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No, Vatican officials weren't implicated in the Ashley Madison leak

Claims that hundreds of Vatican email addresses were released in the leak were false

Tuesday 25 August 2015 00:29 BST

Catholics gather in St Peter's Square during Easter Mass (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Following the release of the personal details of millions of Ashley Madison users, many publications jumped on the presence of what appeared to be Vatican-linked email addresses in the data dump.

As a small nation, the Vatican has it's own domain - .va - the equivalent of the UK's .co.uk or France's .fr.

Overall, there were 222 addresses apparently linked to this domain in the dump, which raised concerns that church officials were using the website, which facilitates extra-marital affairs.

The idea of it does seem odd - why would a senior priest or cardinal, committed to celibacy and remaining unmarried, use a dating site for married people?

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

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1/12In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Pro-Gay Pope

In just a year, Pope Francis has managed to change the public perception of the Catholic Church, and the stance it takes on civil issues, like gay rights. Despite originally protesting the legalisation of gay marriage in his native Argentina some years ago, he told reporters this year: “If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?”

Getty Images

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Rebel Pope

No other Pope has urged a shake-up of the Catholic Church quite like Pope Francis, a true rebel of the dioceses. Who, incidentally, used to be a night club bouncer.

Getty Images

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Graffiti Pope

Pope Francis become... SUPER POPE in this Vatican-approved street art. But was he happy with the reference to the fictional DC comic character?"To depict the pope as a sort of superman, a sort of star, seems offensive to me. The pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps tranquilly and has friends like everyone else, a normal person," he said. So, that's a no, then.

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Biker Pope

Yes, the Pope used to own a Harley Davidson. And yes, he auctioned it off this year and donated the proceeds to a charity that feeds the hungry in Rome. Very Papal.

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The ‘Blue’ Pope

Dropping the 'F' bomb during Sunday service? Classic Pope Francis. Sadly, down to a Spanish-speaking slip of the Italian language rather than pure bad-assery.

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The ‘Because I’m Worth It’ Pope

That awkward moment when your Papal hat blows off, forcing your barnet into Sesame Street-like spikes. Pope Francis has been there.

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Chocolate Pope

Imagine the Pope's delight (horror?) when he was presented with a giant chocolate replica of himself outside the Vatican by by students on a chocolatier course at the Accademia of Maestri Cioccolatieri, near Venice.

EPA/Osservatore Romano

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Rock Star pope

The one and only religious leader ever to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine? Introducing... Pope Francis.

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The People’s Pope

His U-turn attitude towards sexuality won him Time magazine's coveted Person of the Year accolade, and the cover of gay rights magazine The Advocate.

Time

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Merchandise Pope

Thongs, mugs, onesies, earrings and even a baby mobile adorned with decapitated Pope heads, the 'Francis Effect' has seen sales of Papal merchandise soar by 200% over the last year.

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Fashion Pope

The only Pope, as far as we're aware, to be compared to fashion royalty (Karl Lagerfeld. Yes way.) and win Esquire's Most Stylish Man of 2013 award, too.

EPA

In pictures: 'The many popes of Pope Francis'

The Modern Pope

Let it be said, Pope Francis knows a thing or two about social media. He might be a way off 'doing a Dalai' and opting for Instagram, but he's not above posing for the odd 'Selfie' on Twitter.

The website Prooffreader, written by David Taylor, looked further into the leaked addresses and found that, predictably, none of the 'Vatican' email addresses were even linked to the Vatican at all.

Many people in the US state of Virginia use email addresses that include the .va suffix - however, they are followed by more conventional .gov or .us endings. Someone working for the government in Virginia may have an email address that ends in .va.gov.

What's more, Canada's domain is .ca. It's more likely that those .va email addresses in the Ashley Madison leak were simply the mistakes of fat-fingered Canadians, or Virginians who forgot the .gov part of their email address, rather than cheating cardinals.

Millions of users of Ashley Madison had their personal details released by hackers (Carl Court/Getty Images)

Prooffreader went through the email addresses and found that almost every one had a .va.us, .va.gov, or .ca equivalent.

The only one that did not have an easily explainable equivalent came from a vatican.va email address, but the Vatican does not actually use this domain - suggesting this one was false.

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