VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Italian television journalist who set off the “VatiLeaks” controversy by releasing private letters to Pope Benedict XVI and between Vatican officials has published a large collection of leaked documents in a new book called “Your Holiness.”

In a statement May 19, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, called the publication of the letters for commercial gain a “criminal act” and said the Vatican would take legal action.

“The latest publication of documents of the Holy See and private documents of the Holy Father can no longer be considered a questionable — and objectively defamatory — journalistic initiative, but clearly assumes the character of a criminal act,” Father Lombardi said. The spokesman said the publication of the letters violates the right to privacy and the “freedom of correspondence” of Pope Benedict, the letter writers and some of the pope’s closest collaborators.

In the letters, which include accusations of corruption and financial mismanagement in the Vatican, and focus heavily on internal Italian church matters or Vatican-Italian relations, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, is particularly presented in an unfavorable light. In late April, Pope Benedict appointed three retired cardinals to a commission to investigate the leaking of the letters.