Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler and another Vatican employee will stand trial for stealing and leaking papers in a scandal that exposed confidential Church business, it was announced on Monday.

Paolo Gabriele, who was arrested in May on suspicion of stealing secret documents from the Pope’s office and leaking them to journalists, is accused of ‘aggravated theft,’ according to a 35-page document released by the Vatican on Monday.

The document, written by Judge Piero Bonnet, also charged Claudio Sciarpelletti, an analyst and computer programmer in the Vatican state secretariat whose name had not been revealed before, with complicity.

Butler’s aim

According to the document, Mr Gabriele told investigators he had acted because he saw ‘evil and corruption everywhere in the Church’ and wanted to help root it out ‘because the Pope was not sufficiently informed.’

In a section that referred to Mr Gabriele’s state of mind, he told investigators that after he had started copying documents and leaking them ‘I reached the point of no return and could not control myself anymore.’

“I was sure that a shock, perhaps by using the media, could be a healthy thing to bring the Church back on the right track,” he said.

The indictment order also revealed that a cheque made out to the Pope for €100,000 (£78,661), a gold nugget and a 16th century book were found in Mr Gabriele’s house in a search, objects which the butler said he intended to give back.

Case pending

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told journalists the investigation into a ‘wide and complex case’ was not yet over and would continue to target other suspects believed to be implicated.

“We don’t think we have finished our work, the inquiry is still open with regard to other people who appear to be implicated,” Fr Lombardi quoted prosecutor Nicola Picardi as saying.

Mr Gabriele faces up to six years in prison and the Vatican has indicated the public trial will not take place until October at the earliest.

Fr Lombardi said that Mr Sciarpelletti had played a ‘marginal role’ and could not really be considered an accomplice.

The 46-year-old butler was arrested during an investigation into the leak of private Papal documents to the media. He was held for 53 days in a Vatican cell before being put under house arrest in July to await the judge’s decision.

The Vatican said after his arrest it had found documents and copying equipment in Mr Gabriele’s home, revelations which shocked the close-knit Holy See community and saddened the 85-year-old Holy Father.

The father-of-three is alleged to have photocopied and leaked top-secret emails and letters, taken from the desk of Georg Gaenswein, the Pope’s private secretary.

No wider agenda

Mr Gabriele’s lawyers have denied media reports that their client was part of a wider whistleblowing operation aimed at shaking up the Vatican hierarchy.

It has been suggested that he acted sincerely but was then manipulated as part of long-standing rivalries within the Vatican.

Mr Gabriele, known as Paoletto, began working for the Pope in 2006 and was one of a select few with access to Pope Benedict’s private chambers. Under Vatican laws, a reprieve from the Pope could come at any moment during the investigation or trial.