(LifeSiteNews) – Vatican judges have told the Holy See’s first auditor general that his appeal to have his wrongful dismissal case reheard cannot go forward unless he drops “immoral and indecent” evidence that could harm the reputations of top Vatican officials.

Libero Milone was appointed by Pope Francis in 2015 to sort out Vatican finances, only to be forced to resign by now-disgraced Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciù in 2017. Undaunted, Milone decided to continue his lawsuit against the Vatican’s Secretariat of State for wrongful dismissal even after it was rejected in early 2024.

Last October, Vatican judges decided that his appeal could not go ahead unless his lawyers removed certain information they believe is essential to his case. According to The Pillar, “the October order was litigated during a November 2024 hearing, and then affirmed by judges in January, who ruled that Milone’s arguments in the case could harm the public interest by attributing immoral behavior to Vatican officials.”

Milone has now come forward to tell the media about it.

In a March 18 statement cited by the National Catholic Register, Milone said he and his team had received a court order telling them “to remove a substantial part of the elements including in our appeal documentation supporting the reasons for our claim.” The former auditor general added that they were told to excise “approximately half” of the claim, “some 25 pages,” to continue the appeal.

In response to the court order, one of Milone’s lawyers quit. Milone told the National Catholic Register that the seasoned veteran resigned “because he thinks that an injustice has been committed; the court is not being impartial.”

According to the Register, examples of the evidence the Vatican judges do not want submitted include allegations of “illegal involvement” of the Holy See’s Bambino Gesù hospital in the takeover of two other hospitals, “the concealment of funds” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the “diversion of funds” by the Pontifical Council for the Family,” “serious conflicts of interest” among top staff of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs, the “obstructionism” of the Vatican’s financial management arm (APSA), and a 2016 note from the late Cardinal George Pell, then the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, remarking on the “insurmountable hostility” at APSA toward reform.

The reason given for removing these and other examples of damning evidence is that they make Vatican officials look bad.

“In the general and repeated attribution to persons holding top positions in the Roman Curia of practices that are at least immoral and certainly indecent such as those outlined in the appeal document, the Court believes that there is a public interest in intervening,” the judges stated in the January 8 order.

According to The Pillar, the matter will return to the court on May 6.

In their 2022 lawsuit, Milone and his now-deceased deputy Ferruccio Panicco sought $9.25 million (US) for damage to their reputations as well as unfair dismissal and loss of income. However, the Vatican court rejected their lawsuit in January 2024 and even declared that the Vatican’s Secretariat of State had nothing to do with the actions the lawsuit accused them of.

As the survivor, Milone was ordered by the court to pay €24,668.00 to the Secretariat of State and €24,668.00 euros to the Office of the Auditor General for their legal fees as well as an additional €64,140 to be split between the same offices.

He launched his appeal soon after.

Attempts to restrict Libero Milone’s disclosure of his findings have continued throughout his seven-year battle for justice. In September 2017, the Vatican Press Office released a statement condemning his public declarations about his forced resignation and claiming that his office had “illegally commissioned an external company to carry out investigative activities on the private life of representatives of the Holy See.”