Vatican
confirms pope's butler arrested in leaks scandal
Published May 26, 2012
Associated Press
·
FILE - In this May 17, 2008 file photo, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges
faithful upon his arrival at the Our Lady of Mercy Shrine in Savona, near
Genoa, Italy, Saturday, May 17, 2008. The Vatican has confirmed Saturday, May
26, 2012, that the pope's butler Paolo Gabriele, at left holding the umbrella,
was arrested in an embarrassing leaks scandal. Spokesman the Rev. Federico
Lombardi said Paolo Gabriele was arrested in his home inside Vatican City with
secret documents in his possession. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican confirmed Saturday that the pope's
butler had been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood
twist to a sordid tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the
highest levels of Catholic Church governance.
Paolo Gabriele, a layman who lives inside Vatican City, was arrested
Wednesday with secret documents in his possession and was being held Saturday,
the Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement.
Gabriele is often seen by Pope Benedict XVI's side in public, riding in
the front seat of his open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or
shielding the pontiff from the rain. He has been the pope's personal butler
since 2006, one of the few members of the small papal household that also
includes the pontiff's private secretaries and four consecrated women who care
for the papal apartment.
Lombardi said Gabriele had two lawyers representing him as the Vatican
judicial system takes
its investigative course.
The "Vatileaks" scandal has seriously embarrassed the Vatican
at a time in which it is trying to show the world financial community that it
has turned a page and shed its reputation as a scandal plagued tax haven.
Vatican documents leaked to the press in recent months have undermined
that effort, alleging corruption in Vatican finance as
well as internal bickering over the Holy See's efforts to show more
transparency in its financial operations. But perhaps most critically, the
leaks have seemed aimed at one main goal: to discredit Pope Benedict XVI's No.
2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state.
The scandal took on even greater weight last week with the publication
of "His Holiness," a book which reproduced confidential letters and
memos to and from Benedict and his personal secretary. The Vatican called the
book "criminal" and vowed to take legal action against the author,
publisher, and whoever leaked the documents.
The Vatican had already warned of legal action against the author,
Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, after he broadcast letters in January from
the former No. 2 Vatican administrator to
the pope in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged
corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices.
The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S.
ambassador.
Nuzzi, author of "Vatican SpA," a 2009 volume laying out shady
dealings of the Vatican bank based on leaked documents, said he was approached
by sources inside the Vatican with the trove of new documents, most of them of
fairly recent vintage and many of them painting Bertone in a negative light.
At a press conference this week, Nuzzi defended the publication and said
he wasn't afraid of Vatican retaliation. In fact, he even taunted Vatican
prosecutors to seek help from Italian magistrates to investigate the case,
charging that it would be a remarkable turnaround given the Vatican had been
less than helpful in the past when Italian prosecutors came asking for
information for their investigations.
The arrest has come during one of the most tumultuous weeks for the
Vatican in recent memory. On Thursday, the president of the Vatican bank,
Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted by the bank's board. Sources close to the
investigation said he too had been found to have leaked documents, though the
official reason for his ouster was that he had failed to do his job.
The Vatican has taken the leaks very seriously, with Benedict appointing
a commission of cardinals to investigate. Vatican gendarmes as well as prosecutors
are also investigating the sources of the leaks.
