Vatican Corruption Scandal Widens

CBC News
May 28, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/05/28/vatican-scandal-monday.html

Pope Benedict XVI conducts the holy mass of Pentecost on Sunday in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The Pope is said to be following a major scandal reported by Italian newspapers.

One of the Vatican's biggest scandals in decades appeared to be widening today with reports that an Italian cardinal may be part of a power struggle involving leaked documents, corruption and intrigue.

Leading Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Messaggero reported Monday that the Pope's butler — arrested three days ago for allegedly feeding documents to Italian journalists — clearly did not act alone, and that an unidentified cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the scandal.

The Vatican denied any cardinals were involved and said Pope Benedict XVI was following the case "intently, but with tranquility," Reuters reported.

The Vatican's investigation into the source of leaked documents yielded its first target with the arrest of the butler, who reportedly kept a treasure trove of documents in his Vatican apartment.

The butler was questioned Sunday night and has begun to talk, correspondent Sabina Castel Franco told CBC News. Others have also been interviewed by investigators.

The Vatican investigation is in full swing, as the belief is there are a number of other individuals involved in leaking the documents, including a married Italian woman who works at the Vatican and travelled with the Pope to Mexico and Cuba, Castel Franco said.

The detention of Paolo Gabriele, one of Pope Benedict XVI's household staff, threw the Holy See into chaos. The 46-year-old father of three was always considered extremely loyal to Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, for whom he briefly served. Vatican insiders said they were baffled by his alleged involvement.

Over the past months, sensitive and secret Vatican documents were leaked to newspapers and a journalist who wrote and published some of these in a book.

The information in these papers concerned the management of the Vatican bank as well as the Pope's private correspondence.

Pope addresses march participants

Benedict has not commented directly on the scandal. On Sunday, however, during his weekly public appearance at his apartment window, he said we are living in a "new babel."

Benedict also addressed participants in a march to St. Peter's Square on Sunday who demanded information on Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican messenger who disappeared in 1983 at age 15.

Various theories have surrounded her disappearance, linking her kidnapping to an attempt to free the Turkish gunman who shot John Paul in 1981, or to alleged Vatican financial dealings with a Rome criminal gang.

According to Vatican observers, there is an internal power struggle in the Vatican, and the targets of the leaks were Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's personal assistant, and Pope Benedict himself.

Addressing the faithful in Saint Peter's Square on Sunday, the Pope said: "The wind is shaking the house of God, but it is not collapsing."