The cardinals have not been named and the Daily Telegraph has not cited any evidence to substantiate the report.

Gabriele, who was arrested two weeks ago and charged with "aggravated theft" is in custody in the Vatican police station.

A Vatican judge began formally questioning the pope's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, Tuesday, said Paolo Papanti-Pelletier, a judge on the Vatican tribunal.

The questioning took place in the presence of Gabriele's two lawyers and is the first formal interrogation of the only person yet to be arrested in the Vatileaks scandal.

Gabriele is currently charged only with aggravated theft.

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

A Vatican spokesman says formal questioning of the papal butler continues, but rumours about what he is saying are just rumours.

Gabriele will not be questioned today because Corpus Christi is a holiday in the Vatican.

Source

• Daily Telegraph

"He doesn't allow himself to be frightened by attacks, of any sort, nor by the hard accumulation of prejudices," Bertone said.

"I'd like to underline that Benedict XVI, as everybody knows, is a gentle man, of great faith and prayer. He is certainly not frightened by attacks of any kind," he said.

Calling the attacks "ferocious, destructive, and organised," Bertone disagrees with the assessment many hold that he is the subject of the Vatileaks attack. Rather, he said, they were an attack on the Pope himself, and those who work closely with him.

"What's most sad in these events and these situations is the violation of the privacy of the Holy Father and his closest collaborators," he said.

Bertone told RAI that despite the scandal, the pope's collaborators were united behind him.

"Those who are near him and work by his side are sustained by the pope's great moral force," Bertone said, reading from notecards.

In what many interpret as a visible statement of Benedict's trust in his 'closest collaborator', Bertone and the pope appeared side by side during during a three day visit to Milan to support the activity of the World Meeting of Families.

However also over the weekend is a sign the scandal may widen further. As reported in CathNews on Tuesday, Italian newspaper La Repubblica published new documents, received after the pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, had been arrested and was in custody in the Vatican's police station.

A note the La Repubblica daily said it had received anonymously stated that there were "hundreds more documents" and that Gabriele was just a fall guy.

Sources

• Associated Press
• NCR
• CathNews
• Image: Photobucket

Papanti-Pelletier, not involved in the case said Gabriele's said questioning took place in the presence of his two lawyers and it is the first formal interrogation of the only person yet to be arrested in the Vatileaks scandal.

Gabriele, currently charged only with aggravated theft, could also be charged with being part of a criminal association, receiving stolen goods or revealing state secrets, however, Papanti-Pelletier also said all charges may be dropped.

Under Vatican law, Gabriele can be held without inditement for 50 days and with an extension of a further 50 days if the investigation proves to be complicated.

Currently the offenses Gabriele is charged with carry a maximum of five years imprisonment.

Papanti-Pelletier said because Italian magistrates could be called into investigate if any Italian citizens were involved or if crimes were committed on Italian territory, integration of the Vatican and Italian systems of law means there could be two investigations against Gabriele.

There also remains in effect in Italy a 1929 provision that criminalises offending the pope, Papanti-Pelletier said.

Describing the Vatican's legal system, Papanti-Pelletier told Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press that the Vatican's legal system is based on variations of Italy's penal and civil codes dating back to the 1800s - with a few modifications.

"Like Italy, there is the preliminary trial level, an appeals court and a high court, the proceedings of which are open to the public."

"Unlike Italy, though, if a cardinal were to be put on trial, he would only be judged by the Vatican's high court, which is presided over by three cardinals."

Papanti-Pelletier said, "as princes of the church, cardinals can only be judged by fellow cardinals and the pope himself," and "as such, they skip over the primary and appeals court, which aren't presided over by cardinals."

He concluded by says that as in most countries, the head of state - in this case Pope Benedict - can intervene to pardon someone found guilty.

"Technically the Pope can intervene even before the trial begins, but the norm would be for a papal pardon to come after a possible conviction."

Sources

• CNS
• Associated Press
• The Guardian
• Image: San Marino Fixing

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 an elevator 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," a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Reuters. Continue reading

Sources

• Reuters
• Image: Stanze Vaticane

Gabriele is one of a limited number of people who have access to the Pope's private quarters. However his arrest was greeted with disbelief because he is known for his devotion and loyalty to the Holy Father.

Gabriele's former confessor is springing to his defence.

"He is in love with the Church and adores the pope", the priest, speaking anonymously to Vatican Insider said.

"I have known Paolo for many years. If the accusations against him prove to be true, there will be no one left to trust any more."

The priest's comments are being backed up by Italian media.

"No one thinks the butler was capable of orchestrating the 'Vatileaks' by himself and so the focus is on a higher, ecclesiastical level," wrote the Corriere della Sera under the headline "Vatican braces for new arrests."

"Maybe someone set up the butler by placing the documents at his house or maybe he was executing orders from higher up. When you are loyal you are also obedient."

"From what I know of him, he either suddenly became a madman or he fell into a trap because someone important convinced him to safeguard the documents," a friend, who also works at the Vatican, was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity, reports AFP.

"I spoke with Paolo on Monday night and he was saddened because a few hours earlier he learned that he was under investigation," the friend said.

"Since his arrest I have been constantly asking myself, if he had the documents and he knew that he was under suspicion, why didn't he destroy them?"

La Repubblica is reporting that a woman could have been to blame. "The butler speaks, the Vatican trembles, the chase for masterminds: There is a woman", the paper wrote in a headline.

The article continues, "A woman is among the moles in the Vatican, a secular one who works for the Apostolic Palace" where the pope lives. It described her as young married woman who also has a job outside the Vatican.

While news of Gabriele's arrest has filled pages of newspapers in Italy and beyond, to date, the Vatican's own newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano has ignored the story.

Gabriele's arrest came hot on the heels of the sacking of Vatican Bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who has also been suspected of being behind the leaks.

Tedeschi was accused of failing to clean up the image of an institution that has come to symbolise the lack of transparency and the scandal gripping the Holy See's administration.

After a series of leaks, dubbed Vatileaks, revealed alleged corruption, mismanagement and internal conflicts, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI set up a special commission of cardinals to find the source of the confidential memos.

Sources

• BBC
• Rappler
• Vatican Insider
• La Republica
• Image: Huffington Post

Writing in National Catholic Reporter, John L Allen Jr outlines the evidence against him.

He then suggests motives behind the leaking of confidential information to the press, raises the possibility that Cardinal Bertone may be the target of a plot, and outlines the damage to the Vatican.

• Read John L Allen Jr's column
• Image: Emerging Truth

John L Allen Jr is NCR Senior Correspondent.