Vatican in court for pollution

VATICAN CITY, Vatican City -- The Vatican, accused of polluting the air with electromagnetic waves by Italian authorities, remained at a standoff at its first court hearing on Monday.

Three top Vatican Radio officials were scheduled to go on trial for allegedly breaking Italy's strict standards on the emission of electromagnetic fields by radio stations and telephone transmitters.

But a judge ruled that the three had never been served with legal papers notifying them of the trial.

The Vatican argues it is shielded from Italian law and has refused to accept the legal summonses, delivered through diplomatic channels.

The judge told the prosecutor to go ahead and try to serve them, and that a new date for trial would be set in September or October.

The Vatican has argued that the radio station is protected by the extraterritorial status granted the Vatican and its properties under a 1929 pact that established Vatican City as an independent city-state.

For half a century, Vatican Radio has been beaming the pope's words around the world from a forest of antennas in Santa Maria di Galeria on the northern outskirts of Rome.

When the facility opened in 1951, the area was sparsely populated. Today some 100,000 people live in the nearby suburbs.

In recent years, people living near the complex have complained that the transmissions interfere with their home appliances, telephones and television reception, while environmental groups allege the electromagnetic waves cause cancer.

The three officials are the Rev. Pasquale Borgomeo, the station's director-general; newly elevated Cardinal Roberto Tucci, president of the station's management committee, and Costantino Pacifici, a layman and top technician.

The three could face up to a year in prison if convicted of the charge of "the dangerous showering of objects," or environmental pollution.

The Vatican contends the transmissions meet international standards and questions claims by local health officials, who initiated the complaint, that they represent a risk.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Vatican
Italian Government
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