A Twitter scandal is looming over the Holy See because of a female PR consultant whose semi-nude photo is circulating on the Web and her controversial Tweets on the microblogging site.

Because of these embarrassing gaffes, Vatican officials have initiated an investigation behind the hiring of 30-year-old Francesca Chaouqui as PR officer of the newly appointed committee of eight to overhaul the financial administration of the seat of the Roman Catholic church.

The first salvo was the semi-naked photo of Ms Chaouqui and her male partner that came out on YouTube, but was eventually removed. Here is the screenshot of the photo originally published by News.com.au.

Source: YouTube capture

Equally hot are her tweets such as calling Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican's secretary of state, as corrupt. He has denied the accusation and is said to be planning to file a lawsuit against the PR.

In another tweet, she said Pope Emeritus XVI, whom Pope Francis replaced in March 2013, was allegedly suffering from leukemia.

She has also stepped on the toes of Giulio Tremonti, former finance minister of Italy, whom she said in a tweet that he is gay. The minister said last week he will file a lawsuit against Ms Chaouqui and Italian newspapers that published the tweet.

The PR lady said she was not the only person to write about the minister's sexual orientation, but denied she posted it in a tweet.

Since then, Ms Chaoqui had closed her Twitter account and removed videos from her YouTube channel.

But Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has indicated that Pope Francis is allegedly standing by Ms Chaouqui.