Vatican trial: The butler did it, but did the IT guy help?

Claudio Sciarpelletti, an IT technician, is expected to come off with a light sentence. Many Vatican watchers say both men could be pawns in a palace power struggle.

|
Osservatore Romano/REUTERS/File
Pope Benedict's former butler Paolo Gabriele (R) listens to the court at the Vatican in this October 6, 2012 file photograph. A Vatican court on November 5, 2012, heard how Pope Benedict's former butler, who has been jailed for stealing papal documents, refused to allow technicians to check his computer for six years before his arrest.

The former butler of Pope Benedict convicted of stealing papal documents had not allowed technicians to check his computer for the last six years, a court trying a second suspect in the Vaticanleaks scandal heard on Monday.

The detail was made public at the first hearing in the trial of Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert who is charged with aiding and abetting Paolo Gabriele, the former butler.

The leaks scandal unleashed one of the biggest crises of Pope Benedict's papacy, embarrassing the Vatican at a time when it was struggling to overcome several child sex abuse scandals involving clerics, as well as mismanagement at its bank.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft at a separate trial last month and sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing sensitive papal documents and leaking them to the media. He kept some confidential information on his computer.

One of the pope's closest household assistants, Gabriele admitted leaking the documents in what he said was an attempt to help disclose corruption and "evil" in the headquarters of the 1.2 billion-member faith.

The ex butler, who is serving out his sentence in a Vatican jail cell, attended the opening of Monday's trial for a few minutes but was then ushered out along with other witnesses. He looked calm and was smiling but did not look at Sciarpelletti.

Gianluca Benedetti, Sciarpelletti's lawyer, said Gabriele's work computer had become "obsolete" and one of the oldest in the Vatican but that he had refused to allow Sciarpelletti, 48, to touch it.

Sciarpelletti and Gabriele could not therefore have been great friends, much less accomplices, he argued, if Gabriele had not even trusted him to look at his computer.

"Do you think my client would have risked a record that included 20 years of faithful service in the Vatican to help someone who was not even a great friend," Benedetti asked the court. The court allowed Sciarpelleti's employment record to be entered as evidence.

Sciarpelletti fidgeted nervously during the two-hour hearing, often rubbing his hands and looking at the floor.

Pawns in a bigger game

Many Vatican watchers are sceptical that Gabriele could have acted alone, suggesting he may have been forced to take the blame in order to shield bigger players inside the Holy See. They say both men could be pawns in a palace power struggle.

Vatican officials say Sciarpelletti's role in the leaks scandal was marginal and expect the trial, which is being held in the same small court room, to be speedier than that of the butler, which lasted only four sessions.

After preliminary arguments, Sciarpelletti's trial was adjourned until Saturday to allow the defence team to study the minutes of the Gabriele trial.

Sciarpelletti spent one night in a Vatican jail cell on May 25, two days after Gabriele was arrested when police searched the ex butler's home and found many copies of papal documents, some alleging infighting in the papal court and corruption at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

When Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's desk in the Secretariat of State – the nerve centre of the Holy See's administration – they found a closed envelope addressed to Gabriele marked "personal."

It contained documentation relating to a chapter in a book about Vatican corruption and intrigue written by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who had received confidential documents from Gabriele.

Sciapelletti's lawyer told the court on Monday that the search was carried out after Vatican police received an anonymous note from someone in the Secretariat of State saying that Sciapelletti and Gabriele had often been seen together.

In four sessions of questioning in May and June, Sciarpelletti provided "wavering and contradictory" answers, according to a court indictment.

On the night of his arrest, Sciarpelletti said he only had a "working relationship" with Gabriele. But he later said the two were friends and that their families had gone on outings together and that he knew Gabriele's childhood had been tough.

Sciarpelletti initially said Gabriele had given him the envelope. But he later said it had been given to him by someone in the Vatican identified only as "W" in court documents only to change his story again later and say it had been given to him by someone identified as "X."

It is not clear if "X" or "W" are clerics or lay people working in the Vatican.

Apart from Gabriele, other witnesses who will be called to testify include Monsignor Carlo Polvani, Sciarpelletti's superior in the Secretariat of State, Major William Kloter, the deputy commander of the Swiss Guards, and two Vatican security officials, including the commander of the police force, Domenico Giani.

Sciarpelletti faces up to one year in jail but is expected to get off with a light sentence or a fine. (Editing by Andrew Osborn)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Vatican trial: The butler did it, but did the IT guy help?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1105/Vatican-trial-The-butler-did-it-but-did-the-IT-guy-help
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe