Who, What, Why: What's It Like to Be a Prisoner of the Vatican?

BBC: Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict's former butler, begins an 18-month prison sentence today inside the Vatican walls, after being found guilty by a Vatican City court of stealing sensitive documents from the Pope's desk. What will life be like for the only prisoner inside the world's smallest sovereign state?

The Pope's former butler is being treated "leniently and justly" according to Vatican authorities, and may even benefit from a papal pardon before the end of his prison term, if he shows repentance and apologises to Pope Benedict and all the other people who work for the Holy See for the scandal he caused.

But for the moment he has exchanged his modest "grace and favour" three-bedroom apartment just inside the walls of the Vatican for a sparsely furnished detention room inside the headquarters of the Pope's private police force, the Vatican Gendarmerie.

Not only has he been sacked, but he now risks losing his home as well, situated almost next door to his former workplace, the Papal apartments on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace.

Vatican City has a railway station - with only one train a week bringing in bonded duty-free goods, a Post Office, a radio station, a pharmacy, a supermarket, a fire brigade, a five-star hotel, and one of the world's most visited museums, but it has no prison - and no dungeons. » | David Willey, BBC News, Rome | Friday, October 26, 2012

Le majordome du pape incarcéré au Vatican
lePARISIEN.fr: Le majordome du pape sera incarcéré dans la journée de jeudi dans une cellule de la gendarmerie du Vatican, après que le parquet a renoncé à faire appel de la condamnation prononcée contre lui. Paolo Gabriele a été condamné à 18 mois de prison début octobre par le tribunal du Vatican pour avoir subtilisé des documents confidentiels du pape. » | LeParisien.fr | jeudi 25 octobre 2012

Pope's Butler Was Trying to Protect Benedict XVI from 'Wolves'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Italian journalist behind the Vatileaks scandal has defended the actions of the Pope's butler, saying he was trying to protect Benedict XVI from "wolves" circling around him in the Holy See.

Gianluigi Nuzzi called on the 85-year-old pontiff to pardon Paolo Gabriele, his butler, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Saturday after being found guilty by a Vatican court of stealing confidential papers from the Pope's offices.

Mr Nuzzi said a stream of cardinals and bishops approached the butler in the hope that through him they could communicate their unhappiness about the power games and intrigues that were allegedly taking place at the heart of the Catholic Church.

"Little by little Paolo Gabriele became the confidant of those who, among the bishops and cardinals, were like him torn between their sincere admiration for the Pope and concern over behind-the-scenes manoeuvring," Mr Nuzzi wrote in an article printed by newspapers in Spain, Germany and France.

The claim is key because it contradicts the Vatican's insistence that Mr Gabriele was a well-meaning but deeply misguided soul whose only collaborator was a computer expert. The technician, Claudio Sciarpelletti, is expected to go on trial next month for aiding and abetting the thefts.

Mr Nuzzi's editorial confirms the opinion of many Vatican analysts that for all its supposed transparency, the butler's trial was a cover-up and that he may have been just a small part of a much broader conspiracy. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Monday, October 08, 2012

LE MONDE: Le pape doit gracier son ancien majordome, Paolo Gabriele: Condamné à 18 mois de réclusion, Paolo Gabriele, le majordome de Benoît XVI, sera-t-il gracié par le pape ? La miséricorde de l'Evangile et de l'Eglise prévoient le pardon. J'appelle solennellement le saint père à accorder sa grâce à son ex-collaborateur, puni pour avoir soustrait des documents dont il a fait parvenir des photocopies au journaliste que je suis. Paolo Gabriele n'a violé aucun secret militaire ou diplomatique comme dans le cas de Wikileaks. Son geste est un geste de dénonciation. Il a mis sous les yeux de tous les réalités cachées du Vatican qui nuisent à l'Eglise elle-même. » | Par Gianluigi Nuzzi, journaliste italien indépendant, auteur de "Sa Sainteté" | lundi 08 octobre 2012

SÜDTIROL ONLINE: „Vatileaks“: Journalist Nuzzi bittet Papst um Begnadigung Gabrieles: Der Journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi bittet den Papst, den zu 18 Monaten Haft verurteilten früheren päpstlichen Kammerdiener Paolo Gabriele zu begnadigen. » | apa | Montag, 08. Oktober 2012

Pope’s Butler Convicted, Gets 18-month Sentence
CBS NEWS: VATICAN CITY | The pope's butler was convicted Saturday of stealing the pontiff's private documents and leaking them to a journalist, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre read the verdict aloud two hours after the three-judge panel began deliberating Paolo Gabriele's fate.

The sentence was reduced to 18 months from three years because of a series of mitigating circumstances, including that Gabriele had no previous record, had worked for years for the Holy See, acknowledged that he had betrayed the pope and was convinced, "albeit erroneously." that he was doing the right thing, Dalla Torre said.

Gabriele was accused of stealing the pope's private correspondence and passing it on to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book revealed the intrigue, petty infighting and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons that plague the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

In his final appeal to the court Saturday morning, Gabriele insisted, "I don't feel like a thief," and said he leaked the pope's private correspondence out of a "visceral love" for the church and the pope.

He has said he felt the pope wasn't being informed of the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican, and that exposing the problems would put the church back on the right track. » | CBS/AP | Saturday, October 06, 2012

Vatileaks Scandal: Documents Expose Pope's Frail Leadership
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Though Pope Benedict XVI's personal butler has been arrested in connection with the "Vatileaks" scandal, new documents released over the weekend indicate he had powerful backers that remain unidentified. The secret documents expose the pontiff's awkward and helpless leadership in the Church.

Do the two know each other? Is one the other's source? Could it be that they teamed up to harm the German-born head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI?

Few others in Rome have been the object of such intense speculation recently as these two men. But, as chance would have it, despite their physical proximity, they probably won't be running into each other any time soon.

One of them is looking out of a 4 meter (13 foot) by 4 meter detention cell in a Vatican police station on the wall surrounding the papal state. He has been sitting there for almost two weeks now, and almost everyone knows his name: Paolo Gabriele, the pope's 46-year-old personal butler.

Shortly before Pentecost, Benedict's private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, reportedly uncovered Gabriele as a spy. Investigators found four boxes with copies of strictly confidential letters to and from Pope Benedict in Gabriele's apartment.

Since then, Gabriele has been viewed as a traitor and called "il corvo," the raven, an animal known for its thieving disposition. His lawyers say he will finally submit to formal questioning this week -- and that he is prepared to tell all.

Is this merely the climax of the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal, which has been smoldering since January, when a series of secret documents began coming to light? Or is it just the beginning? There's no doubt that this flood of paper out of the Vatican is a sign of what the Italian weekly magazine Panorama calls one of the "worst crises in the history of the Holy See," or what Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi has described as a "difficult test" for the pope.

In any case, it is a crime story that not even Dan Brown could have better concocted -- but one in which Gabriele is possibly just a marginal figure because Vatican officials are still searching for the true masterminds behind the scandal.

Indeed, they appear to remain at large. Despite the butler's arrest, the leaks continued over the weekend. While the pope was on a three-day trip to Milan, Italian paper La Repubblica published Vatican documents on Sunday that included two bearing the signature of his secretary. » | Fiona Ehlers in Rome | Monday, June 04, 2012

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