Vatican poised to make more arrests in papal leaks scandal

vatican investigators are expected to make further arrests this week in the Vatileaks scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church and already seen Pope Benedict XVI’s private butler detained.

Father of three Paolo Gabriele, 46, was arrested late last week, but few believe he was the only person responsible for the leaking of highly sensitive Vatican documents, including the personal correspondence of Pope Benedict.

Speculation is rife in Italy that a woman is also being hunted by police, who are said to know her identity and who works within the pontiff’s inner circle, as Gabriele did. But other moles within the Vatican’s inner circle are also being sought.

La Repubblica newspaper said yesterday that “many of the [leaked] documents could not simply have been stolen by Gabriele” and others were undoubtedly involved – Vatican investigators are combing through his computer and bank details in an attempt to trace people he has been in touch with.

Gabriele’s mobile phone has also been confiscated and is being examined as many of the documents he had in his possession were photographed while on the Pope’s desk – including sensitive diplomatic cables and the Pope’s bank statements.

His arrest came just a month after Pope Benedict appointed a special commission to investigate the series of damning and embarrassing leaks of sensitive Church documents from the Vatican as it still tries to recover from the priest sex abuse scandal. The Pope himself looked weary yesterday as he celebrated a mass in St Peter’s Basilica to mark the day when the Church teaches that the Holy Spirit descended on Christ’s disciples.

The Pope made no reference during his two public appearances yesterday to the scandal or the arrest, which aides said had “saddened and pained” him.

Dozens of documents including private letters to the Pope have found themselves into the hands of the Italian media in what has been called Vatileaks, and they have also been printed in a book brought out last week called Sua Santita [His Holiness], a publication which the Vatican described as “criminal.” The documents show how contracts were awarded to favoured companies and individuals and also highlight allegations of internal power struggles with the Vatican’s bank.

But the theory gaining momentum among Vatican watchers is that Gabriele, who has been the Pope’s butler since 2006, could not have worked on his own and that he was set up and made a scapegoat for the real scheming masterminds – senior figures in the Church out to undermine the secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

One Vatican watcher said: “Cardinal Bertone is not seen as a diplomat by the Vatican curia, he is seen as a fixer but not an administrator.

“He is a humane and quite a friendly guy and that doesn’t sit well with the people high up in the Church.

“They want him out and that’s why these documents are being leaked. The aim is to embarrass him and make him step down.”

Others have speculated that the leaking of the documents is also aimed at the Pope’s dashing private secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, who has angered many of the Vatican old guard by giving Hello style interviews to glossy magazines.

Among the documents leaked are letters between the Pope and Monsignor Ganswein as well as others from figures within the Italian media and banking world who have written to him enclosing hefty cheques which are to be “used as a donation to a charity of the Pope’s choosing” before adding with a request for a private audience.

Yesterday Italian media carried a letter from an anonymous friend of Gabriele who defended the butler, saying that his “loyalty and love of the Church was unquestionable”. Another said he had been duped into “safeguarding” the documents for someone else.

On Saturday, Gabriele was charged with aggravated theft and last night he was still in custody within the Vatican.