VATICAN CITY
OpEd News
By
Rev. Dan Vojir
THE BUTLER DID NOT DO IT
A tell-all book, leaked documents, billions in favorable contracts, money laundering, sexual terrorism … and possibly murder. With St. Peter’s in the background, it all sounds like a Dan Brown thriller. But in this mystery, the butler did not do it. At least not to the extent that a papal investigation would have it.
Paolo Gabriele, 46, who has worked as Benedict’s butler since 2006, was reportedly taken into custody after investigators found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children.
The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of Opus dei, a full “pontifical mandate” to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks.
Gabriele is now languishing in a Vatican prison cell (yes, the Vatican does have a prison) and for now it seems that his only crime was the same as that of Pvt. Bradley Manning (wikileaks) – leaking the juiciest anti-Vatican documents in history.
Sources close to Gabriele, however, say that he would not have masterminded a leak and that his possession of the documents proves very little: no motive has been proffered and apparently no money was offered for the documents.
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.