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Vatileaks Scandal
Topic Started: 29 May 2012, 11:49 PM (1,542 Views)
skibboy
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Cardinals linked to ‘Vatileaks’ scandal

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By Philip Pullella, Vatican City
Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The worst crisis in Pope Benedict’s pontificate deepened when Italian media said at least one cardinal was among those suspected of divulging sensitive documents as part of a power struggle at the top of the Church.

The scandal exploded last week when, within a few days, the Pope’s butler was arrested for leaking documents, the head of the Vatican’s own bank was dismissed, and a book was published alleging conspiracies among the cardinals.

Newspapers, quoting insiders who had themselves leaked documents, said the arrested butler was merely a scapegoat doing the bidding of more powerful figures in the scandal, which has been dubbed "Vatileaks".

But Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi strongly denied the claims. "I categorically deny that any cardinal, Italian or otherwise, is a suspect," he said, adding the Pope was being kept fully informed of the case.

The documents, passed to Italian journalists, accuse Vatican insiders of cronyism and corruption in contracts with Italian companies.

La Stampa newspaper quoted one of the alleged leakers as saying the goal was to help the Pope root out corruption.

On Saturday, Paolo Gabriele, 46, the Pope’s personal butler, was formally charged with stealing confidential papal documents.

But leakers quoted by La Stampa, La Repubblica and other media said the plot went much wider.

"There are leakers among the cardinals but the secretariat of state could not say that, so they arrested the servant, Paolo, who was only delivering letters on behalf of others," La Repubblica quoted one alleged whistleblower as saying.

The secretariat of state is run by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone — the Pope’s right-hand man — and the scandal appears to involve a power struggle between his allies and enemies.

It has been brewing for months, but since it burst into the open it has shaken the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church.

Aides say the pontiff is "saddened and pained" by the events. His critics say a lack of strong leadership has opened the door to infighting among his powerful aides — and potentially to the corruption alleged in the leaked documents.

Many Vatican insiders believe the butler, who had access to the Pope’s private apartment, could not have acted alone. He is being held in a "safe room" in the Vatican police station and has been charged with aggravated theft.

Now known in Vatican statements as "the defendant", he was the quiet man who served the Pope’s meals, helped him dress and held his umbrella on rainy days.

"He did not steal the documents. His role was to deliver documents," La Stampa quoted the unidentified alleged leaker it interviewed as saying.

The Vatican’s announcement of the arrest of the butler came a day after the president of the Vatican bank, Italian Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was fired by its board of external financial experts, who come from Germany, Spain, the US and Italy.

Gotti Tedeschi’s ouster is a blow to Bertone who, as secretary of state, was instrumental in bringing him in from Spain’s Banco Santander to run the Vatican bank in 2009.

While news of the butler’s arrest has filled pages of newspapers in Italy and beyond, the Vatican’s own newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has ignored the story. Some say this may be because the paper itself has been an instrument in the power struggle.

Documents leaked over the last few months included letters by an archbishop who was transferred to Washington by Bertone after blowing the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption.

Gianlugi Nuzzi who last week published a book called His Holiness — criticised the Vatican for rounding up leakers.

"Surely, arresting someone and rounding up people and treating them like delinquents to stop them from passing on true information to newspapers would cause an uproar in other countries," he said.

source: Posted Image
Edited by skibboy, 30 May 2012, 12:16 AM.
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Vatican forced to deny senior cardinal is mastermind of Vatileaks scandal

The Vatican has been forced to deny that a senior cardinal is the mastermind behind the so-called Vatileaks scandal that has seen the Pope's personal butler arrested.

By Nick Pisa, Rome5:41PM BST 28 May 2012

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's official spokesman, was forced to speak out after several Italian newspapers claimed that the brains of the operation – where potentially embarrassing Vatican documents found their way into the Italian press – was an unidentified "prince of the church."

Speculation has continued to gather pace that senior Church figures are behind the leaking of sensitive Vatican documents and that butler Paolo Gabriele, who has worked for Benedict XVI for five years, is nothing more than a scapegoat.

Gabriele was arrested last week after documents were found inside his Vatican apartment.

Several Italian newspaper carried an interview with an anonymous whistle-blower who explained why the documents were being leaked.


"There's a group of us: the real brains behind it are cardinals, then there are monsignors, secretaries, small fry", the informer said.

"The valet is just a delivery boy that somebody wants to set up. Vatican intelligence has security systems more advanced than anything the CIA has but cardinals are still in the habit of writing their messages by hand and dictating them.

"It's open warfare, with everyone against everyone else. Those doing it are acting to protect the Pope."

He added: "There are those opposed to the Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone. And those who think that Benedict XVI is too weak to lead the church. And those who think that this is the time to step forward. So it's become everyone against everyone."

The source also explained how Benedict had gathered a select group of five people to act as his eyes and ears within the Vatican "to protect himself".

Within hours of the interview being published Father Lombardi issued a denial categorically stating "no cardinal was involved and no one else is under investigation."

Elsewhere Cardinal Robert Sarah, 67, head of the Pontifical Council Cor Um, which handles church missions around the world was the first senior figure within the Curia to speak out about the scandal.

"Let's hope that the arrest of the butler is an isolated case and that there are no other traitors plotting in the Vatican," he said. "There is much sadness. It is painful to see someone like the Holy Father betrayed by someone who is so close to him.

"However it would be even more serious if other accomplices came to light. That's why we must let the magistrates investigate fully to clarify this shocking situation and until then nothing can be excluded including a plot or some other guided hand."

source: telegraph.co.uk
Edited by skibboy, 30 May 2012, 12:09 AM.
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In Vatican intrigue, all eyes turn to pope’s butler

By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Published: May 30

VATICAN CITY — When Pope Benedict XVI circled St. Peter’s Square last Wednesday (May 23) in his popemobile during his weekly general audience, Paolo Gabriele, his “assistente di camera,” or butler, was sitting right beside him, as he had been doing for the last six years.

But the shadows of suspicion were already hanging heavily over Gabriele, and within hours, he would be arrested on charges of being “illicitly in possession” of some of the pope’s private documen

Now, people are asking how it could have happened and, more basically, who is Paolo Gabriele?

According to a reconstruction by Italy’s daily La Repubblica, Gabriele had been approached the day before his arrest by Benedict’s personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein.

He warned Gabriele that investigators were closing in on him as the person who had been stealing private memos, notes and letters from the pontiff’s desk over the last six months, and leaking them to the Italian media.

He also offered him a chance to confess and explain his actions.

Partially confirming La Repubblica’s story, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said it would have been “surreal” if the pope’s secretary had not approached Gabriele as suspicions arose about his involvement.

But the pope’s butler, according to La Repubblica, denied any wrongdoing.

That night, Vatican police arrested Gabriele after raiding his home in the Vatican City State and seized “a large number of confidential papal documents,” according to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper.

Yet, even if the evidence against the 46-year-old butler appears strong, just about everyone in the Vatican is struggling to explain his actions, and find it hard to believe he acted alone.

“I was very surprised when I heard of his arrest,” says Fausto Gasparroni, a Vatican correspondent for the Italian news agency ANSA, who has traveled with Gabriele on papal trips. “He always seemed a very devout, very pious person.”

Such feelings are shared by many who had gotten to know him over the years.

Gabriele was Pope Benedict’s “assistente di camera” since 2006.

His tasks included helping the 85-year-old pontiff get dressed in the morning and accompanying him on all his meetings throughout the day.

He often served at the pope’s table and, in the evening, he readied the pope’s room before he went to bed.

“Paoletto,” as he was familiarly known in the Vatican, had entered the service of the papal household in 1998.

He had started a few years earlier in one of the Vatican’s humblest jobs, a cleaner in the Secretariat of State.

There, his simple manners, strong faith and good heart had made an impression.

According to a person who knew him well but asked to remain anonymous, in past years Gabriele’s reputation and kindness led many low-ranking Vatican employees to turn to him for help.

At least once in the past, he had allegedly agreed to use his access to the pope in order to help someone who had requested his assistance.

Since his arrest, Gabriele has been in custody in one of the Vatican’s “safe rooms,” in the headquarters of the Vatican police, just a few hundred yards away from the house where he lived with his wife and three children.

His lawyers say that he wants to “fully cooperate” with Vatican investigators.

Speaking at Wednesday’s (May 30) general audience, Pope Benedict confessed his “sadness” for the “the events of recent days.”

But he also assured his staff that they still enjoyed his “confidence” despite the rumors and speculations running wild in the Vatican and in the Italian press.

Copyright: For copyright information, please check with the distributor of this item, Universal Uclick.

source: washingtonpost.com
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Italian journalist defends Vatican leaks

Silvia Aloisi and Paolo Biondi
Reuters, May 30, 2012


ROME (Reuters) - An Italian journalist behind a leaks scandal shaking the Roman Catholic Church denies Vatican accusations he is a criminal and says he was only doing his duty to uncover the truth.

Gianluigi Nuzzi's book, alleging corruption and conspiracies among cardinals in a Vatican struggle for power, has led to a hunt for informants in the Holy See and the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI's butler, one of the people closest to him.

"My job is to find and publish news, it is my ethical duty. These documents reveal the secrets of the Vatican but there is nothing in the documents that threatens the security of that state," Gianluigi Nuzzi told Reuters on Wednesday.

He spoke as the pope denounced what he called false media coverage of the scandal, which his aides have branded a brutal, personal attack on the ageing pontiff.

Nuzzi's book "His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI" contains a trove of private Vatican correspondence, including documents alleging cronyism and corruption in infrastructure contracts with Italian companies, conspiracies among cardinals and clashes over management at the Vatican's own bank, the IOR.

He described cloak-and-dagger meetings with paranoid sources to get the information in the book, which look like they are straight from the pages of a Cold War spy novel.

Nuzzi said the book, which hit the stands last week and is selling out in Rome, is based on conversations with more than 10 Vatican whistleblowers, who have been referred to in the Italian press as "crows", a pejorative term for informants.

"DOVES, NOT CROWS"

He said one whistleblower told him he was part of a group of about 20 informants.

"They are not crows, they are doves who wanted to shed light, clean their air," Nuzzi said.

"These are not people who regularly gave information to newspapers. Clearly there was an accumulation of things that they did not understand or could not bear. If the image of the Vatican that emerges is negative, it is not my fault, it is because of what is written in the documents."

Nuzzi, 42, refused to say whether Paolo Gabriele, the butler now being detained by the Vatican gendarmerie, was among his sources, nor whether they included any cardinals.

"I received a lot of documents from a lot of people, sometimes by the very people who had written them. All of my sources were perfectly aware of what would happen," he said.

The Vatican has not denied the authenticity of the documents, copies of which are reproduced in the book.

An investigative journalist who had already exposed alleged corruption at the Vatican in a 2009 book, Nuzzi said he did not pay anything for the documents and that his sources told him they had not been given any money to leak them.

In a letter from 2011 published in the book, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano - then the deputy governor of the Vatican City - wrote to Pope Benedict arguing that transferring him to another post would undermine his efforts to fight "corruption and abuse" in various Vatican offices.

Despite his plea, Vigano was moved to become the Holy See's ambassador in Washington.

Another letter was written by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the president of the Vatican bank, to Monsignor Georg Ganswein, the pope's secretary.

In the letter Gotti Tedeschi, who was dismissed last week, defended himself after he and another Vatican official were put under investigation by Rome magistrates in 2010 for failing to explain the origin of 23 million euros which the Vatican bank transferred between accounts it held in two other banks.

Nuzzi's book describes the secretive meetings he had with his main source, codenamed "Maria". After being tested during by a string of intermediaries, he was driven round the same Rome streets for an hour before reaching an empty apartment.

There, in a room furnished with a single plastic chair, he met "Maria", whom he describes as a devout Catholic who has worked at the Vatican for nearly 20 years and who began setting aside documents after the death of Pope John Paul in 2005.

After the butler's arrest, other alleged informants told newspapers he was a scapegoat in a struggle for power in the Holy See that went much higher and wider than him.

Nuzzi said his book has certainly exposed "vulnerabilities and clashes" within the Vatican but that it was not an attack on the pope or the Church.

"There is not a single word in the book against the pontiff," he said. "The Vatican's workings are slow but inexorable."

(Reporting By Silvia Aloisi; editing by Barry Moody and Angus MacSwan)

Copyright © 2012, Reuters
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Pope breaks his silence over ‘Vatileaks’ scandal

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By Nicole Winfield, Vatican City
Thursday, May 31, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI has broken his silence over the leaked documents scandal that has convulsed the Vatican, saying he was saddened by the betrayal but grateful to those aides who work faithfully and in silence to help him do his job.

Benedict made his first direct comments on the scandal in off-the-cuff remarks at the end of his weekly general audience.

He lashed out at some of the media reports about the scandal, saying the "exaggerated" and "gratuitous" rumours had offered a false image of the Holy See.

The Italian media have been in a frenzy ever since the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested last week after Vatican investigators discovered Papal documents in his Vatican City apartment.

He remains in detention and has pledged to co-operate fully with the investigation.

Rumours have been flying in the press about possible cardinals implicated in the probe, pending resignations and details of the investigation that even Gabriele’s lawyers say they haven’t heard.

The scandal represents one of the greatest breaches of trust and security for the Holy See in recent memory, given that a significant number of documents from the Pope’s own desk were leaked to an investigative journalist.

The Vatican has denounced the leaks as criminal and immoral, and has opened a three-pronged probe to find out who was responsible.

"The events of recent days about the Curia and my collaborators have brought sadness in my heart," Benedict said at the end of his audience.

But he added: "I want to renew my trust in and encouragement of my closest collaborators and all those who every day, with loyalty and a spirit of sacrifice and in silence, help me fulfil my ministry."

Few people think Gabriele worked alone, and his promise to co-operate with the investigation has fuelled speculation that other might be arrested soon.

The motivations for the leaks remain unclear: Some commentators say they appear designed to discredit Benedict’s No 2, Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Others say they are aimed at undermining the Vatican’s efforts to become more financially transparent. Still others say they aim to show the 85-year-old Benedict’s weakness in running the Church.

The scandal is playing out in a remarkable way, due in great part to the uniqueness of the institution in which it’s occurring and the players involved.

Gabriele is an employee of the Holy See, a citizen and resident of the Vatican city state.

He is being held by Vatican police who have accused him of stealing the Pope’s personal papers in a terrible breach of trust.

His lawyers are Italian legal professionals, but they are communicating to the media via the Vatican spokesman — a conflict of interest that the Rev Federico Lombardi has acknowledged but tried to downplay by saying he was merely offering a service to release information to the media.

Lombardi refers to Gabriele as "Paolo" and has repeatedly expressed sadness for what has happened.

At the same time, though, the Vatican undersecretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, lashed out at what he called an unprecedented, "brutal" attack on the Pope that the leaks represent.

In an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Becciu said the stolen papers didn’t just concern matters of internal Church governance, but represented the thoughts of people who in writing to the Pope believed they were essentially speaking before God.

"It’s not just that the Pope’s papers were stolen, but that people who turned to him as the vicar of Christ have had their consciences violated," Becciu was quoted as saying.

The scandal broke in January when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi revealed letters from a former top Vatican administrator who begged the Pope not to transfer him for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euro in higher contract prices.

The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican’s US ambassador.

The scandal widened over the following months with documents leaked to Italian journalists that laid bare power struggles inside the Vatican over its efforts to show greater financial transparency and comply with international norms to fight money laundering.

There was even a leak of a memo claiming that Benedict would die this year.

The crisis reached a peak last weekend, when Nuzzi published an entire book based on a trove of new documentation, including personal correspondence to and from the Pope and his private secretary, much of which paints Bertone in a negative light.

The Vatican has warned of legal action for those who stole, received and disseminated the documents.

Nuzzi, who in 2009 published a book on leaked documents from the Vatican bank, has justified the publication as an act of transparency and says there’s not a word against the Pope or the Church in the book.

source: Posted Image
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Who is leading the investigation in the case of the Pope’s leaked secret papers?

Silvia Aloisi, Reuters May 31, 2012 – 1:10 PM ET

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ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/GettyImages
Vatican's gendarmes guard during Pope Benedict XVI's weekly general audience on May 30, 2012 at The Vatican

VATICAN CITY — They are the pope’s shadow, his bodyguards both within the borders of the Vatican and during trips abroad.

They are the police of the world’s smallest state.

But while the Vatican’s gendarmes are trained to protect Benedict XVI from external threats, this time they are hunting people who may be hiding within his inner circle.

Together with other arcane institutions of the ancient Vatican state, they are trying to track down who is behind a leak of the pope’s secret papers in a scandal that has shaken the papacy after the arrest of his butler.

The prosecution will be led by the “Promotor of Justice,” Nicola Picardi, who like other top officials in the Vatican’s judiciary is named by the pope and exercises his powers on the pontiff’s behalf.

But the most important investigating authority is a commission of three powerful cardinals in their 80s that was appointed in March, when the Vatican opened an extremely rare criminal probe into the case.

“These are tragic days,” Domenico Giani, the head of the Vatican Gendarmerie, said in his only public comment on the case.

It was Giani who arrested Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, last week on charges of stealing the pontiff’s personal documents.

The Vatican said Gabriele, who had access to the pope’s private apartment, had been found in possession of a large number of confidential documents.

Since then, the 46-year-old has been detained in one of the Vatican’s three “safe rooms” at the gendarmerie barracks. He has been visited by his lawyers and wife and been allowed to attend Mass.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi says Gabriele will be formally interrogated by the Promotor of Justice and an examining judge either at the end of this week or next.

According to Vatican experts, his detention could last as long as the investigation, although Lombardi has indicated prosecutors would not oppose transferring him to house arrest.

In any case, there would be little risk of him running away – Gabriele’s house is in the same courtyard as the gendarmes’ barracks and just a stone’s throw from that of the Swiss Guards, the pope’s army, whose colourful costumes are a major tourist draw.

The 130-strong gendarme corps was founded by Pope Pius VII in 1816 and was originally part of the pope’s military forces.

Since 1970, they have evolved into the Vatican’s civil police force, responsible for investigating and preventing crime in the city-state, where around 800 people live.

WORK ALONGSIDE SWISS GUARDS

Alongside the more famous Swiss Guards, who began their history as a mercenary army for the papacy when it was a major temporal power, the gendarmes patrol Vatican City and act as the pope’s personal guard when he is outside his living quarters.

They accompany him on trips abroad and within Italy.

As the Inspector General of the gendarmes, Giani, a former officer with Italy’s financial police and the Sisde secret service, is more usually seen jogging alongside the moving popemobile as the pontiff’s chief protector.

The cardinals commission formally has no judicial powers but has been hearing people who could have information, Lombardi said.

It is also the only body that could call in fellow cardinals for questioning – something neither the Promotor of Justice nor the gendarmes can do.

Lombardi said no cardinals had been heard so far.

“They (the commission) do not want to feel under time pressure, they want to do things well with the necessary tranquillity and the time that is needed,” Lombardi said.

The Vatican, which is hunting for other alleged leakers inside its ancient walls, has said that Gabriele’s rights will be guaranteed and that if he is indicted he would be given a fair trial.

Like in Italy, criminal cases at the Vatican can go to a full trial and two appeals.

If handed a jail sentence, Gabriele would have to be transferred to an Italian prison, because the Vatican does not have one.

However, he could also plead for a papal pardon, which Vatican experts say the pontiff would be likely to grant.

Critics say the Vatican’s judiciary lacks transparency and independence, noting that the Holy See press office has been distributing statements by Gabriele’s lawyers.

Lombardi said this was requested by the lawyers themselves because they did not want to deal directly with the press.

“It seems to me that in this case the Vatican is acting as the judge, the prosecutor, the damaged party, and the press office – for itself and for the lawyers, who can only exercise in the state because they have been chosen by the Vatican,” said Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist who sparked the scandal by publishing the leaked documents in a book.

“It’s the system of a monarchy rather than that of a democratic state,” he told Reuters in an interview.

© 2012 Thomson Reuters

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Vatican crisis highlights pope's failure to reform Curia


BY TOM HENEGHAN, Reuters June 2, 2012


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Pope Benedict XVI attends the Council to the Episcopal Conferences of Italy at the Vatican on May 24, 2012.
Photograph by: Osservatore Romano , Reuters

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict in 2005, epithets like "God's Rottweiler" and "Panzerkardinal" suggested he would bring some German efficiency to the opaque Vatican bureaucracy, the Curia.

Instead, as the "Vatileaks" scandal has revealed, the head of the Roman Catholic Church can't even keep his own private mail secret.

His hand-picked deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, faces a "monsignors' mutiny" by prelates in the halls of power.

Benedict's papacy has been marked until now by controversies over things he has said and done, such as his criticism of Islam at Regensburg in 2006 or his 2009 decision to readmit four excommunicated ultra-traditionalist bishops to the Church.

Now a goal he has failed to achieve -- gain control over the Curia -- has come back to haunt him.

Leaks of confidential documents on everything from Vatican finances to private papal audiences make his papacy look weak and disorganized.

"We've almost forgotten that reform of the Curia was part of Benedict's program at the start," recalled Isabelle de Gaulmyn, who was Vatican correspondent for the French Catholic daily La Croix at the time.

"Seven years later, the Curia has never seemed as opaque, ineffective, closed and badly governed as it is today."

The "Vatileaks" scandal has revealed, among other issues, the infighting behind the sacking of the Vatican bank president.

The pope's own butler has been arrested on suspicion of stealing documents that have since been leaked to the media.

The target seems to be Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state (prime minister), whose critics accuse him of playing politics and blocking their efforts to stamp out corruption and cronyism in Vatican management.

THROWBACK TO RENAISSANCE MONARCHY

The Curia, a centuries-old bureaucracy dominated by Italian clerics, is essential to the success or failure of a papacy because it can effectively cancel or water down papal decisions if they go against long-standing interests or traditions.

Its name comes from the Latin word for a royal court and its jumble of overlapping departments, commissions and tribunals seems more suited to an intrigue-filled Renaissance monarchy than a modern and transparent democratic government.

The institution that gave the world the word "nepotism" is not always a model meritocracy either.

Some officials are talented and dynamic while others are bureaucrats who seem to owe their posts more to connections than capabilities.

Each department has an advisory board of cardinals and bishops and those who sit on several boards can create powerful links that cut across department lines to influence policy.

Pressure for reform grew during the long reign of Pope John Paul. He announced changes in the 1980s to give local bishops more say in central policy-making, but focused more on his travel and preaching and did not really implement it.

Benedict was seen as the best man to reform it since he had been a Curia member since 1981 and reportedly knew it inside out.

Now the task looks set to be handed on to his successor.

"I'm not sure anyone has ever really controlled it, or can control it," Thomas F.X. Noble, history professor at Notre Dame University in Indiana, said of the bureaucracy housed on the Vatican grounds and in office buildings nearby.

The Curia has held its own in Church power terms despite two non-Italian popes and the growing majority of Catholics from the developing world.

In February, the last time Benedict named new cardinals, 10 of the 18 who can vote for the next pope were Curia officials. That boosted their faction to 35 percent of the votes in the next conclave, meaning they will play an important role in the election and could try to win the papacy back for Italy.

Supporters of the tradition of Italian popes say only they know the culture well enough to control the Curia.

A SCHOLAR, NOT A SUPERVISOR

The crisis, which hurts Benedict's image as a leader just as he drives an increasingly conservative line in Church policy, is as much a result of the pope's diffident management style as of the institutional dysfunction of the Curia itself.

"He's a solitary scholar and he's not interested in the bureaucracy," said Chester Gillis, professor of theology at Georgetown University in Washington.
"His real ambition seems to be to finish the third volume of his book."

Benedict, a leading Catholic theologian in his own right, has devoted considerable time in office to writing a major study entitled "Jesus of Nazareth" rather than administering the Church.
The first two volumes appeared in 2007 and 2011.

His stern reputation stems from his long tenure as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), where he cracked down on liberal trends such as liberation theology.

But his CDF work focused on his own specialty, theology.

"It was not about managing the Church," Gillis noted.

When he was elected pope, Benedict brought along several trusted CDF colleagues, including Bertone.

Bertone's critics call him an autocratic power-broker, a role the Curia lends itself to because its structure suits a Renaissance monarchy more than modern democratic governance.

There are no cabinet meetings among heads of departments, or dicasteries, and information circulates mostly on a need-to-know basis. Decisions with major implications for the Church are not always discussed with other departments that might be affected.

"A TIN EAR PAPACY"

Benedict did start reforming the Curia in early 2006, downgrading its department for interfaith dialogue into a sub-department of the culture ministry and sending its experienced head away to be nuncio (ambassador) in Cairo.

But he restored it as a full department the following year after his Regensburg speech in September 2006, which suggested Islam was violent and irrational, sparked protests by Muslims in several Islamic countries.

Some Curia officials had vetted the speech but not warned him of its diplomatic dangers.

At Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland earlier that year, Benedict added the word Holocaust to his speech after journalists saw an advance text and told his aides Jews would be offended if he did not clearly mention it.

Benedict's aides apparently did not prepare him for the wave of sharp protests from Catholics, Jews and even German Chancellor Angela Merkel to his surprise decision in 2009 to readmit four rebel bishops to the Church after a 21-year schism.

The shocked pope had to write a long letter explaining the step and admit nobody in the Curia had done an Internet search for him and seen one bishop was a notorious Holocaust denier.

The Vatican has also reacted slowly and defensively to the clerical sexual abuse scandal shaking national churches around the world, giving the impression it puts its institutional interests ahead of the children molested by priests.

The cumulative effect of such incidents over the years and revelations of Vatican mismanagement now has been to cast Benedict's as "a tin ear papacy," said Christopher Bellitto, a Catholic Church historian at Kean University in New Jersey.

"This all seems to be a power game that matters only to the power players," he said.
"It seems to be a Church hierarchy further distancing itself from the people in the pews."

(This story corrects name and university in second to last paragraph)

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; Editing by Jon Boyle)

© Copyright (c) Reuters
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Peter Stanford: Does the Vatileaks scandal prove that there is something rotten in the court of Pope Benedict?

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Pope Benedict XVI

By The Telegraph
Friday June 01 2012

A BRITISH diplomat, sent as Her Majesty’s representative to the Holy See, once characterised the Vatican as being like a palace, floating adrift from the rest of the world.

It is an image that has surfaced again this week with the extraordinary spectacle of the “Vatileaks” scandal, in which Pope Benedict XVI’s butler has been accused of passing stolen documents to the Italian press at the behest of senior clerics who want to discredit their rivals at the papal court.

Paolo Gabriele, a 46-year-old valet who has worked for Benedict since 2006, is being held in custody in “secure rooms” within the Vatican, the world’s smallest sovereign state at just 108 acres.

As a Vatican citizen, one of only 600, he faces being dealt with by its own justice system rather than the courts in Rome, which surrounds this enclave.

Not that the international boundary that cuts across Saint Peter’s Square has deterred the Italian press from working itself up into a frenzy.

Among the revelations in the private documents are details of church tax problems, its handling of child sex abuse cases, and the on-going negotiations between Benedict and ultra traditionalist “Lefebvrists”, currently excommunicated from the Church, but whom the Pope wants to readmit to his flock, apparently at any price.

More telling, though, is the picture the leaks paint of gossip and intrigue being the lingua franca of Benedict’s senior clerical courtiers, all plotting to gain an advantage over rivals behind their elderly boss’s back.

If it sounds like murky machinations of the court of some medieval absolute monarch, then that is because it is precisely what it is, according to Robert Mickens, long-time Vatican-watcher and the Rome correspondent of the international Catholic weekly, the Tablet.

“The Roman curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy, runs on a model that is hierarchical and designed to suit the needs of 600 years ago.

Today it is simply anachronistic and detached from reality.

It badly needs reform, but that is never going to happen when you have a system where all the senior figures are clerics, there are no women in prominent roles, and it is all about the pecking order and an absurd obsession with secrecy.”

The backdrop to the leaks, it has been alleged, is a behind-the-scenes battle royal for influence within the Vatican.

In this reading of events, Gabriele is the “delivery boy” caught in the act of passing secrets on behalf of a clique of senior cardinals anxious to discredit two key figures close to Benedict.

The targets are said by anonymous sources briefing the Italian press to be the Pope’s trusted 56-year-old German private secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein (also known as “Gorgeous George” and “the Black Forest Adonis” on account of his good looks), and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the 77-year-old Vatican Secretary of State or Prime Minister.

Ganswein has long been the subject of a whispering campaign because he is believed to exert too much control over his master, while Bertone’s authority, at a time when Benedict seems happy to delegate many day-to-day decisions to him, is resented by those who fear he will become the “king-maker” at the next conclave to elect a new pope.

He certainly emerges in a very poor light from the leaks.

In 2009, it was widely reported that a delegation of cardinals – including the widely admired and papabile Christoph Schonborn of Vienna – had visited the Pope at his summer retreat at Castelgandolfo to demand Bertone’s dismissal.

Benedict refused.

“Bertone is seen as an obstacle to needed reforms,” says Mickens, “and he has also been accused of appointing his cronies, particularly members of his religious order, the Salesians, to plum posts in the Vatican, and making them cardinals as a way of consolidating his power.”

These charges of blocking reform are ironic because, when he was elected in 2005 as the 265th successor to Saint Peter, Benedict explicitly promised to update the curia.

His experience of 25 years of working in it, as right-hand man to John Paul II, and especially of seeing it in operation during the twilight years of that papacy when the Polish pontiff was increasingly incapacitated, was thought at the time to have prompted Benedict’s enthusiasm for change.

“He talked about transparency,” recalls Mickens, “but there has been no reform.
And you have to ask transparent to whom?
He doesn’t consult with bishops.
He clearly feels the laity have no right to see anything.
Presumably he means transparent to God.”

For a taste of how slowly the antiquated wheels of the Vatican bureaucracy turn, it is necessary only to apply for press accreditation to visit its territory.

There are two separate offices that deal with requests – one for photographers and one for writers – but both have to be satisfied before referring the matter for a final decision to the Pope’s press spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, a Jesuit, whose training was in mathematics and theology.

Under John Paul, the press role was held by a layman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, albeit one who was part of the secretive “church within a church” Opus Dei organisation.

Today, under Benedict, though, every department within the curia is headed by male celibate clerics, including the Council for the Laity and the Council for the Family.

Where women are included, they tend to be nuns given the role of under secretaries, on the third tier of the management pyramid.

Dr Lavinia Byrne, a former nun who was disciplined by the Vatican in the 1990s for her writings on female ordination, believes that the absence of women in positions of authority at the papal court has profound consequences for its effectiveness and connection with the world beyond the Leonine Walls.

“The culture of secrecy that so affronts people is reinforced by the fact that the Vatican is a boys’ club.
In this day and age that is surely unhealthy.
There are a few token women, but an institution that prizes itself as the elite of the Church is so male and so masculine in its outlook that it has ended up being out of touch and out of date.”

In a well-publicised case last year, Lesley Anne-Knight, a Briton who was one of the very few lay females to hold a senior position, was effectively frozen out by the curia as head of the Church’s global aid and relief agency, Caritas.

After her departure, the organisation was put more firmly under the control of another Vatican body, Cor Unum, headed by a cardinal.

“The inner workings of the Vatican are certainly a very tight ship,” says the writer John Cornwell, who had extensive exposure to it in researching his books on the sudden death of Pope John Paul I and the reign of John Paul II.
“The stereotype is that it is a place of great conservatism, which seemed pretty accurate to me, but also of great deviousness and plotting.
That, I feel, is false. What others see conspiracies, I tend to regard as cock-ups.”

In his book A Thief in The Night, Cornwell judged groundless the headline-grabbing theories that John Paul I had been murdered by Vatican insiders to stop him exposing their wrong-doing.

But he did describe the papal court as “a palace of gossipy eunuchs” and “a village of washerwomen – they get down in the river, wash clothes, punch them, dance on them, squeezing out all the old dirt”.

It is another of those descriptions that could be applied to this latest crisis.

Pope Benedict this week took the unusual step of making a personal appeal to his employees to work on “in the spirit of sacrifice and in silence”.

Clearly disturbed by the revelations about his butler, he tried to dampen speculation.

“Suggestions have been multiplied, amplified by some media, which are totally gratuitous and which have gone well beyond fact,” he said. “They are offering an image of the Holy See which does not correspond to reality”.

The problem, though, is that the reality which outsiders experience when they have dealings with the Vatican is so very odd.
It offers a context in which the wildest of stories can appear plausible.

And then to fuel the fires of those determined to suspect the worst, Benedict has appointed a member of Opus Dei to the commission of cardinals he has set up to look into the Vatileaks scandal.

Anywhere else it would be regarded as a public relations gaffe for, in most people’s minds, Opus Dei is inextricably linked with Dan Brown’s lurid allegations in The Da Vinci Code.

“The curia is slowly but steadily imploding because it is so removed from the rest of the world,” concludes Robert Mickens. “This latest scandal is just another stage in that process.”

Cornwell, though, counsels caution before writing off this system of government. “The curious thing is that, although I can describe its failings, it continues to have an extraordinary ability to keep going.
If you think about the damaging revelations that came out from the Vatican Bank in the 1980s, the system should never have survived. But it has.”

- The Telegraph

© Telegraph.co.uk

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Pope breaks silence over Vatileaks

SATURDAY, 02 JUNE 2012

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VATICAN CITY—Pope Benedict XVI broke his silence on Wednesday over the leaked documents scandal that has convulsed the Vatican, saying he was saddened by the betrayal but grateful to those aides who work faithfully and in silence to help him do his job.

Benedict made his first direct comments on the scandal in off-the-cuff remarks at the end of his weekly general audience.

He lashed out at some of the media reports about the scandal, saying the “exaggerated” and “gratuitous” rumors had offered a false image of the Holy See.

The Italian media have been in a frenzy ever since the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested last week after Vatican investigators discovered papal documents in his Vatican City apartment.

He remains in detention and has pledged to cooperate fully with the investigation.

Rumors have been flying in the press about possible cardinals implicated in the probe, pending resignations and details of the investigation that even Gabriele’s lawyers say they haven’t heard.

The Vatican spokesman has spent much of his daily briefings in recent days shooting down the various reports.

The scandal represents one of the greatest breaches of trust and security for the Holy See in recent memory given that a significant number of documents from the pope’s own desk were leaked to an investigative journalist.

The Vatican has denounced the leaks as criminal and immoral and has opened a three-pronged investigation to get to the bottom of who was responsible.

“The events of recent days about the Curia and my collaborators have brought sadness in my heart,” Benedict said at the end of his audience. But he added: “I want to renew my trust in and encouragement of my closest collaborators and all those who every day, with loyalty and a spirit of sacrifice and in silence, help me fulfill my ministry.”

Few people think Gabriele worked alone, and his promise to cooperate with the investigation has fueled speculation that other might be arrested soon.

The motivations for the leaks remain unclear: Some commentators say they appear designed to discredit Benedict’s No. 2, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Others say they’re aimed at undermining the Vatican’s efforts to become more financially transparent.

Still others say they aim to show the 85-year-old Benedict’s weakness in running the church.

The scandal is playing out in a remarkable way, due in great part to the uniqueness of the institution in which it’s occurring and the players involved.

Gabriele is an employee of the Holy See, a citizen and resident of the Vatican city state.

He is being held by Vatican police who have accused him of stealing the pope’s personal papers in a terrible breach of trust.
(AP)

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Cardinals split on whether to sack head of Vatican Bank

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Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, chairman of the Vatican bank, could be sacked over alleged corruption and money-laundering.
Image: Riccardo De Luca/AP

CARDINALS TASKED with deciding the fate of the president of the Vatican Bank – amid financial scandals and a struggle for power in the Holy See – are struggling to come to an agreement, media reports said today.

The commission of cardinals must decide whether or not to uphold the board’s decision to oust Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was fired for failing to clean up the institution’s image amid accusations of corruption and money-laundering.

But the cardinals are reportedly split, with two of the four siding with Gotti Tedeschi, widening the bitter rift between the financial ethics expert and Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican number two.

It was Bertone who reportedly pushed the bank’s board to fire their president as internal divisions over financial transparency came to a head.

“The cardinals are split. Two have refused to vote the measure backed by Bertone,” the Corriere della Sera said.

According to the Repubblica daily, “the split within the organisation” is also linked to the Vatileaks scandal, which has seen whistleblowers leak documents to the press, apparently in an attempt to bring Bertone down.

‘White list’

Gotti Tedeschi’s mission was to get the Vatican on to the “white list” of financially virtuous countries, but tensions grew after Bertone resisted reform and pushed for a new transparency law to be watered down.

Cardinal Attilio Nicora, head of the Vatican’s internal watchdog and a member of the commission, particularly resents Bertone for interference which is slowing the move towards financial transparency, according to Vatican watchers.

Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s experts on anti-money laundering, is due to rule at the beginning of July on the whether the Holy See has managed to clean up its act and meet international monetary standards.

Gotti Tedeschi was put in charge of the bank – also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) – in 2009, in an effort on the part of the Vatican to rid the institution of scandal, but was unceremoniously ousted last week.

The 67-year-old came under suspicion himself in 2010 when he was investigated as part of an inquiry by magistrates into money-laundering and was more recently also suspected of leaking secret papal documents to the press.
- © AFP, 2012

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New Vatican documents leaked; source calls pope's butler a 'scapegoat'

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

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Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict XVI's butler, is accused of leaking documents alleging Vatican corruption, but new documents published Sunday— after his arrest last month — suggest he may be a scapegoat.

By M. Alex Johnson

Pope Benedict XVI's butler, who is under arrest for allegedly leaking confidential Vatican documents, is just a scapegoat, according to the source of new secret documents published Sunday by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The butler, Paolo Gabriele, 45, remains in a Vatican jail cell on charges of aggravated theft for possessing confidential correspondence.

Publication of the new documents Sunday — which La Repubblica said it had received from an unknown person after Gabriele's arrest on May 25 — would strongly indicate that Gabriele wasn't the only person with access to the secret correspondence of the Roman Catholic Church.

The documents lay bare the political machinations among cardinals posted to the Vatican, suggesting an administration riven by infighting over which Benedict, 85, has — or chooses to exercise — little authority.

In a letter accompanying the three new documents, the shadowy provider calls Gabriele "the usual scapegoat" and says his or her intention is to "drive out the real culprits from the Vatican," whom the letter identifies as Msgr. Georg Gaenswein, Benedict's personal secretary, and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, his secretary of state.

The source warns that the new papers are just "three of the hundreds of documents in our possession" that could be damaging to the Vatican.

The documents published Sunday include two written on Gaenswein's personal letterhead.

The text, however, had been whited out — a step the source said he or she had taken to protect the pope.

In the accompanying cover letter, the source says the documents prove that Benedict is being served by an "inept staff."

Gaenswein has greatly increased his influence in the Vatican in recent years, according to La Republicca, and is one of the pope's closest confidants.

The letters, if authenticated, could suggest that even the most sensitive Vatican documents have been compromised.

The third document is a letter to Bertone from Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, an American who is head of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura — in essence, the Vatican's chief justice.

It is marked "highly confidential" and registers Burke's dismay that Benedict had approved the liturgy of a controversial lay group known as the NeoCatechumenal Way, which its critics contend violates the prescribed protocol for the Catholic Mass.

"I believe that approval of such liturgical innovations ... does not seem consistent with the liturgical teachings of the Pope," Burke wrote.

source: msnbc.com
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'Vatileaks' latest in long line of pope scandals

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Sunday, Jun 03, 2012

ROME - Power-hungry cardinals, spies and a suspicious butler: "Vatileaks" is just the latest scandal to grip an institution dogged down the centuries by damning tales of greed, corruption and betrayal.

From clerical sex abuse scandals to accusations of money-laundering and ties with the mafia over the years, critics do not have to indulge in Dan Brown "Da Vinci Code" theories to accuse the Church of slipping from its moral code.

While rumours of wild sex parties may nowadays be more easily associated with former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, the tiny Vatican state in the heart of Rome was once a hotbed of lust and depravity.

10th century pope John XII, appointed aged just 18, is said to have indulged his teenage sex drive by throwing exotic orgies, sparking outraged religious observers to describe the Lateran palace, the papal home, as a whore house.

Benedict IX, accused by his enemies of being a rapist and a murderous "demon from hell," reportedly whiled away his time in homosexual trysts before selling his papacy, trying to take it back again by force and being unceremoniously excommunicated.

Alexander VI, from the immensely powerful and nepotistic Borgia family, threw a famous banquet in Rome in 1501 at which 50 courtesans and cardinals reportedly won prizes for crawling around naked to pick up scattered chestnuts.

Some popes were elected as Italy's elite jostled for power, while others gleefully used the papacy for personal - and sometime bizarre - vendettas.

Ninth century Pope Stephen VI has gone down in history for digging up his predecessor, propping his corpse up on a throne and putting him on trial for becoming pope illegally - before finding him guilty and tossing him into the Tiber.

Tolerance for bad behaviour did not extend to Pope Joan, who legend has it disguised herself as a man in the Middle Ages but was caught out when she gave birth, leading to a now-defunct tradition of checking under future popes' robes.

While tales of prostitutes and poisoned chalices have subsided over the last few centuries, the Church has been rocked instead in recent years by a clerical abuse scandal which has revealed cases of paedophilia in parishes worldwide.

Thousands of victims have come forward to confront their abusers and accuse the Church of engaging in a systematic cover-up by moving suspected priests on to other parishes and endangering other children rather than reporting them.

The Holy See has also been hit hard by accusations of mafia ties, fraud and money-laundering within the Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).

In 1982 the IOR was caught up in one of Italy's biggest fraud cases when Milan's Banco Ambrosiano - of which it was the main shareholder - collapsed.

Banco Ambrosiano's chairman Roberto Calvi, known as "God's Banker" because of his ties with the Vatican, was found hanging from a London bridge.

More recently, the IOR's head was ousted in an apparent battle over tax
transparency as the institution failed to shake off its reputation for opacity.

The Italian mafia's use of the IOR to launder money is also thought to be a key clue to the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Vatican employee's daughter in 1983 - a conspiracy-filled enigma that has gripped Italy.

The tomb of an Italian gangster suspected of her murder was excavated in May in an attempt to find clues to the girl's fate. He was buried in a basilica - a rare privilege thought to be due to his shady Vatican connections.

Over the last few months, it has been the "Vatileaks" scandal which has hit the headlines around the world, after leaks of secret Vatican documents to the press enraged the Holy See and led to the arrest of the pope's personal butler.

It is not the first time the tiny state has been infiltrated.

The Nazis had Pope Pius XII's personal telephone tapped - though an apparent plan to smuggle spies in dressed as monks failed - and during the Cold War the Vatican's cloisters were saturated with Soviet spooks.

According to religious watchers, the latest scandal is a struggle for power - a plot by rebellious cardinals to unseat the Vatican's number two man and begin preparing the way for their chosen candidate to become future pope.

The leaked papal documents, filched directly from the pope's desk, refer to the clerical abuse and IOR controversies, as well as the kidnapping.

With the Vatican investigation ongoing, and rumours the butler may be about to spill the beans on his fellow whistle-blowers, the latest scandal may be far from over.

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Catholic jails and the Vatileaks Scandal

31-May-2012

In Rome in the last few days, Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s butler accused of leaking damaging documents from the papal apartments, was moved to another jail cell in Vatican City.

There he is being kept under constant surveillance with CCTV cameras working 24 hours a day both in his cell and toilet in the rarely discussed Vatican jail.

Not only in the Vatican, but also most Catholic establishments have their jail cells.

It is a little known fact of Christian history that ‘there were prisons under control of religious authorities.

Each convent had one or at times two prisons in which the religious were incarcerated’ (‘Catholic Encyclopedia’, Farley Ed., xii, 431).

Monasteries also had ‘prisons for members of religious orders and we find them recorded in decrees dealing with the incorrigibility of those who have lost the spirit of their vocation’ (‘Catholic Encyclopedia’, Farley Ed. xii, 436).

Incarcerated Bishops

The ‘Catholic Encyclopedia’ refers to the fate of more than fifty per cent of dissenting bishops at the first Vatican Council I (1869-70) who opposed the decision of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) to declare himself ‘infallible’.

Members of the ‘recalcitrant group were confined in special quarters to reconsider their irreverent decision.

Many left the State, never to return’ (‘Catholic Encyclopedia’, Pecci Ed., ii, 328). In other words, some escaped incarceration by getting out of Vatican City.

‘Vatican Prison for Bad Priests’

Vatican City State is governed by the Code of Canon Law, meaning that those who work or reside within its precincts are subject to specific Church laws established at earlier council meetings.

Matthew Bunson, in The Pope Encyclopedia revealed this information:

The legal system [of the Church] is generally based on the Code of Canon Law, with the cooperation of Italian authorities in cases where canon law may not apply … such as murder, assassination attempts on the pope, burglary, or assault.

After all, the dungeons of the Vatican were closed long ago and there is no jail in a formal sense, although clerics who are summoned to Rome for censure or investigation for dubious theological theories are often said to have been sent to the Vatican Prison for Bad Priests.

(‘The Pope Encyclopedia’, Matthew Bunson, Crown Trade Publishers, New York, 1995, p. 358)

With the imprisonment of Paolo Gabriele in the last week or so, the Vatican is obviously still using its jail cells, and if the claims of a pious Catholic tourist on a trip to the Vatican in 1986 are to be credited, the Holy See has long been imprisoning employees in cells under the Catholic headquarters.

How the Holy See silences its critics

During an organized sight-seeing tour of the Vatican in 1986, an Australian man claimed he became detached from his tour leader and the group, and while trying to relocate his party, he mistakenly entered a slightly ajar door that lead along a passage and down a flight of stairs to a lower level.

Thinking that his group had travelled in this direction, he walked down the stairs and came into a foyer that opened onto a ‘poorly-lit detention centre’.

He alleged that confined behind steel bars were pale-skinned, under-nourished, longhaired unkempt ex-nuns and priests who said that they were only fed to be kept alive.

They pleaded for his help, saying they had been imprisoned in the smelly dungeons to prevent them revealing what they had learnt in their vocation as Vatican archivists (‘The Christ Scandal’, Tony Bushby, Stanford House Publishing, 2008).

Why the Cardinals drugged a Vatican nun

In recent years, rumours from Rome maintain that the alleged cells have been modernized with fluorescent lighting and other facilities.

If this claim is correct, there are parallels to the story of an ex-Vatican archival nun who was drugged and removed unconscious from the Vatican City State the night after she raised concerns with two Vatican Cardinals about her findings on the non-historical nature of Virgin Mary.

Her bizarre story is the subject of an up-coming posting on this website, and is supported by Italian police records.

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06/04/2012

Vatileaks Scandal
Documents Expose Pope's Frail Leadership

By Fiona Ehlers in Rome

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REUTERS

Though Pope Benedict XVI's personal butler has been arrested in connection with the "Vatileaks" scandal, new documents released over the weekend indicate he had powerful backers that remain unidentified.

The secret documents expose the pontiff's awkward and helpless leadership in the Church.


Do the two know each other? Is one the other's source? Could it be that they teamed up to harm the German-born head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI?

Few others in Rome have been the object of such intense speculation recently as these two men.

But, as chance would have it, despite their physical proximity, they probably won't be running into each other any time soon.

One of them is looking out of a 4 meter (13 foot) by 4 meter detention cell in a Vatican police station on the wall surrounding the papal state.

He has been sitting there for almost two weeks now, and almost everyone knows his name: Paolo Gabriele, the pope's 46-year-old personal butler.

Shortly before Pentecost, Benedict's private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, reportedly uncovered Gabriele as a spy.

Investigators found four boxes with copies of strictly confidential letters to and from Pope Benedict in Gabriele's apartment.

Since then, Gabriele has been viewed as a traitor and called "il corvo," the raven, an animal known for its thieving disposition.

His lawyers say he will finally submit to formal questioning this week -- and that he is prepared to tell all.

Is this merely the climax of the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal, which has been smoldering since January, when a series of secret documents began coming to light? Or is it just the beginning?

There's no doubt that this flood of paper out of the Vatican is a sign of what the Italian weekly magazine Panorama calls one of the "worst crises in the history of the Holy See," or what Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi has described as a "difficult test" for the pope.

In any case, it is a crime story that not even Dan Brown could have better concocted -- but one in which Gabriele is possibly just a marginal figure because Vatican officials are still searching for the true masterminds behind the scandal.

Indeed, they appear to remain at large.

Despite the butler's arrest, the leaks continued over the weekend. While the pope was on a three-day trip to Milan, Italian paper La Repubblica published Vatican documents on Sunday that included two bearing the signature of his secretary.

'An Immoral Act'

After the most recent events surrounding the match-fixing scandal involving Italy's national football team, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti suggested simply suspending play in the country's premier league, Serie A, for two to three years.

Many Romans found that this wasn't a bad idea in principle -- but one that should be applied to the Church rather than to football.

Close the Holy See, they agree, but not the stadiums.

But the Vatican is on the defensive.

During his general audience on May 30, Benedict made his first public comments on the Vatileaks scandal and said he continues to support his Vatican colleagues, loyal and disloyal alike.

Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the Vatican's undersecretary of state, a position equivalent to an interior minister, even told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that he considered the publication of the confidential letters "an immoral act of unheard-of gravity" and encouraged journalists "to take a clear step back from the initiative of a colleague whom I do not hesitate to call a criminal."

This colleague is Gianluigi Nuzzi.

In the Vatican's eyes, he is clearly the real culprit behind this affair.

The well-known investigative journalist had already uncovered corruption and money-laundering at the Vatican bank in his 2009 book "Vaticano S.p.A." or "Vatican Ltd."

Now the Vatican is threatening him with legal action for his most recent work, "His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI," released on May 18.

Several days later Vatican Bank chief Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was dismissed from his post for dereliction of duty.

Media reports said that leaked memos indicate differences over financial transparency policies within the Vatican.

A Unique Window Inside the Vatican

Nuzzi just happens to be staying at the Hotel Ambasciatori on Rome's Via Veneto, just a short walk from the Vatican police station.

The street was once famous for its dolce vita back when star director Federico Fellini was still alive and when neither Italy nor the Vatican was afflicted by crises.

Two cell phones on the coffee table in front of Nuzzi are ringing.

His colleagues report that a politician is calling for his arrest. Every few minutes, he is approached by fans looking to have their copy of his book signed, including people who work at the Vatican nearby.

They whisper and puzzle over Nuzzi's mysterious sources.

Although some of the documents are far from overwhelming, Nuzzi's revelations open a unique window onto the inner workings of the Vatican and furnish proof of how the game of politics is played in the domain of the Holy Father.

They show that, just like elsewhere, there are lies, intrigues and bitter feuds between rival parties.

A few of the more than 30 faxes reveal banal aspects of the pope's everyday life, such as celebrities' offers of donations and requests for an audience.

One document shows the pope's bank account number.

Indeed, it was reportedly this document that put the pope's private secretary Gänswein onto Gabriele's trail in his investigations, since only Gabriele could have had access to it.

However, other documents are more explosive.

For example, there is a memo the pope sent to the Vatican's ambassador in Berlin, in which he gives the ambassador permission to complain to Chancellor Angela Merkel about criticizing Benedict's behavior in the affair surrounding the controversial Catholic splinter group, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).

But, for the most part, the book contains letters critical of Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict's No. 2 as the Vatican's secretary of state.

Bertone is alleged to have made accusations against an archbishop with a reputation for wanting to clean things up, which led to the archbishop's being promptly transferred to another position as a punishment.

Sources Called 'Maria'

Nuzzi says he isn't afraid of any legal actions and that his work was carefully and meticulously researched.

Of course, he won't disclose his sources, preferring instead to call them by the collective name "Maria."

Indeed, the story of how he came into contact with Maria reads like a thriller, like the meetings that journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward had with their "Deep Throat" source in a Washington parking garage while investigating the Watergate scandal.

Nuzzi claims that he met with two intermediators last year who examined his trustworthiness and drove him to an empty apartment in Rome's Prati neighborhood after taking a circuitous route.

There, he says he was asked to sit down in a plastic chair opposite his main source, who Nuzzi stresses "never took even a single cent for it.

" He confirms that "Maria" was actually several individuals and says that the people who gave him the documents "knew what they were doing."

Nuzzi says that the individuals with whom he was in contact from the Holy See were frustrated about the intolerable culture of secrecy and cover-ups in the Vatican, and that was their motive.

He says he hopes to spark a debate, a perestroika -- though it all sounds a bit far-fetched and naïve.

His book is by no means about pope-bashing, Nuzzi adds.

On the contrary, he views the pope as a revolutionary, as he believes Benedict XVI wants to bring some transparency to the business dealings of the Vatican bank and has combated child abuse more than any of his predecessors.

In fact, he hopes that his disclosure will protect the pope, or at least he claims as much.

But in reality, Nuzzi is harming the pope because the documents mainly reveal one thing: Benedict XVI's weakness as a leader.

"The most shocking thing was seeing just how lonely this pope is and how much trouble he is having keeping the shop together or getting information owing to all the filtering and intrigues surrounding him," Nuzzi says.

Speculation Continues

The questions have yet to be answered about who slipped Nuzzi the documents and who was keen for the world to find out about the allegedly deplorable state of affairs within the Vatican.

Nevertheless, there is much speculation on St. Peter's Square and during the now daily press conferences in the Sala Stampa attended by the embarrassed papal spokesman and the various Vatican watchers who have to file several pages' worth of reports about the palace intrigues in the court of Benedict XVI on a daily basis.

These speculations often have something to do with power struggles between senior Italian Church officials intent on putting their favorite candidates in good positions for the next papal election.

Others speculate that it involves a conspiracy against Bertone, the No. 2 official in the Vatican and confidant of the pope, whom many view as excessively high-handed.

Supporters of this theory point to the fact that, in the wake of the recent child-abuse scandal, there was already a period in which even people within the Church were calling for Bertone's dismissal.

More than anything, the Vatileaks scandal and Nuzzi's disclosures demonstrate that it continues to be difficult to bring the inner political workings of the Vatican into the public light.

In this sense, little has changed behind the walls of the Holy See.

In fact, Gabriele is not the first spy to be exposed there.

In what is now an almost forgotten case, there was another raven who ironically worked for another pope who had chosen the pontifical name Benedict.

Rudolf von Gerlach, the papal chamberlain, tried to thwart the policies of Benedict XV, who was intent on safeguarding the Church's neutrality during World War I.

Von Gerlach, who enjoyed considerably more influence than Gabriele, a simple butler, fostered excellent ties with Germany and its allies.

While he was accused of treason, Benedict XV was caught in the crossfire and viewed himself as a victim of an anti-clerical conspiracy.

And what happened to von Gerlach, the raven?

Though sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, he was eventually released.

He then lived in Switzerland, where he abandoned the priesthood, lived an extravagant life and nurtured extremely close ties with the pope in Rome for the rest of his life.

In other words, being briefly detained in the Vatican's dungeon doesn't necessarily mean the end of one's career.

Translated from the German by Josh Ward

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Pope Benedict gets no respite from Vatileaks scandal as more confidential documents leaked
Vatican City , Mon, 04 Jun 2012ANI

Vatican City, June 4 (ANI): Pope Benedict XVI got no relief from the ongoing Vatileaks scandal, which has engulfed his papacy, after recently emerged documents showed that his butler was not the only person in possession of confidential correspondence indicating a Vatican in disarray.

Paolo Gabriele was recently arrested on suspicion of disclosing dozens of embarrassing letters alleging corruption and nepotism at the Holy See.

Gabriele is believed to be one of up to 20 whistleblowers trying to oust Benedict's powerful prime minister, secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been accused of incompetence, covering up graft, and packing key Vatican posts with supporters.

On Sunday, La Repubblica published newly leaked Vatican correspondence with an anonymous covering note stating the whistleblowers still at large will not stop until Bertone, and the pope's personal secretary Georg Ganswein, are removed, The Guardian reports.

Gabriele has spent a week under guard in a 'secure room' and will be interrogated early this week.
According to the paper, his lawyers are hinting he might reveal the names.

Meanwhile, letters published so far have accused Bertone of exiling a priest to a US post after he exposed graft at the Vatican and insinuate the cardinal was behind a gay whispering campaign against a newspaper editor. (ANI)

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Vatican denies Pope's butler was 'double agent' in Vatileaks scandal

Vatican investigators began interrogating the Pope's butler on suspicion of stealing confidential documents on Tuesday as it was claimed he had been acting as a 'double agent' to help officials uncover others involved in the scandal.

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Mr Gabriele has been held since May 23 in a 12ft by 12ft room inside the headquarters of the Gendarmerie, the city state's 130-strong police force Photo: AP

By Nick Squires, Rome, 05 Jun 2012

Paolo Gabriele, 46, Benedict XVI's personal valet, has been held in custody for two weeks in a "secure room" of the Vatican Gendarmerie on suspicion of stealing and leaking papers which lifted the lid on bitter feuds and power games at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

However, in an affair which grows murkier by the day, it was suggested by Corriere della Sera, one of Italy's leading newspapers, yesterday that Vatican magistrates knew five months ago that he was behind the leaks but came to a "secret pact" under which he would lead them to other moles.

The newspaper said there was no other way to explain why the butler took the "suicidal" decision to keep some of the stolen documents in the Vatican apartment that he shares with his wife and children, where they were discovered by investigators.

The hypothesis was denied by Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

It was "absolutely without foundation or plausibility" he said.

The substance of the butler's questioning would not be made public because it was an ongoing criminal investigation, Father Lombardi said.

A trial, however, would be public, and could turn into the city state's most sensational for decades.

The valet was questioned by Vatican prosecutors in the presence of his two lawyers as well as a Vatican judicial official known as the "promoter of justice", as part of the process that could lead to him being charged with "aggravated theft" and put on trial.

If convicted, he could be sent to prison for up to six years, a sentence that would have to be served in an Italian jail, because the Vatican does not have one.

Prosecutors could also charge him with receiving stolen goods, criminal association and stealing secrets from a head of state, crimes which carry additional penalties of one to five years under Vatican law.

Vatican observers have speculated that should he be convicted, he might receive a papal pardon and not have to serve any time behind bars.

"There's no way they're going to give him a heavy sentence for espionage and stealing state secrets," said Father Thomas Reese, a Vatican expert at the Woodstock Theological Centre at Georgetown University in Washington.

Mr Gabriele has been held since May 23 in a 12ft by 12ft room inside the headquarters of the Gendarmerie, the city state's 130-strong police force.

It is equipped with a desk and a bed and has a crucifix on the wall.

The valet, a devout Catholic who was previously seen as intensely loyal to the Pope, is allowed to attend Mass at a nearby chapel, where he is not handcuffed, and to read newspapers. He is served the same meals that are eaten by Vatican gendarmes.

The Vatican's de facto prime minister – who appears to be one of the main targets of the shadowy plot – spoke for the first time of the scandal.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state and the Pope's right-hand man, said the theft and leaking of compromising documents seemed to be part of a "ferocious and targeted" campaign against 85-year-old Benedict's papacy.

He insisted that the Pope would not allow himself to be "intimidated" by the scandal, dubbed "Vatileaks" by the Italian media.

Many of the leaked documents appeared to be aimed at discrediting Cardinal Bertone himself, casting in a negative light his apparent attempts to block efforts to tackle corruption and nepotism and measures to improve transparency within the Vatican bank.

Exactly who is behind the theft of the papers and letters remains a mystery, but there is widespread speculation in Rome that they are at least in part an attempt to topple Cardinal Bertone, against a background of jockeying for power in anticipation of Benedict's death and the election of a new Pope.

Vatican investigators, including a specially-appointed commission of three cardinals, suspect at least five other people of being part of the plot, the Italian media claimed.

source: telegraph.co.uk
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Judas or an exploited idealist?

Analysis by Philip Pullella, Reuters
Tuesday, June 05, 2012

JUST after dawn on Wednesday, May 23, Paolo Gabriele said goodbye to his wife, passed by the bedrooms of his three children, and left to start another day in the service of the man Roman Catholics believe is the vicar of Christ on Earth.

By the end of the day, Pope Benedict’s butler would be branded a traitor and some, including an Italian cardinal, would compare him to the most famous betrayer in history — Judas Iscariot, the man who turned Jesus over to the Romans.

Dark-haired and handsome, Gabriele, 46, left his simple home on the third floor of a 1930s Vatican apartment block named after the 7th-century monk Saint Egidio.

With the St Ann’s Gate entrance, guarded by Swiss Guard in blue berets, to his back, he passed the Holy See’s central post office on Via Del Belvedere, turned left to climb a stone stairway named after Pope Pius X, and walked up a flight of covered steps to enter the small Renaissance-era courtyard of Sixtus V.

Here he used a key held by fewer than 10 people to enter a lift that leads directly to the Pope’s private apartment on the third and top floor of the Apostolic Palace in the world’s smallest state.

Even cardinals can’t use it.

Gabriele — said by those who know him to be a timid, reserved, and shy man — is now at the centre of the worst crisis in Pope Benedict’s pontificate.

His face has appeared on the front pages of newspapers all over the world, accused of being the source of leaked documents alleging serious Vatican corruption and cronyism in a scandal that has shaken the very centre of the Church.

To some, even if he is found guilty, he is an idealist who wanted to root out corruption in the Vatican and was helped by outside accomplices.

To others, he is merely a pawn in a much bigger power struggle among cardinals inside the Vatican walls.

"I know Paolo and I don’t think he is capable of doing something like this by himself," one person, on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

That Wednesday morning, even as he was serving the Pope his breakfast after the pontiff had said Mass with other members of the "papal family", Gabriele knew he was a suspect in a probe into leaks begun in January.

"He was questioned earlier but the decisive elements that permitted the arrest surfaced later," a Vatican official said, adding that one of the Pope’s two private secretaries, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, had confronted Gabriele with his suspicions.

At precisely 10.30am on that sunny Wednesday, Benedict rode in his white popemobile through the Arch of the Bells into St Peter’s Square to start his weekly audience.

Gabriele was in his usual place, to the right of the driver, and his stony face showed no emotion.

It was the last ride he would take in the iconic vehicle that carries the man world diplomacy recognises not only as leader of 1.2bn Roman Catholics but as "the sovereign of the state of Vatican City".

That afternoon, agents led by Domenico Giani, 49, the shaven-headed Vatican police chief who is known by the diminutive "Mimmo" to his friends, rang the buzzer on the Gabriele family apartment and entered.

Giani was formerly a member of the Italian secret service.

Inside, they found what the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano — which waited nearly a week before writing about the arrest — called "a large number of confidential documents" belonging to the Pope.

"A sense of tension, disorientation, stupor and sadness fell over the whole place like a thick fog after news of Paolo’s arrest spread," said one Vatican worker.

Because the Vatican does not have a jail, Gabriele is being held in a simple "safe room" with a bed and small table in the Vatican police station.

The questions on many people’s minds and lips, including Gabriele’s friends, were: "Why? What is the motive?"

If he is guilty, why would Paoletto (little Paul, as he known), a devout Catholic and devoted father, betray the man whose official titles include "successor of the Prince of the Apostles" and "servant of the servants of God"?

People who know Gabriele, now called "the defendant" in Vatican statements, exclude money as a motive.

They say the butler, who still attends Mass each day in the police station, would not have been able to spend it anywhere without raising suspicion unless he left his job and probably even Italy.

And why, at 46 with three small children, would he leave a simple but comfortable life in the Vatican?

While Vatican employees do not receive large salaries, they do enjoy benefits such as low rent, no income tax, and cheap food and petrol at the commissaries of the 108-acre city state.

GIANLUIGI Nuzzi, the journalist who revealed many of the documents alleging corruption in the Vatican and internal conflict over the role of the Vatican bank, declines to reveal his sources but insists he did not pay anyone.

Nuzzi, a respected journalist with a good track record whose book His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI, contains some of the allegations, says his sources were simple, devout people "genuinely concerned about the Catholic Church" who wanted to expose corruption.

People who know Gabriele, who started out as a humble cleaning person in the Vatican, said there was no indication either that he could have been blackmailed over his private life to force him to leak the documents.

Apart from Gabriele, the few other people who could go directly into the papal apartments via the private elevator at the base of the Sixtus V courtyard include the Pope’s two priest secretaries, Ganswein and Maltese Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, and four consecrated women of Memores Domini.

Memores Domini is an association of lay women, similar to nuns, who take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience within the Catholic organisation Communion and Liberation. Their names are Carmela, Loredana, Cristiana, and Rossella.

While the Pope’s secretaries and the four women who help him run the simple household live in the papal residence, Gabriele stayed in his own apartment nearby with his family.

"He lived in the Vatican but not in the papal apartment," said one Church official who knows Gabriele. "He could have met with anyone in the Vatican or outside the Vatican."

In an interview with Reuters, Nuzzi would not say if any of the documents he had received came from Gabriele.

His book contains a treasure trove of private Vatican correspondence, including documents alleging cronyism and corruption in contracts with Italian companies; conspiracies among cardinals; and clashes over management at the Vatican bank, the Institute for Works of Religion.

He said the book, which hit the stands last week and is already sold out in Rome, is based on confidential conversations with more than 10 Vatican whistleblowers.

The Vatican has not contested the authenticity of the documents but says their leak was part of a "brutal" personal attack on the Pope and their publication "a criminal act".

The Italian media has dubbed the people who have leaked the documents "corvi" (crows), a pejorative Italian term for an informant.

"They are not crows, they are doves who wanted to shed light, clean the air," Nuzzi told Reuters. "If the image of the Vatican that emerges is negative, it is not my fault, it is because of what is written in the documents."

The leaks began in January when an investigative television show hosted by Nuzzi broadcast private letters to secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the Pope from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former deputy governor of the Vatican City, who has been moved to Washington as the Vatican’s ambassador.

The letters showed Vigano was transferred after he exposed what he said was a web of corruption and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts at inflated prices to Italian contractors.

Bertone responded by removing Vigano from his position three years before the end of his tenure and sending him to the US, despite his strong resistance.

Bertone, whose job is to keep the Vatican’s central administration, or curia, running smoothly for the Pope, now looks weakened after the leaks scandal and other failures.

They include the abrupt departure last week of the Vatican bank’s Italian chief Ettore Gotti Tedeschi — who was recruited by Bertone from Spanish bank Santander — after a no-confidence vote by its board.

At his position in the papal apartments, Gabriele was in a prime position to see at least some of the disarray and tension in the curia.

But it remains to be seen whether he really was a pawn used by others to undermine Bertone, as some sources say.

"This is a strategy of tension, an orgy of vendettas and pre-emptive vendettas that has now spun out of the control of those who thought they could orchestrate it," said Alberto Melloni, an Italian Church historian.

After his arrest Gabriele called an old schoolfriend and devout Catholic, Carlo Fusco, and asked him to be his defence lawyer.

Fusco, a civil advocate, called in criminal lawyer Cristiana Arru to help with the defence.

Gabriele’s fate is now in the hands of Piero Antonio Bonnet, the Vatican’s public prosecutor.

He will decide if the man who once was trusted with the keys to the papal elevator should stand trial for aggravated theft, or disclosing the documents of a head of state or breaking a special pontifical law protecting Papal confidentiality.

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Cardinals involved in 'Vatileaks' scandal?

CWN - June 06, 2012

Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s valet, who has been charged with stealing confidential papal documents, has implicated two cardinals in the “Vatileaks” scandal, according to a report in London’s Daily Telegraph.

The Daily Telegraph story did not identify the cardinals allegedly involved, and did not cite evidence to substantiate the report.

The Telegraph, like other British newspapers, has a history of publishing sensational reports about Vatican affairs.

A Vatican prosecutor began questioning Gabriele in depth this week about his involvement in the release of confidential Vatican documents.

Immediately after the valet’s arrest, journalists began questioning whether Gabriele was working with more influential figures at the Vatican.

But to date no other names have been mentioned in connection with the leaks.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, has specifically denied that any cardinals are under suspicion.

souce: catholicculture.org


th-nking lol lol lol lol ..not only the telegraph!
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Butler acted ‘out of love’ for Benedict

By Philip Pullella, Vatican City
Monday, July 23, 2012

Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler held on suspicion of leaking documents alleging corruption in the Vatican, was driven by his love for Pope Benedict XVI and a desire to help clean up the Catholic Church, his lawyer said.

The lawyer, Carlo Fusco, told a news conference that Mr Gabriele had acted alone in the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal and was not part of any wider plot, saying he expected a Vatican magistrate to order a trial for him soon.

The 46-year-old butler’s arrest on May 23 caused an international furore after police found confidential papers in his apartment inside the Vatican — a dramatic twist that threw the global media spotlight on an institution battling to defend its reputation from allegations of graft.

"The motivations that prompted him to do certain things are all of an interior nature.

"There were no external motives," Mr Fusco said after assisting Mr Gabriele in an interrogation that lasted seven hours.

Asked by a reporter if Mr Gabriele’s motive could have been to "help the pope clean up the Church", Mr Fusco said: "That would be one way of interpreting it."

Mr Fusco said Mr Gabriele, who is being investigated for aggravated theft and faces up to six years in jail if found guilty, was "moved by the desire to do something that could be an act of help, an act of love, towards the Pope".

Mr Gabriele has been held in a small "safe room" inside the Vatican police station for the past two months, but over the weekend a decision was taken to allow him to return to his flat under house arrest.

Some Italian newspapers allege corruption in the Vatican’s business dealings with Italian companies, involving the payment of inflated prices for work.

Others highlight rivalries among cardinals and clashes over the management of the Vatican’s bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion.

Mr Fusco said his client showed signs of remorse. "He has been able to reflect long and hard these days and came to the conclusion that the method [of helping the Pope] could have been different. He certainly regrets the method that was used."

Many commentators have said that Mr Gabriele, who served the pope his meals and rode in the front seat of the Popemobile at Pope Benedict’s general audiences, could not have acted alone and was just a scapegoat for others. But the lawyer denied this.

"We can say with absolute certainty that there was no network, there were no plots, either in the Vatican or outside the Vatican, that Paolo was part of," Mr Fusco said.

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Pope's butler to face trial over 'Vatileaks'

Pope Benedict XVI's former butler and an accomplice have been ordered to stand trial for stealing and leaking confidential papers.

The scandal is the latest to afflict the Roman Catholic Church.

The former butler, 46-year-old Paolo Gabriele, is accused of "aggravated theft" in a case that has come to be known as "Vatileaks."

Judge Piero Bonnet also charged an analyst and programmer in the Vatican state secretariat with complicity.

If found guilty, Gabriele could face up to six years in prison.

The Vatican says the trial will not take place until October at the earliest.

He was arrested during an investigation into the leaking of private papal documents to the media.

He was then detained for 53 days in a Vatican cell before being put under house arrest by the police in July.

Sensitive documents

The leaked documents included references to an alleged plot to kill the pope and details of controversial financial activities relating to the Vatican's bank, the Institute of Religious Works.

Some alleged corruption in the Vatican's dealings with Italian companies, such as the payment of inflated prices for work.

Gabriele, who served the pope his meals and rode in the front seat of the pope mobile at the pontiff's general audiences, in July reportedly wrote to Pope Benedict asking for forgiveness.

If convicted, he is widely expected to ask the pope for a pardon that Vatican sources say is likely to be granted.

If it were not, Gabriele would serve his term in an Italian jail according to bilateral agreements between the Vatican - the world's smallest city-state - and Italy.

His arrest in May threw the global media spotlight on the Vatican's financial activities as the Church faces growing allegations of graft.

sources: tj/mz (Reuters, AFP, dpa) dw.de
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Vatileaks: Did the Pope’s Butler Have Help?

Aug 13, 2012 6:16 PM EDT

An indictment published by the Vatican on Monday indicates that a computer technician may have protected the pope’s former butler, who stands accused of leaking papal documents.

The pope’s erstwhile butler—Paolo Gabriele—will not be pardoned, the Vatican said on Monday, and instead will face a three-judge Vatican tribunal for allegedly stealing papal documents and leaking them to an Italian journalist.

Yet in a surprise twist, in a 60-page indictment, which the Holy See published on Monday, the Vatican accused a second man--Claudio Sciarpelletti, a 48-year old computer technician--of aiding Gabriele by obstructing justice.

The two will be codefendants some time this fall.

The date of the trial, which the Vatican says will be open to the press, will be set after September 20, when the Vatican’s judicial offices reopen following a summer recess, though a Vatican spokesman speculated that it will begin in October and last just a few days.

The surprise announcement in what’s known as the Vatileaks scandal underscores the Holy See’s ongoing ability to keep a secret, despite apparent fractures in the church’s once-impenetrable shield.

For months, the Italian press has speculated that bishops, cardinals and nuns had served as Gabriele’s alleged accomplices.

But no one had even heard of Sciarpelletti until Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi announced his alleged involvement at a press briefing on Monday.

Lombardi said Sciarpelletti was arrested just two days after Gabriele late last May.

Investigators said he was a close friend of Gabriele’s, and that he had documents in his Vatican apartment, which were published in a book called His Holiness by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Yet Greg Burke, a former Fox News correspondent who was hired as a media consultant by the Vatican this summer told The Daily Beast that Sciarpelletti became a suspect not because of what was in the envelope, but because he changed his story three times, causing investigators to think that he may have been protecting the butler.
Sciarpelletti, who worked in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State offices, held a trusted position that would have certainly afforded him access to a cache of papal documents.

Whether he helped Gabriele reproduce and disseminate the documents that ended up in Nuzzi’s hands, or if he simply did nothing to stop the leaks, will be examined in the trial this fall, according to the case’s chief prosecutor.

Either way, Vatican insiders say his charges are minor and it’s unlikely he’ll serve time, even if he’s convicted.

Posted Image
VINCENZO PINTO

The Vatican indictment, which at times reads like an Italian version of a Dan Brown novel, includes several references to Gabriele’s confession along with surprising new details: how Vatican police found a nugget of gold and a 16th- century original of Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid, in the butler’s private apartment, along with a check for €100,000 from a Spanish school made out in the pope’s name.

The document also outlined results from a variety of psychological exams conducted during the investigation, which paint a disturbing portrait of one of the pope’s most trusted aides.

Apparently ill-equipped for the stress of the job as the pope’s right-hand man, two separate experts described the butler as needy beyond the norm, determining that he suffered from a variety of complex emotional disorders that prohibited him from keeping to his tasks as butler, and instead gave him a false sense of superiority.

“His inability to stick to specific duties was compromised by his personal concept of justice and moral rigidity,” wrote one of the psychological experts who examined Gabriele. “This gave him perceived power to create assessments, comments and inappropriate behavior beyond his institutional role.”

The surprise announcement in what’s known as the Vatileaks scandal underscores the Holy See’s ongoing ability to keep a secret, despite apparent fractures in the church’s once-impenetrable shield.

According to the document, Gabriele supposedly admitted his mistakes, and told investigators that he had felt guided by God when he first decided to start leaking documents to Nuzzi.

Then, fueled by what he felt was God’s will, he couldn’t stop.

“I reached a point of no return,” he told investigators, according to the document. “I was sure that a shock, perhaps by using the media, would be a healthy tool to bring the church back on the right track.”

Gabriele’s lawyers, who were appointed by the Vatican, say their client is remorseful for his actions against the pontiff.

But Burke told The Daily Beast that the butler’s actions are hardly consistent with someone who had the church’s best interests at heart.

“It’s odd that someone who considers himself a special agent of the Holy Spirit was stealing boxloads of documents from the papal apartments,” he said.

For his part Nuzzi, the primary recipient of the leaked documents, scoffs at the Vatican’s theory that the butler did it, telling The Daily Beast: “This is classic Vatican smoke and mirrors.”

Gabriele is still collecting his salary, and is currently living under house arrest, living with his wife and children within the confines of Vatican City.

He has not spoken publicly since he was arrested in May.

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Pope's butler leaked papers to shock 'corrupt' Church, prosecutor says

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By Richard Allen Greene and Hada Messia, CNN

Pope Benedict XVI's butler will be tried on an aggravated theft charge over the leaking of hundreds of secret papers from the pope's personal apartment to an Italian journalist, a Vatican spokesman said Monday.

The butler, Paolo Gabriele, acted out of a desire to combat "evil and corruption everywhere in the Church," according to a prosecutor in the case.

"I was certain that a shock ... would have been healthy to bring the church back onto the right track," the prosecutor, Nicola Piccardi, wrote in a report released Monday by the Vatican.

A second man, Vatican IT expert Claudio Sciarpelletti, will be charged with aiding Gabriele, according to the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman.

Sciarpelletti is not suspected of conspiring with Gabriele, merely assisting him, and is not under arrest, Lombardi said.

The investigation is continuing, said Lombardi, raising the possibility of more arrests.

The trials are not expected to start before September 20, Lombardi said.

Gabriele, one of the pope's closest personal assistants, was arrested in May on suspicion of passing the papers to an Italian journalist.

He faces the possibility of one to six years behind bars, Lombardi said.

The scandal has rocked the Catholic Church hierarchy and could even affect who becomes the next pope.

It could be an effort to unseat Benedict's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who will run the conclave to choose the next pope if he is in office when Benedict dies, according to the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican."

Gabriele was held in a special Vatican cell for about a month and a half before being released to house arrest in July.

The Vatican said Gabriele cooperated with investigators and admits leaking the papers, which consisted of faxes, letters and memos, including some from a high-ranking church official expressing concerns about corruption within the Vatican.

The arrest followed a top-level Vatican investigation into how the private documents appeared in the best-selling book "Sua Santita" ("His Holiness") by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

The Vatican called the publication of his book "criminal" when it was released in Italian.

Copies of some documents used in the book were found in the butler's apartment, according to the judge's report released Monday.

Gabriele was not paid for handing over the papers, according to the judge, Piero Antonio Bonnet.

Cardinal Julian Herranz got a "pontifical mandate" in April to uncover the source of hundreds of personal letters and confidential documents that made their way to Nuzzi.

Nuzzi would not confirm the identity of his sources, but he told CNN that his primary source - whom he referred to as "Maria" in his book - "risked life and limb" if ever found out.

The source worked inside the Vatican, according to Nuzzi, who refused to give other details such as the source's gender, age and if he or she was clergy.

Nuzzi's book highlights an internal power struggle within the Vatican through numerous documents, including faxes, personal letters and inter-Vatican memos.

He told CNN that he received the documents during a year of private meetings in secret locations.

The Vatican has not denied the authenticity of the documents but instead says the breach of privacy is a criminal act.

–Journalist Barbie Nadeau in Rome contributed to this report.

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28 September 2012

Vatican embarrassment as Pope's butler goes on trial

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome

Posted Image
This is the courtroom chosen for the trial

Pope Benedict's 46-year-old former butler, Paolo Gabriele, goes on trial in a small and rarely used courtroom inside Vatican City before a panel of three judges, on charges of stealing an "enormous" quantity of secret and confidential documents from the pontiff's desk.

The theft marks the biggest breach of security in the Vatican in modern times.

An Italian computer technician who used to work in the equivalent of the Papal Cabinet Office, the Secretariat of State, is also charged with aiding and abetting Mr Gabriele.

If found guilty, the butler could face up to four years' imprisonment in an Italian jail, as Vatican City - the world's smallest state - has no long-term detention facilities on its territory.

The technician, Claudio Sciarpelletti, faces up to a year in prison if found guilty.

Mr Gabriele has admitted his guilt to investigators but has not yet entered a plea in court.

The formal charge is "aggravated theft" because of where the alleged crime took place - inside what was supposed to be the most secure area of the Pope's domain right in the centre of Rome, the papal penthouse apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace.

Mr Gabriele is alleged to have handed photocopies of many of the stolen documents to an Italian journalist who published facsimile copies of them in a book earlier this year, cataloguing corruption and petty rivalry among top-level Vatican administrators.

The Vatican says he also gave another set of copies to an Italian priest - described as his "spiritual adviser" - who decided to burn them.

The unnamed priest told Mr Gabriele to confess only to the Pope himself what he had done.

Trusted employee

Mr Gabriele, a trusted employee who is married with three children, held the keys to the Pope's apartments.

A fervent Catholic used to attending the Pope's private Mass celebrated each morning, he has spent his entire working life so far in the service of the Vatican.

He used to ride up front next to the chauffeur in Pope Benedict's Popemobile, and served the pontiff's meals at table in the Apostolic Palace.

Posted Image
This archive image shows Paolo Gabriele arriving at the Vatican with Pope Benedict in 2006

He has already confessed to Vatican investigators that he took the papers, although he initially denied having done so when confronted last May by Pope Benedict's private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein.

He has written a letter of apology to the Pope and has already asked for a pardon.

The Vatican City's criminal and civil judiciary is staffed by Italians, many of whom have other jobs in Rome.

The Vatican criminal code is based closely on Italian legal practice.

Last year the court heard some 220 cases, mainly involving petty crimes such as pickpocketing committed by a tiny fraction of the 18 million people who enter Saint Peter's Basilica or the Vatican Museums each year. The court normally meets only on Saturdays.

No witness list has been issued nor is it even certain whether Mr Gabriele and Mr Sciarpelletti will be present in person for the opening of their trial.

They have the option not to attend.

Vatican reporters have drawn lots for the privilege of attending the court proceedings.

Only eight reporters are being allowed inside, and TV cameras have been banned.

Journalists will have to hand in their mobile phones to Vatican security staff to prevent them tweeting or communicating with the outside world until the morning session has ended and they have briefed the numerous members of the Vatican Press Corps waiting for information at the Press Centre.

None of the hundreds of priests, bishops and cardinals who work inside the Holy See, the central administration of the Roman Catholic Church, have been charged in connection with this very serious breach of security.

'Evil and corruption'

A committee of cardinals set up by Pope Benedict to investigate the circumstances of what has become known as the "Vatileaks" scandal has reported back to the pontiff, but their findings are still secret as internal enquiries are still going on to try to determine whether Mr Gabrieli and Mr Sciarpelletti acted alone or were part of a conspiracy involving senior aides to the Pope.

Mr Gabriele told investigators that his motive in stealing documents from the Pope's desk was to try to save the Church from the "evil and corruption" that he saw around him.

He said he believed Pope Benedict was not being correctly informed by his staff and that in making certain documents known to the media he would deliver a "salutary shock" which would set the Church back on its right tracks.

He was doing all this as "the agent of the Holy Spirit".

Vatican investigators had Mr Gabriele assessed by two psychiatrists to ascertain whether he had mental problems.

One reported back that he had a "fragile personality" and another that he had "grandiose" ideas coupled with a need for constant reassurance that he was being appreciated in his work.

But neither found him unable to understand the consequences of his acts.

More than 200 Catholic Bishops from around the world are due to arrive in Rome shortly for a three-week conference on how to check the falling away from the faith of millions of European Catholics and how to inspire a new evangelisation.

It will be in the Vatican's interest to ensure a rapid conclusion to the "Vatileaks" trial which has become the source for considerable embarrassment in the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic Church.

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Paolo Gabriele trial: Pope butler evidence thrown out

29 September 2012

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The BBC's Alan Johnston says Paolo Gabriele (right), was immaculately dressed but did not speak

Vatican judges have refused to admit key evidence in the trial of the Pope's former butler, charged with stealing sensitive documents.

Paolo Gabriele's lawyers had asked to include evidence gathered by cardinals who carried out an inquiry into the "Vatileaks" scandal for Pope Benedict.

But judges at the high-profile trial said they would rely only on evidence from the Vatican police and prosecutor.

They adjourned the case until Tuesday, when Mr Gabriele will be questioned.

The 46-year-old admitted to investigators that he had leaked confidential documents to expose "evil and corruption".

Trusted servant

He was identified as the source of leaked documents that were published in a book by an Italian journalist in May.

The documents included private correspondence between senior Vatican figures, and appeared to reveal bitter power struggles and corruption.

The Pope ordered cardinals to carry out an inquiry separate to the probe by Vatican police after the scandal broke.

The results of their investigation have not been made public.

Mr Gabriele faces up to four years in prison if convicted of aggravated theft, but he could be pardoned by the Pope.

The court decided that his fellow defendant, Vatican computer technician Claudio Sciarpelletti, will be tried separately for aiding and abetting a crime.

He had exerted his right to stay away from the hearing.

Mr Gabriele was the Pope's trusted servant for years and held the keys to the papal apartments.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says it has been one of the most difficult crises of Pope Benedict's seven-year papacy.

'Sadness to my heart'

No TV cameras or recorders are being allowed inside the courtroom for the most high-profile case to be held in the Vatican since it was established as a sovereign state in 1929.

Mr Gabriele, dressed in a pale grey suit, showed little reaction as judges rejected almost all of his lawyers' requests.

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Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is a key figure in the administration of the Vatican

He will be interrogated in court by the president of the Vatican City tribunal on Tuesday.

The chief judge said the court hoped to reach a verdict by the end of next week.

Among witnesses due to give evidence next week is Pope Benedict's private secretary, Georg Gaenswein, and one of the six German and Italian nuns who work in the pope's private household.

The Vatican butler was arrested in May, accused of passing papal correspondence to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book His Holiness: The secret papers of Pope Benedict XVI was published that month.

Correspondents say the revelations seem aimed primarily at discrediting the Vatican's powerful Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been in his post since 2006.

Prosecutors quoted Mr Gabriele as saying during his interrogation that he knew taking the documents was wrong but he felt the Holy Spirit was inspiring him to shed light on the problems he saw around him.

He said he felt the Pope was being kept in the dark or misinformed by his collaborators.

Pope Benedict said after his former butler's arrest that the news had "brought sadness in my heart".

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2 October 2012

Paolo Gabriele trial: Former butler was 'mistreated'

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The Vatican has restricted media access to the trial

Pope Benedict's ex-butler, on trial inside the Vatican, has complained of mistreatment after his arrest on charges of stealing documents from the pontiff's private apartment.

Paolo Gabriele said his cell was so small he could not extend his arms, and the light was kept on permanently.

The judges have ordered an inquiry into his allegations.

Mr Gabriele has pleaded not guilty to theft, but admits abusing the Pope's trust and photocopying documents.

He said he leaked the papers, which revealed alleged corruption at the Vatican, because he thought the Pope was being manipulated.

Responding to his allegations of maltreatment, the Vatican police said conditions inside the police security room respected international standards and Mr Gabriele's rights were never violated.

The light was left burning for security reasons and to prevent him harming himself, it said.

Explaining the motives which led him to take home a pile of official Vatican correspondence home, Paolo Gabriele gave the court a devastatingly frank account of his daily life in the shadow of Pope Benedict on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, says the BBC's David Willey in Vatican City.


Analysis

David Willey
BBC News, Vatican City
The message that has come out of the Vatican, on the day of the second session of the trial of Paolo Gabriele, is not quite what the men who control the policy buttons in the sacred palaces would have wished.

Pope Benedict, shocked and saddened at what he clearly regards as an act of betrayal by his former manservant, had asked for maximum transparency. Tuesday's evidence may not exactly have been what he expected.

Mr Gabriele has lambasted the Vatican police for putting him in solitary confinement after his arrest last May in a cramped cell, with the light left on day and night, making it difficult for him to sleep, and without a pillow for his head.

The Vatican tribunal wants to wrap up the trial by the weekend, before the arrival in Rome next week of 200 Catholic bishops from around the world due to discuss the New Evangelisation at a three-week Synod. This month also marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council which radically transformed Church policies in the 20th Century.

But so far the butler's trial has eclipsed all other Vatican news this week in the world's media.


He said he began photocopying confidential documents as long ago as 2010.

But he insisted in court that he had acted alone, adding that he had "many contacts" in the Vatican where there was "widespread unease".

At first, he had no intention of leaking them for publication.

"I was looking for someone in a position of authority to whom I could let off steam in confidence," he told the court.

"The situation inside the Vatican had become intolerable - not only to me. There were many other people who felt the same way as I did."

But the president of the three-man tribunal interrupted the former butler when he tried to explain why he felt Pope Benedict was not sufficiently informed about "certain matters".

This was not relevant to the charge of aggravated theft, the judge said.

Mr Gabriele went on: "I made two copies of important documents in order to prove that I had done this, and was ready to pay the consequences. I was not the only one over a period of years to provide documents to the press."

He faces up to four years in prison if convicted, but he could be pardoned by Pope Benedict XVI.

The files, which revealed allegations of corruption and infighting at the Vatican, were leaked to the media, triggering a major scandal.

There has been speculation that Mr Gabriele had accomplices as he set about leaking the Vatican's secrets, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome.

Verdict soon

The Pope's private secretary, Georg Gaenswein, also gave evidence, testifying about the daily routines of the papal household and the moment he began to suspect Mr Gabriele as the source of the leaks.

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Paolo Gabriele (right) is seen here in court

He said he realised three documents that appeared in a book - His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's private papers - could only have come from the office he shared with Mr Gabriele and the Pope's other private secretary.

As soon as he had read the book, he told the court he had asked the Pope's permission to quiz members of the small papal family over the leaked documents.

Cristina Cernetti, one of the four nuns who work in the 85-year-old pontiff's household, said she knew immediately that Mr Gabriele was responsible.

She told the court that she could exclude all other members of the papal family, according to a Reuters report.

The trial will resume on Wednesday.

The chief judge said the court hoped to reach a verdict by the end of the week.

No TV cameras or recorders are being allowed inside the courtroom for the most high-profile case to be held in the Vatican since it was established as a sovereign state in 1929.

Coverage of the trial is restricted to just eight journalists.

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