Vatileaks, Conspiracy in Theory And, Perhaps, in Practice

By Marco Tosatti
Vatican Insider
August 13, 2012

vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/vatileaks-17455/

"vatileaks"

An accomplice was named by the investigating magistrate. The information had so far been kept secret; the suspect is not a member of the clergy, but a computer expert, employee of the Secretariat of State

Paolo Gabriele, the pope's butler will be prosecuted for having stolen a large number of confidential documents and leaking them to the press. But in the bill of indictment, an accomplice was named by the investigating magistrate, a man whose identity had so far been kept secret, a lay employee of the Secretariat of State and computer expert. What is now clear, despite the Vatican magistrates' efforts to limit the scale of the issue to legal aspects, is that the shadow of a conspiracy looms over the Vatican, a conspiracy involving a number of people, who together with Paolo Gabriele, handled and exchanged documents or even provided them for him.

Who are these people? Unfortunately the bill of indictment that commits Gabriele for trial does not mention names, only capital letters, X,W,Y, that are all linked to witnesses questioned during the preliminary investigation.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, 48 years old, employee of the Secretariat of State is the "new entry" of the enquiry. An envelope addressed to Paolo Gabriele, bearing the seal of the Secretariat of State- Information and Documents office and containing confidential documents, was found on his desk. Sciarpelletti said: "This envelope was not given to me by Paolo Gabriele, but by W in order for me to keep it and deliver it to Paolo Gabriele". It seems that some time ago Gabriele had asked Sciarpelletti to introduce him to W and through him also meet Y, another unknown person who is obviously connected to the Secretariat of State and the Curia. Sciarpelletti had therefore been passing envelopes from W to Gabriele and vice versa. Another unknown person, X, apparently gave Sciarpelletti an envelope for Gabriele: "X thought of me and entrusted me with the envelope because of my acquaintances within the Secretariat of the Holy Father. Moreover when this happened Paolo Gabriele was present and accompanied me".

Sciarpelletti has been charged with aiding and abetting. But it seems obvious even from these few sentences that Paolo Gabriele did not act alone and, if the magistrates take into account the judicial facts, there appear to be great matters of moral relevance that ought to be dealt with. Especially if we think of Paolo Gabriele's spiritual guide, who has been kept anonymous too, his identity hidden behind a capital "B". He also received from the butler a "file of important documents connected to the Holy See". The priest destroyed them, because he knew that they were linked to "an activity that was not legitimate and not honest and they might be used for further illegal and dishonest purposes". Paolo Gabriele, during a gathering of the Papal Family, denied any responsibility. He declared "After all, in denying my responsibility I was following the directives of my spiritual father who told me to wait and see. I was not to claim responsibility unless the Holy Father himself asked me in person". If this is true, perhaps one should wonder on the rectitude of such spiritual guidance.