Vatican News, the Holy See's media portal, said Mr Gabriele died on Tuesday after a long, undisclosed illness.

Mr Gabriele's case kicked off the first of two Vatileaks scandals, exposing the internal tumult and turf wars in the Holy See and allegations of corruption and wrongdoing at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

Mr Gabriele was arrested in May 2012 after Vatican police found what they called an "enormous" stash of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment that he had stolen from the papal apartments.

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The technician, Claudio Sciarpelletti, was found guilty of aiding and abetting Pope Benedict XVI's personal assistant, Paolo Gabriele, in the theft of confidential papal documents which were then leaked to a journalist.

The Vatican court originally gave Sciarpelletti a four-month sentence, but the term was reduced due to extenuating circumstances.

Sciarpelletti, 48, was arrested after an anonymous tip led to a search of his desk. An envelope was found addressed to Gabriele containing copies of documents that had been leaked to the Italian media

Sciarpelletti's lawyer argued that his client was in an "emotional state" when he gave confused and contradictory testimony to investigators, leading to the charges levelled against him.

However Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre said the court concluded Sciarpelletti helped Gabriele "elude the investigations of the authorities" at the Vatican.

In a separate trial in October, Gabriele was given an 18-month prison sentence, which he is serving in a Vatican police cell.

Meanwhile, sources close to Gabriele's family have indicated that the committee of cardinals the Pope charged with investigating the Vatileaks case have recommended a papal pardon for him.

Earlier, after Gabriele wrote a letter of apology to Benedict XVI, the Pope sent him an autographed book of psalms.

Sources:

ANSA

Catholic News Agency

Image: Ultimahora.com

Gabriele began serving his prison sentence by order of a Vatican court, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

"The order will be carried out before the end of the day," he said on Thursday.

He will be detained in one of the recently refurbished prison cells inside the Vatican police barracks.

Lombardi said Gabriele will not be able to seek any employment in the Vatican in the future. He added that Gabriele's violation of the trust of the pope and the privacy of so many people underlines his "incompatibility" with employment at the Vatican.

The Vatican will proceed "with humanity and attention," Lombardi told the Catholic News Service. The spokesman said the Vatican will take into consideration the fact that the 46-year-old Italian was supporting a family with three children in an apartment on Vatican property.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, said Gabriele's crime caused great damage to the pope and to the universal church.

By stealing private correspondence to and from the pope, and other sensitive documents, and by leaking them to an Italian journalist, Gabriele committed "a personal offence against the Holy Father," the cardinal was quoted in a CNS report.

His actions also "violated the right to privacy of many people; created prejudice against the Holy See and its different institutions; created an obstacle between the communications of the world's bishops and the Holy See; and caused scandal to the community of the faithful," Bertone said.

After a Vatican-led investigation, which started in May, and four days of courtroom proceedings attended by a pool of Vatican journalists, Gabriele was found guilty of aggravated theft and sentenced on Oct. 6.

Cardinal Bertone said the whole process was carried out with "transparency, equanimity, and in full respect of the rights" of the accused.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Agence France Presse
• BBC
• Image: Reuters/BBC

Several European newspapers published an op-ed piece by Gianluigi Nuzzi, the book's author, defending the actions of Gabriele, the Associated Press reported.

Gabriele has been convicted on Saturday of aggravated theft for stealing the pope's private correspondence and passing it onto Nuzzi.

Gabriele confessed to photocopying some of the pope's private letters and giving them to Nuzzi, saying he wanted to shed light on the "evil and corruption" he saw around him in the Vatican that he believed was being kept from the pope.

Nuzzi said he wanted to further explain Gabriele's motives, which he said he ascertained over the course of several encounters that formed the basis of the book "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's Secret Papers," which was published in May.

He said Gabriele was at the receiving end of disgruntled Vatican cardinals, bishops and managers who came to him "day after day" with their secrets and concerns "hoping he would bring them to the pope."

"Surely enjoying a privileged point of view — for six years he was one of the people closest to the Holy Father in the pontifical apartment — Gabriele strongly doubted that Benedict XVI was always aware or received truthful information," Nuzzi wrote.

"He spoke to me about this profound perplexity, his discomfort as evidenced by a filial love for the pope, a veneration for his simplicity, recounting stories of a man in the middle of the wolves."

Many of the issues Gabriele brought to light haven't yet been explained, "but certainly they explain the frustration of a man who, when confronting these intrigues, perceived the fragility of his pastor in a battle between good and evil," Nuzzi wrote.

The three-judge Vatican tribunal reduced Gabriele's three-year sentence in half, in part because he admitted he had betrayed the pope and thought "albeit erroneously" that he was doing the right thing.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said a papal pardon is "likely" although there's no knowing when it might come.

Nuzzi appealed for a pardon, noting that Gabriele's leaks didn't reveal state or military secrets but merely shed light on events that were damaging the church.

Nuzzi was neither charged in the case nor called to testify. The Vatican didn't investigate him for receiving stolen goods because the handoff of documents occurred on Italian soil, out of the Vatican's jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the swift conviction of Gabriele leaves lingering suspicions that he was a pawn in a much larger Vatican intrigue, Reuters reported.

The report said that despite the Vatican's desire to quickly turn the page on one of the worst scandals in its recent history, the trial of Gabriele has left many questions unanswered, leading some to call it a whitewash.

Sources

• AP/The Washington Post
• Reuters
• Yahoo
• Image: Reuters

Gabriele claimed that 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.

The Vatican police said conditions inside the police security room respected international standards and Gabriele's rights were never violated.

Authorities accused Gabriele of stealing highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked "to be destroyed" and compromised Vatican security through his actions.

On Tuesday, Gabriele pleaded not guilty to theft, but admitted 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.

The Vatican police on Wednesday, however, told the tribunal they found thousands of documents hidden inside the home of Gabriele.

Prosecutors have said Gabriele confessed to leaking copies of the documents to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi because he wanted to expose the "evil and corruption" in the church to help put it back on the right path.

The final four witnesses in the trial were heard Wednesday and closing arguments are set for Saturday, when a verdict by the three-judge Vatican panel is expected.

During the hearing, Gabriele recounted his daily life in the shadow of the pope on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, the BBC reported.

The report said 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.

The BBC said the butler's trial has eclipsed all other Vatican news this week in the world's media.

Sources

• BBC
• Reuters/The Globe and Mail
• AP/Huffington Post
• Image: Getty Images/BBC

During Saturday's start of the trial, the Vatican tribunal said Gabriele's trial will be separate from that of Claudio Sciarpelletti who was charged for allegedly aiding and abetting Gabriele in the so-called Vatileaks scandal.

Giuseppe Dalla Torre, the presiding judge, said four more sessions "next week should be sufficient" for completing Gabriele's trial.

Although under Vatican law a defendant is not obliged to appear in person, Gabriele was present in the courtroom on Saturday.

Sciarpelletti, a computer technician in the Vatican Secretariat of State, was represented by his lawyer.

The trial's first session lasted two and a half hours, which included an 80-minute break during which the judges went behind closed doors to consider the motions and objections made by the defense lawyers.

Eight witnesses will be called to testify in Gabriele's trial and five are set to be called for Sciarpelletti's case.

The Gabriele witness list includes six Vatican police officers, as well as Msgr. Ganswein and Cristina Cernetti, one of the consecrated laywomen who work in the papal household. Neither of them was present in the courtroom.

Gabriele has already admitted his guilt, acknowledging that he passed documents to Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of the book His Holiness: the Secret Papers of Benedict XVI. Published last May, the book portrays a Holy See driven by internecine rivalry, political manoeuvres and occasional corruption.

Gabriele has always said he acted for the good of the Catholic Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit and with a mission to expose "evil and corruption". Many observers wonder if he acted alone or on behalf of some senior Holy See figure, however.

Presiding judge Giuseppe della Torre suggested on Saturday that the trial might be concluded this week, after four more hearings. If found guilty, Gabriele faces up to four years in prison. Many believe, however, that he will eventually be pardoned by the pope.

Source

• Irish Times
• The Christian Science Monitor
• Catholic News Service
• Image: Losservatore Romano via Irish Times

Strange things have been happening at the Vatican this year. Beginning in January, documents written by high-level figures in the Catholic Church began finding their way into the Italian press, many of the letters to the pope denouncing instances of corruption and complaining about the direction and management of the Church.

When a book full of leaked documents, Sua Santità (His Holiness), was published in late May, the Vatican took the extraordinary step of arresting the pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, a humble but trusted member of the papal household, and announced that officials had found numerous papal documents at Gabriele's apartment within the Vatican. At the same time, the Vatican Bank, under investigation for money laundering (charges the Vatican denies), fired its president, a respected Catholic banker, listing among the reasons for his dismissal allegations that sounded a lot like leaking: "Failure to provide any formal explanation for the dissemination of documents last known to be in the President's possession." Immediately after his firing, the former bank president hired his own bodyguard service and wrote a private memorandum to the pope, which he wished to disseminate "in case something should happen to him."

Power struggles and scandal are nothing new in the Vatican. Pope Alexander VI, for one, was accused of poisoning his enemies and sleeping with his daughter, the infamous Lucrezia Borgia. But until now the pope had been able to count on the loyalty and discretion of his inner circle and a hermetically sealed culture of silence, discretion, and secrecy that has often been compared with that of the Kremlin at the height of Soviet power. Now the last and most ancient of the world's absolute monarchies is suddenly in the fishbowl culture of the 21st century, where the most-trivial and the most-important details alike become transparent. Read more

Sources

• The Atlantic
• Image: WSI

Gabriele has been charged with aggravated theft and faces up to four years in prison if convicted by the three-judge Vatican tribunal.

Gabriele earlier told investigators that he was acting as an agent for the Holy Spirit to rid the Catholic Church of "evil and corruption".

The former butler will stand trial with Claudio Sciarpelletti, who according to court papers played a secondary messenger role in an unprecedented scandal that has threatened to expose major rifts at the heart of the Catholic Church.

He has already confessed and asked to be pardoned by the pope.

Reports said Gabriele's case is the most "high-profile" since the Vatican tribunal was created in 1929 with the birth of the Vatican city state.

Giovanni Giacobbe, the Vatican's appeals court prosecutor, said that despite the pope's authority, Vatican judges are wholly independent.

"The judges have never received pressure to decide in one direction or another," he told reporters at a Vatican briefing Thursday. "The pope can't tell the tribunal what to do."

Gabriele was arrested May 24 after Vatican police found what prosecutors called an "enormous" stash of documents from the pope's desk in his Vatican City apartment.

Many of those documents appeared in the book "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's secret papers," by Gianluigi Nuzzi, an Italian journalist whose earlier book on the Vatican bank caused a sensation.

Sources

• AP/Houston Chronicle
• Fox News
• The Telegraph
• Image: EPA/Telegraph

The claim comes from the Papal Butler, Paolo Gabriele, who recently parted ways with his lawyer, and who has been charged with aggravated thief and is likely to be tried for his part in Vatileaks scandal at the Vatican next month.

Despite widespread belief and Vatican denials that Gabriele is the scapegoat for a larger group, up until now only one other person has also been charged, Claudio Sciarpelletti, a 48 year old Vatican computer expert.

The Independent reports Gabriele has now admitted he collaborated in Vatileaks with 20 other people "who, like me, want to contribute to transparency".

Gabriele claims he acted out of love for the church. But in his TV interview he also said the growing gap between Vatican hawks and reformers had created an atmosphere in which people were afraid to speak out.

"The Pope wants to clean up, but he is having difficulties," said Gabriele.

And adding to the intrigue, he said: "Ours is a state (Vatican City) where you can get in, kill and leave undisturbed, and after 24 hours no one can say what happened."

Vatican prosecutor Nicola Picardi has dismissed claims of a major conspiracy or conflict between power brokers behind Vatican walls. In his indictment against Mr Gabriele he claimed the former butler was erroneously "seeing evil and corruption everywhere".

If convicted Gabriele faces six years in prison.

Sciarpelletti has been charged with aiding and abetting Gabriele.

Sources

• The Independent
• Huffington Post
• Irish Independent
• Image: Spiegel

Attorney Carlo Fusco, a childhood friend of Gabriele, told Associated Press' Nicole Whitfield that his decision to quit is the result of a difference in opinion over the defence strategy.

Fusco declined to specify the differences in strategy saying he did not want to prejudice Gabriele's search for a new lawyer, but said the decision was taken jointly with Gabriele.

It is not clear whether Gabriele's other lawyer Cristiana Aru would remain as council, however Fusco said that his resignation did not necessarily mean there will be any delay in starting the trial.

The trial is expected to start sometime after this fall when the Vatican's court resumes work after its summer recess.

"We're still friends. We have differences about the trial, but we're still friends," Fusco told the Associated Press.

Gabriele, a 46-year-old father of three, was arrested May 23 after police found papal documents in his Vatican City home. He was held in a Vatican detention unit until July 21, when he was placed under house arrest.

The indictment paints Gabriele as a religiously inspired but misguided would-be whistle-blower. He was quoted as telling investigators that he was inspired by his faith to shed light on the evil and corruption he found in the church and that he wanted to "shock" the church and bring it back on the right track.

The indictment also charged Claudio Sciarpelletti, a 48-year-old computer expert in the Secretariat of State, with aiding and abetting Gabriele.

Both are expected to be tried together.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Associated Press
• Washington Post
• Image: Catholic Favours

It has all the makings of a Hollywood adaptation of a Dan Brown novel. Secrets of the Vatican exposed, documents stolen from the Pope's desk, rows and rivalries between cardinals, vast sums of money, the involvement of the cultish organisation Opus Dei. And then the so-called Vatileaks scandal, which has had Rome agog for months, went a bit Da Vinci Code-meets-Cluedo: the butler allegedly did it.

Paolo Gabriele, who has worked for Pope Benedict XVI as one of his most personal aides for six years, has now been charged and sent to trial by a Vatican judge for leaking papal documents, including papers containing allegations of corruption. Read more

Sources

• Catherine Pepinster in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: The Guardian

In a 35-page report, Judge Piero Bonnet said Paolo Gabriele — who has been charged with "aggravated theft" — felt sure Pope Benedict was not aware of what was going on.

"I was certain that a shock, even in the media, could be healthy in putting the Church back on the right track," Gabriele was quoted as saying.

Gabriele also claimed he felt "infiltrated" by the Holy Spirit and had discussed with a spiritual director his concerns about the Church and his thoughts on taking the documents.

In fact, the judge said, the priest (identified only by the letter B) affirmed that Gabriele had given him a box full of documents, which the priest told Vatican investigators he burned because he knew "they were the fruit of an act that was not legitimate" and because he feared they would be stolen from his residence which had been burgled a few months earlier.

Many of the documents were the same as those featured in a television programme by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi and later published in a book by him. Most dealt with allegations of corruption, abuse of power and a lack of financial transparency at the Vatican.

Gabriele — who will turn 46 on August 19 — told investigators how he met Nuzzi in an apartment near the Vatican and described in detail the measures he and Nuzzi took to avoid detection.

Along with Gabriele, a computer technician at the Vatican Secretariat of State, Claudio Sciarpelleti, has been charged with the lesser offence of "aiding and abetting" him.

The formal indictment of the two Vatican employees is "not the last word" in the ongoing investigation into the Vatileaks scandal, according to Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Service

Image: Welt Online

A report in the online edition of the German newspaper Die Welt, republished in the Italian daily La Repubblica, claimed the involvement of the three officials in the Vatileaks scandal was uncovered by an investigative commission of cardinals, led by Cardinal Julian Herranz of Spain.

The officials are Italian Cardinal Paolo Sardi, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; German Bishop Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; and a German laywoman, Ingrid Stampa, who is Pope Benedict's private secretary and housekeeper.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said dozens of Vatican officials have been questioned about the leaked documents, but "being called before a commission in the course of its investigations in no ways means that a person is a suspect".

He said the media reports "seriously damage the honour of the people concerned, who have served the Holy Father faithfully for many years".

The reports claimed that the three officials had been dismissed from office because of their involvement in the Vatileaks scandal.

In fact, said Father Lombardi, Bishop Clemens and Ingrid Stampa remain in their posts, and Cardinal Sardi completed his service at the Secretariat of State when he reached the age of 75.

In the meantime, Pope Benedict's personal assistant Paolo Gabriele — who was arrested in May for possessing confidential papal documents — has been released from custody. He will remain under house arrest with his family in the Vatican pending his trial on a charge of aggravated theft.

Gabriele has written to the Pope, expressing "sorrow and contrition" for stealing the documents and asking to be pardoned.

If the Pope grants a pardon, this would avoid a trial and the possibility of a prison sentence of up to six years.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Vatican Information Service

Daily Telegraph

Image: Damir Jelic

Andrea Gabriele described his son Paolo as a person of "absolute honesty . . . great generosity and moral integrity" in a letter he sent to the Italian television station Tgcom 24.

Paolo Gabriele is the only Vatileaks suspect so far arrested in connection with the scandal that has seen confidential letters and documents addressed to Pope Benedict leaked to the Italian media.

The 46-year-old father of three is being detained in a security cell in Vatican City on charges of aggravated theft.

"As a father and a Christian, I hope the whole truth comes out to the beneficial advantage of the Church," the arrested man's father wrote.

"I hope above all that this tremendous sacrifice carries spiritual fruit" not only for those in a position of responsibility within the church, but for furthering the repeated desire of the Pope for the "necessary cleaning of the Church", he said.

Catholic News Service said the letter came after a Vatican prosecutor decided to keep the Vatileaks suspect detained beyond the usual 50 days provided by Vatican law.

The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told reporters on July 12 that Gabriele would probably stay in custody for another 10 days to allow the Vatican court to gather more evidence.

The investigating judge, Piero Antonio Bonnet, is expected to wrap up the formal questioning process, which began June 5, and reach a conclusion by the end of July, the Vatican spokesman said.

The judge can decide whether to dismiss the case or have Gabriele stand in a Vatican trial that would be open to the public.

Source:

Catholic News Service

Image: Arezza World News

The main ingredients are the leaked confidential papers of Pope Benedict XVI in an incident that has led to interpretations of such battles for influence inside the Curia that Der Spiegel claims that the "mood at the Vatican is apocalyptic."

Turmoil has followed the arrest and imprisonment of papal valet, Paolo Gabriele, in a 377-square-foot cell, one window, no TV, that most people did not know lies deep in the Vatican maze, with the explanation that the butler did it, or, rather, the butler is taking the fall in a plot, code-named, honest to God, Maria, engineered by high-ranking officials to circulate papers damaging two close papal aides, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, and Benedict's secretary from the old country, Monsignor Georg Ganswein. Despite deep-sixing the butler, the Dreyfuss of this comic opera, new documents have surfaced with the threat of more to come if Bertone and Ganswein are not forced out of their jobs. Read more

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Telegraph

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

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

Nuzzi said the book was based on conversations with more than 10 Vatican whistleblowers.

"We have a group of people - I can count more than 10 - who decided to make things public. When they made this choice months ago, I think and believe they were perfectly aware of what would happen."

The author, who as a child used to ring the church bells at his local parish is unfazed. He says he is living "with the serenity of someone who did his job, who found news and made it public."

Vatican deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu said the publication of stolen documents in a recent book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi was a "criminal" act.

In labeling the theft of secret papers a "brutal" attack on the pope, Becciu said "Benedict XVI has seen the publication of papers stolen from his house".

In a surprise off-the-cuff comment on Thursday, Pope Benedict commented on the situation calling some of the media reports "exaggerated" and "gratuitous" rumours.

Benedict said he was saddened by the betrayal, but grateful to those aides who faithfully and in silence helped him to do his job.

"He is particularly hurt with regard to one person, Paolo Gabriele, who he was close to, who he knew, loved and respected," said Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ.

"I can confirm that a number of people have been heard or interrogated and naturally this is something that can continue because we are still in the investigative phase," Lombardi told a briefing.

Former papal butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested on May 25 and charged with "aggravated theft". He is custody in the Vatican police station, reportedly very calm and has agreed to co-operate fully with the Vatican enquiry. His wife visits him regularly.

Through his lawyers Gabriele has requested house arrest and Lombardi said the magistrates holding Gabriele were considering the formal request to allow him to return to his Vatican apartment with his wife and three children.

Lombardi also confirmed that it was Msgr Georg Ganswein, the pope's personal secretary who confronted Gabriele about leaking documents.

Sources

• Reuters
• Associated Press
• Image: Luigi Crespi

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