitters because of the Vatican's status as an independent state], which resulted in the two Vatican officials' having to stand trial.

Source 2005-Oct-01 https://spectrum.ieee.org/sins-of-transmission

Roman Catholic cardinal and a priest in charge of Vatican Radio have been convicted of polluting the atmosphere with powerful electromagnetic waves. Cardinal Roberto Tucci and Father Pasquale Borgomeo were given suspended 10-day jail sentences (*). The Italian court also ordered them to pay damages and court costs.

Source 2005-May-09 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4531247.stm

This past May, an Italian court imposed suspended 10-day prison sentences (*) on two Vatican officials responsible for operating the transmitters, a cardinal and a priest, for the "dangerous showering of objects" --meaning the antennas' electromagnetic waves. (The term "electromagnetic radiation" has not made it yet into Italy's legal vocabulary.) In addition, environmental groups and committees representing the local population will be awarded damages in a separate civil action, though the figures have yet to be determined.

Source 2005-Oct-01 https://spectrum.ieee.org/sins-of-transmission

A Rome judge ordered the report in 2005 [that one finished/reported in 2010 by Milan's National Tumor Institute] as part of an investigation into a complaint filed in 2001 by Cesano residents who alleged health hazards posed by the electromagnetic waves.

Source 2020-Jul-15 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Vatican-radio-waves-blamed-for-high-cancer-risk.html

(*) The criminal conviction and the jail sentence were overturned, first by an appeals court in 2007, and definitively by the Italy's highest court (in 2009 or 2011, depending of the source), but the decision requiring Vatican Radio to pay damages was upheld (in 2011 by the Italy's highest court).

An Italian court [a court of appeal] has overturned (*) the 2005 convictions of two former Vatican Radio officials who were found guilty of polluting the atmosphere through electromagnetic emissions from Vatican Radio's transmission complex at Santa Maria di Galeria near Rome.

Cardinal Roberto Tucci, former president of Vatican Radio's management committee, and Jesuit Father Pasquale Borgomeo, formerly the general director had been given suspended prison sentences but the Rome appellate court overturned the conviction.

Catholic News says a group of local residents and environmental groups already have announced they will appeal the decision to the Italian Supreme Court [they did in 2008], and that a separate civil procedure claiming Vatican Radio damaged the health of local residents is to continue.

Source 2007-Jun-09 https://radionewsweb.com/2007-06.html#Vatican1

..... the case [of criminal offences in relation to the emissions and of corresponding prison sentences] was opened again in 2008 by Italy's top court, the Court of Cassation and then dismissed last year [2009].

Source 2010-Jul-15 https://radionewsweb.com/2010/2010-07.html#Vatican1

July 15 -- A court-ordered study [that one ordered in 2005] has found that electromagnetic waves beamed by Vatican Radio leave residents living near the station's antennas at a higher risk of cancer.

"There has been an important, coherent and meaningful correlation between exposure to Vatican Radio's structures and the risk of leukaemia and lymphoma in children," the report said, according to the daily La Stampa. The report also warned of "important risks" of dying of cancer for people who had lived for at least 10 years within a 5.5-mile radius of the radio's giant antenna towers near Cesano, 12 miles north of Rome.

A Rome judge ordered the report in 2005 as part of an investigation into a complaint filed in 2001 by Cesano residents who alleged health hazards posed by the electromagnetic waves.

Source 2010-Jul-15 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Vatican-radio-waves-blamed-for-high-cancer-risk.html

July 15 -- Vatican Radio is disputing the conclusions of a court-ordered study of the effects of electromagnetic radiation from its transmission facilities at Santa Maria di Galeria is linked to higher cancer rates to those living at Cesano near the site.

According to the daily La Stampa newspaper the report says there has "been an important, coherent and meaningful correlation between exposure to Vatican Radio's structures and the risk of leukaemia and lymphoma in children" and adds that there are "important risks" of dying of cancer for people who had resided at least 10 years within a nine-kilometre (5.5-mile) radius of the radio's giant antenna towers.

The report was ordered in 2005 as part of investigations into a complaint filed by Cesano residents [in 2000-2001] and a case in which Cardinal Roberto Tucci and Pasquale Borgomeo, who were Vatican Radio's then president and director respectively, were found guilty of criminal offences in relation to the emissions and given suspended prison sentences [in 2005].

The convictions were overturned by an appeals court two years later [in 2007] but the case was opened again in 2008 by Italy's top court, the [Supreme] Court of Cassation and then dismissed last year [2009].

Source 2010-Jul-15 https://radionewsweb.com/2010/2010-07.html#Vatican1

July 20 -- A new study ordered by a court in Rome [that one ordered in 2005] has revived the decade-long battle between the inhabitants of Cesano, Italy, who live close to a huge complex of shortwave antennas, and the operator of this complex, Vatican Radio

The new 300-page research report, by a team at Milan's National Tumor Institute led by Andrea Micheli, supports the claim of Cesano residents: Nineteen children living at a distance of 12 km or less from the antennas died from leukemia or lymphoma between 1980 and 2003, a figure higher than in control groups in other parts of the country.

Source 2010-Jul-20 https://spectrum.ieee.org/vatican-radio-still-making-waves

The [Italy’s highest] court upheld a decision [of 2005] requiring Vatican Radio to pay damages to the town of Cesano, located near the broadcaster’s transmission facility outside Rome. However, the court also overturned [in 2009 or 2011?] a criminal conviction and 10-day suspended sentence that a lower court had imposed on Cardinal Roberto Tucci, the former chairman of the Vatican Radio board.

Source 2011-Feb-25 https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=9408

The Codacons consumer association, which backed Cesano inhabitants' claims, hailed the [Supreme] Cassation Court's decision [the Italy's highest court] to reject Vatican Radio's appeal against the compensation order. ''It's a great victory. Finally justice is done and the people of Cesano will be able to have the compensation they are rightfully due,'' said Codacons President Carlo Rienzi. ''We're satisfied. Now we'll see what happens with the other more serious question of the increase in mortality for leukemia among Cesano inhabitants''.

Rome's Court of Appeal will decide how much Vatican Radio will have to pay in damages.

The supreme court also upheld [in 2009 or 2011?] a previous ruling that overturned a 10-day suspended sentence handed to Cardinal Roberto Tucci, the former head of Vatican Radio's management board, by a lower court.

Source 2011-Feb-25 https://www.ansa.it/.../visualizza_new.html_1583011632.html