VATICAN CITY
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Tuesday sought to put the widening scandal over leaked documents into a very different light, saying the stolen papers didn’t just concern matters of internal church governance but represented the thoughts of people who in writing to the pope believed they were essentially speaking before God.
As a result, Pope Benedict XVI feels particularly pained over the leaks and wants to get to the bottom of the scandal to heal the breach and re-establish a sense of trust among the faithful, according to the Vatican’s undersecretary of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu.
“I consider the publication of stolen letters to be an unprecedentedly grave immoral act,” Becciu told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. “It’s not just that the pope’s papers were stolen, but that people who turned to him as the vicar of Christ have had their consciences violated.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.