VATICAN CITY
MinnPost
By Nick Squires | 10/01/12.
The Pope’s personal butler will be cross-examined by a Vatican court on Tuesday in a closely-watched trial in which he is accused of stealing highly sensitive documents, some of them from the desk of Benedict XVI himself.
The trial opened on Saturday in a wood-paneled court room in a Vatican tribunal within the walls of the tiny city state. The case inevitably has garnered headlines given that it revolves around the great mystery cliche: “Did the butler do it?” Or rather, “was it only the butler who did it?”
The documents at the heart of the case have lifted the lid on corruption at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church, which is still battered by revelations of clerical cover-ups of child sexual abuse. With this case, the Vatican is trying to showcase greater transparency, allowing a pool of journalists to cover each meeting. Experts, however, say that the latest saga does not help the Vatican’s already damaged image.
“It is certainly embarrassing for the Vatican but I’m not sure it will resonate that much among ordinary Catholics around the world,” says Alessandro Speciale, Vatican correspondent forReligion News Service. “The Church was already badly tarnished by the pedophile sex abuse scandals. That was much more serious.”
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