Vatileaks: Pope's Butler Asks to Be Pardoned

The Telegraph
July 24, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9422989/Vatileaks-Popes-butler-asks-to-be-pardoned.html

Papal butler Paolo Gabriele (left, front) travelling with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican

The Pope's butler has written a letter to Benedict XVI asking to be pardoned for stealing and leaking confidential papers, in a move which may enable him to avoid a trial that could prove embarrassing to the Vatican.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, who was formerly a trusted member of the pontiff's inner circle, sent the confidential letter to express his regret over the theft.

The letter was sent to the Pope via a commission of three cardinals who are investigating the leaks and hunting for other moles within the Holy See.

The letter expresses Mr Gabriele's "sorrow and contrition" over the stealing of the confidential documents from Benedict's private apartments, said Carlo Fusco, the butler's lawyer.

In the letter, the valet reportedly insists that no one else was involved in the theft, denying widespread rumours in Rome that he was an unwitting scapegoat for a much wider plot amid jockeying for power at the highest levels of the Holy See.

"Paolo is the only person under investigation," said Mr Fusco, echoing insistences made in the past few weeks by the Vatican.

The Vatican has angrily denied reports that three senior figures have been swept up in the scandal.

Reports in the German and Italian media this week alleged that the scandal had broadened to include a former personal secretary to the Pope, a German woman who is a member of his household and an Italian cardinal.

They were motivated by an urge to help Benedict clean up alleged nepotism and corruption within the Vatican, and jealousy of his current private secretary, Georg Ganswein, a German priest, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

It has emerged that all have been questioned as part of the investigation into the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal but Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that did not mean they were under suspicion.

The butler was arrested in May after police found papal documents in his Vatican apartment.

Magistrates are to decide within the next 10 days whether to send him to trial on charges of aggravated theft. If convicted he could be sent to prison for up to six years.

But the Pope could intervene in the process at any time and decide to grant a pardon.