Pope Francis’ Climate Change Report Leaked by L’Espresso before Embargo Ends

by Sydney Smith June 15, 2015 09:35 PM EST

Tags: Italy, Leaks, Pope Francis, Religion

Pope Francis (Credit: Flickr, "Aleteia Image Department"

Italian magazine L’Espresso broke an embargo and published a draft of Pope Francis’ 192-page encyclical ‘Laudato Si,” Time magazine reported.

The official encyclical, which focuses on climate change, is scheduled to be released Thursday.

“It is unclear how L’Espresso acquired the draft ahead of the embargo,” the Huffington Post noted. “Journalists accredited with the Vatican are supposed to receive official copies on Thursday morning so they can review the contents before the embargo is lifted at midday, after a news conference,” according to the New York Times. “It was unclear how similar, or not, the final, official document will be to the leaked draft — or at what stage of the process the draft was written.”

In response to the embargo breach, the Vatican Press Office reminded journalists to follow the embargo and said that the document in question is “not the final text.” The statement from the Director of the Press Office for the Vatican, posted on the Vatican’s website, reads:

“An Italian text of a draft of the Pope’s Encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ has been published. Please note that it is not the final text, and that the rules of the Embargo remain in place. We ask journalists to respect professional standards, which call for waiting for the official publication of the final text.”

In addition, an unnamed “Vatican official” called the embargo breach a “heinous act” in an interview with Bloomberg.