ROME
Spiegel
By Fiona Ehlers in Rome
Though Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler has been arrested in connection with the “Vatileaks” scandal, new documents released over the weekend indicate he had powerful backers that remain unidentified. The secret documents expose the pontiff’s awkward and helpless leadership in the Church.
Do the two know each other? Is one the other’s source? Could it be that they teamed up to harm the German-born head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI?
Few others in Rome have been the object of such intense speculation recently as these two men. But, as chance would have it, despite their physical proximity, they probably won’t be running into each other any time soon.
One of them is looking out of a 4 meter (13 foot) by 4 meter detention cell in a Vatican police station on the wall surrounding the papal state. He has been sitting there for almost two weeks now, and almost everyone knows his name: Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s 46-year-old personal butler.
Shortly before Pentecost, Benedict’s private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, reportedly uncovered Gabriele as a spy. Investigators found four boxes with copies of strictly confidential letters to and from Pope Benedict in Gabriele’s apartment.
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