“There’s no intrigue, just journalism,” Mr. Vicinanza said in a telephone interview.

Many journalists agreed that under similar circumstances, they, too, would have posted the draft. But several Vatican analysts on Tuesday also argued that it was no coincidence that the draft had found its way to Mr. Magister. He wrote a June 1 column that criticized the alleged “inspirers” of the encyclical as being advocates of abortion. He has characterized the Vatican news media as being soft on Francis, while also criticizing the pope on foreign policy and as being overly fixated on himself.

Image Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square on Saturday. Credit... Giampiero Sposito/Reuters

“The light is all for him, the pope,” Mr. Magister wrote in April 2014. “Not the institution, but the person.”

Giacomo Galeazzi, a Vatican expert who writes for La Stampa, a Turin newspaper, said the leak could have come from prelates in the Roman Curia, the governing body of the Vatican, which Francis is trying to reform. In an interview, Mr. Galeazzi argued that the pope’s enemies on the outside “want to weaken the encyclical’s message, while those inside want to weaken the figure of the pope.”

Mr. Galeazzi also noted that L’Espresso had published several critical articles of the encyclical in recent weeks, which he called “a pre-emptive strike to an encyclical that has already broken one record: It is the first to be attacked even before it has been published.”

Alberto Melloni, a liberal scholar and Vatican historian, said the leak reflected the continuing tension inside the Vatican, where some entrenched members of the Curia remain resistant to changes that Francis is trying to pursue. Leaking the draft was a way of demonstrating that the Vatican remains in some ways dysfunctional while also tainting Francis’ reformist credentials, Mr. Melloni said.

“This shows the daily fight he has to fight,” he said.

The big showdown is expected in October, when Francis will convene a major synod at Vatican City to discuss issues related to the theme of family. Much is under discussion, including the question of whether divorced Catholics should be allowed to receive communion. The synod is expected to be a hotly contested event, and many analysts saw the leaked encyclical as a piece of this larger struggle.