Spanish priest Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and Italian laywoman and public relations professional Francesca Chaouqui were arrested by the Vatican police over the weekend on charges of leaking confidential documents of Pope Francis’ church reform finances to the media. The Vatican confirmed the news of the arrests on Monday.

The two were members of the committee that was appointed by the Pope to study and evaluate the reforms of the church’s finances. The arrests were made following months of investigations relating to the dissipation of confidential information to writers of books that are yet to be released.

The Vatican said that the act has been a serious breach to the Pope’s trust in the members he sought to overlook the reforms process. In Vatican, critics of the Pope frequently use such leaked classified data to rail against him.

Vallejo Balda, who is the second in command at the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, is reportedly the highest-ranking member of the central bureaucracy of the Vatican to have been arrested. He is even a part of a priestly association that receive spiritual guidance from the conservative Catholic movement called the Opus Dei. Opus Dei expressed “surprise and pain” at his arrest.

The Italian media over the weekend reported that the Vatican police were investigating attempted theft of a laptop belonging to the head of the city state’s finance office.

Though both the priests were arrested, Chaouqui was released on Monday as she agreed to cooperate with the investigations.

The commission was constituted by Pope Francis after he was elected in 2013. Vallejo Balda and Chaouqui had been selected to be a part of the committee. Its main purpose is to help the Pope make decisions on economic and bureaucratic reforms.

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