Pope’s butler had thousands of secret papers

Published on 04/10/2012 00:49

VATICAN police discovered thousands of documents, including many signed by the Pope and marked to be destroyed, in the home of the pontiff’s former butler, a court heard yesterday.

Giving evidence at the trial of Paolo Gabriele, inspector Silvano Carli – one of four witnesses called yesterday – said, of the hundreds of thousands of documents seized, about 1,000 were original or photocopied Vatican papers.

Some came from Pope Benedict XVI’s private office, some carried the processing codes of the secretariat of state, while others originated from various Vatican congregations, officer Stefano de Santis told the court. He added: “Some documents concerned the total privacy and private life of the Holy Father.”

Mr De Santis said some of the originals carried the Pope’s handwriting with a note to destroy them written in German. But some were reproduced in journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi’s bestselling book His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI’s Secret Papers, Mr De Santis said.

The rest of the documentation concerned esoteric religious issues and academic research into Freemasonry, Christianity, Buddhism, yoga and politicians, as well as the Vatican Bank, the officers added.

When Gabriele, who faces four years in prison if convicted of aggravated theft, was confronted, he told Mr De Santis: “See how much I like to read and study.”