VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The confessor of the Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, springs to his defence: “He is in love with the Church and adores the Pope”
Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City
The voice of the elderly priest – who wished to remain anonymous – sounded broken from all the crying, as he spoke to Italian newspaper La Stampa, from his home in the Vatican. During the telephone interview he described what he knew about Benedict XVI’s 46 year old butler, Paolo Gabriele, husband and father of three, who was arrested after he was found in “illegal possession of confidential documents.” Like many in the Holy See, the monsignor is scared and still in shock after yesterday’s events.
“I have known Paolo for many years; – he confided – if the accusations against him prove to be true, there will be no one left to trust any more. I still remember when, some years back, he used to arrive at the Secretariat of State’s offices with his black apron, to clean the floors.”
The prelate recounted how at one time he had been the confessor of this man who eventually left his clearing apron behind, replacing it with an immaculate black suit as he went on to become the papal butler, the lay person closet to the Pope, the man who serves the Pope at his table every day. “I was his confessor at one time and I can say in all faith that the impression he has always given me is that of a man who is in love with the Church and deeply devoted to the Pope, first to John Paul II and now to Benedict XVI,” he added. The person who helped the young “Paoletto” to enter to serve in the Vatican is the rector of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, just a stone throw away from Via della Conciliazione and St. Peter’s Square. The Church is dedicated to the worship of the Divine Mercy of St. Faustina Kowalska and is very dear to the Poles.”
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