Italian weekly L'Espresso posted Pope Francis' forthcoming encyclical on the environment to its website Monday, four days before the eagerly awaited document was due to be issued.
A Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi said the version of the encylical available on L'Espresso's website was a draft and not the final version, which will be published on Thursday as announced.
"The embargo is still in place," Lombardo stressed.
The entire 192-page encyclical 'Laudato Si' (Be praised, my Lord') is viewable on L'Espresso's website.
The document went through so many revisions that "just a few days ago" copies from an initial print-run were secretly burned as further corrections needed to be made to the text, according to L'Espresso.
L'Espresso's claim was dismissed by Lombardi as "nonsense".
The encyclical is Francis's first major teaching letter on climate change and its effects on the planet’s poor.
It comes ahead of key UN climate talks in Paris later this year which are widely seen as the last opportunity for a global deal to manage carbon emissions and set some limit to rising temperatures.
It is the second encylical issued by Francis after 'The Light of Faith', begun by his predecessor Benedict XVI, was published on 29 June, 2013.
