Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, who was this week released from custody
and moved to house arrest, has written a letter to the Holy Father
expressing his ‘pain’ and asking ‘forgiveness’ for leaking private
letters and documents to the Italian media. Sources close to the Vatican
have said that Pope Benedict is ‘seriously looking at the possibility’
of forgiving Mr Gabriele.
Paolo Gabriele was allowed to leave a Vatican cell and return to his
Vatican apartment to be with his wife and three children after Vatican
magistrates said they had finished questioning the 46-year-old Papal
valet and were putting him under house arrest. He had been in custody
for 60 days.
Pope Benedict is now to decide how to go forward, to either allow the
legal process to continue or to pardon the man who had worked in the
Papal apartment since 2006.
Pardon
Mr Gabriele, a father of three, was arrested two months ago and was
questioned by Vatican magistrates, who are drafting a formal decision on
whether or not they believe they have enough evidence to put Mr
Gabriele on trial for his alleged part in the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal after
confidential documents were found in his possession.
The existence of Mr Gabriele’s letter to the Pope was disclosed by
the butler’s lawyer, Carlo Fusco, who handed it to the Commission of
Cardinals, set up by Pope Benedict to investigate a series of leaks of
Vatican documents.
“Paolo told me that the letter is his way of admitting his mistakes,
the pain he feels and also asking the Pope for forgiveness,” Mr Fusco
said. “It is a confidential letter and it has been handed to the
Commission of Cardinals set up by Pope Benedict.”
Case against butler
Mr Gabriele was arrested on May 23 after confidential letters and
documents addressed to the Pope and other Vatican officials were
allegedly found in his Vatican apartment. Similar documents had been
published in Italian media over the previous five months; many of them
dealt with allegations of corruption, abuse of power and a lack of
financial transparency at the Vatican.
Mr Fusco said Mr Gabriele had cooperated with Vatican investigators ‘very broadly’ throughout the investigation.
“One thing Paolo repeated to us and to the judge was that he always
was and still is motivated by a desire to do something that would be an
act of helping, an act of love for the Pope,” Mr Fusco said. “There was
no network, no conspiracy inside or outside the Vatican related to Paolo
and his actions.”
After his arrest, Mr Gabriele was held in a 12-foot-by-12-foot room
in the Vatican police barracks. He was allowed to see his lawyers and
his wife, and Vatican police accompanied him to Mass in the Vatican.
Mr Fusco added that the butler was not part of any wider plot, saying
he expected a Vatican magistrate to order a trial for him soon.
Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said he expected the
decision on whether or not to prosecute Mr Gabriele to be published at
the end of July or the beginning of August.
Paolo Papanti-Pelletier, a Vatican judge not directly involved in
this case, has said that the former Papal butler faced between one year
and six years in jail if convicted of aggravated theft under Vatican
law. He would serve his term in an Italian prison if found guilty after a
public trial in the Vatican.
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