JOIN USOne of the Vatican’s biggest scandals in decades widened Monday with the pope’s butler — arrested for allegedly having confidential documents in his home — agreeing to cooperate with investigators, his lawyer said on Monday.
Paolo Gabriele’s pledge to cooperate with Vatican magistrates raises the spectre that high-ranking prelates may soon be named in the investigation into leaks of confidential Vatican correspondence that have shed a light on power struggles and intrigue inside the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
Italian media reported on Monday that a cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the “Vatileaks” scandal. However, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, denied the reports. He said many Vatican officials were being questioned in the investigation but insisted “there is no cardinal under suspicion.”
He also dismissed as “pure fantasy” a rash of other unsourced reports about the investigation in the Italian media, which have been on a frenzy ever since reports of Gabriele’s detention emerged on Friday.
Gabriele, the pope’s personal butler since 2006, was arrested on Wednesday evening after documents he had no business having in his possession were found inside his Vatican City apartment. He remains in custody in a Vatican detention facility, accused of theft. His lawyer said his client would “respond to all the questions and will collaborate with investigators.”