Anatomy of Vatican scandal: How the butler did it

VATICAN CITY — He had the trust of Pope Benedict XVI and the cardinals, monsignors and priests who run the Roman Catholic Church. And because of his privileged position as papal butler, he had access to their deepest secrets: confidential letters, memos, financial reports.
From under Benedict’s nose, Paolo Gabriele used the photocopier in the small office he shared with the two papal secretaries that adjoined the pope’s library, studio and chapel — and, he says, started copying them all.
At first he kept the documents to himself. Then he found a journalist he trusted, and the intrigues and injustices he saw around him spread around the world in the gravest Vatican security breach of modern times.
A three-judge Vatican tribunal on Saturday will decide whether Gabriele is guilty of aggravated theft, accused of stealing the pope’s private papers and leaking them to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book “His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI’s secret papers” became an immediate blockbuster when it was published in May. Gabriele has pleaded innocent, claiming he never took original documents, though he said he was guilty of “having betrayed the trust of the Holy Father, whom I love as a son would.”
From court documents, trial testimony and the book itself, the anatomy of the scandal has taken shape: They describe how a 46-year-old father of three, said by court-ordered psychiatrists to be unstable, desperate for attention and with illusions of grandeur, came to consider himself inspired by the Holy Spirit to expose the Vatican’s dirty laundry for the sake of saving the church. They demonstrate how he instigated a Hollywood-like plot to sneak the documents out of the Apostolic Palace under the cover of darkness to a waiting journalist outside the Vatican walls, who then exposed them on TV and in the most talked-about book of 2012.
Gabriele himself told the court this week that he became increasingly “scandalized” when, as he would serve Benedict his lunch, the pope would ask questions about issues he should have been informed about. That suggested to Gabriele that the pope was being intentionally kept in the dark by his advisers.
“I had a unique and privileged occasion to mature the conviction that it’s easy to manipulate someone with decision-making power,” Gabriele said of the pope. “With the help of others like Nuzzi, I thought I could help things be seen more clearly,” he told prosecutors in a July 21 interrogation.
Gabriele told Nuzzi that he started copying documents sporadically soon after Benedict became pope in 2005, and then in earnest in 2010 and 2011, when the No. 2 Vatican administrator began complaining about a smear campaign launched against him for having uncovered corruption and waste in running the Vatican City state.
In his testimony, Gabriele almost boasted that he would copy the letters in broad daylight, during his 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. shift, while Monsignor Georg Gaenswein and the other papal secretary, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, were at their desks facing his. He was free to sort through the mail that would come in daily to the office inboxes, even documentation that was on Gaenswein’s desk.
“The photocopier was in the corner, on the opposite side of the office,” Gabriele told the court as his lawyer handed out a floor-plan of the shared space. “I did it while I was in the office, since I was free to move around and didn’t have any wicked aims. I did it calmly, even in the presence of others.”
At the same time, Gabriele would also discuss Vatican problems with any number of trusted acquaintances he would run into on his walk home from the palace. On foot, the walk should take three to four minutes, he said, but sometimes he didn’t get home until 4 p.m. because he would be stopped by so many highly-placed people who wanted to speak to him.
He named names, including cardinals and monsignors. But in his testimony this week, Gabriele insisted he had no accomplices, recanting statements to prosecutors that his plot had been “suggested” to him by others.
Once home in the Vatican City apartment he shared with his wife and three children, Gabriele would file the papers away, “hidden” — police would later say — in between hundreds of thousands of pages of Internet research on Freemasonry, secret service units, Christianity, Buddhism and yoga. He filled a floor-to-ceiling armoire with the documentation in the study near his children’s’ PlayStation. A dining room cabinet held the rest.
“‘See how much I like to read and study,’” Vatican police officer Stefano De Santis quoted Gabriele as telling the four officers who searched his home May 23, the day Gabriele was taken into police custody.
In all, it took 82 moving boxes to cart out all the documents they found, though police said only about 1,000 pages were pertinent to the investigation. Police and Gaenswein have said that — contrary to the butler’s claims — they also contained original documents, obvious because of the seals, stamps and internal processing codes used in the Vatican.
Some bore the pope’s own handwriting, including with the word “destroy” written at the top in German, police told the court.
It was Gaenswein who found the “gotcha” documents that pointed him to the culprit: three letters reproduced in Nuzzi’s book that he said had never left his office.
Other documents had come from other Vatican congregations, so they could have been leaked at any point along the internal mail chain. These three, though, were addressed to Gaenswein: one from Italian TV host Bruno Vespa with a check for €10,000 and a request for a private papal audience; another from a Milan banker also containing a check; and an email from the Vatican spokesman that Gaenswein had printed out.
“These three didn’t leave the room,” Gaenswein testified. “This was the moment I started to have doubts.”
He convened a meeting of the tiny papal family on May 21, a day after Nuzzi’s book came out: Gabriele, Xuereb, the four consecrated women who tend to the papal household, and Birgit Wansing, who transcribes the pope’s tiny handwriting. Cristina Cernetti, one of the women, testified she knew it was Gabriele because she could “exclude everyone else” in the papal family.
Gabriele denied he was the leaker that day. Two days later, Gaenswein again convened the papal family to tell Gabriele he was suspended. A few hours later, he was in a Vatican jail cell.
Gabriele has denied to prosecutors taking any originals, insisting he only made copies. And he has denied having ever seen a nugget believed to be gold and a check for $100,000 made out to the pope that police said were found in his apartment. In their testimony, police were unable to say where exactly in his study they found the items.
Nuzzi has all but confirmed Gabriele was his main source, sending him a good luck tweet at the start of the trial and telling The Associated Press on the eve of the first hearing that he hoped the testimony would “unveil the motives and convictions that compelled Paolo Gabriele to bring to light documents and events described in the book.”
The handoff of documents from Gabriele to Nuzzi was something out of Hollywood.
Nuzzi wrote that he first met with his source, code-named Maria in the book, in January 2012. The first meeting was a test of whether Nuzzi could be trusted. Another meeting began with a long drive around Rome to ensure they weren’t being followed. Finally, there was a nighttime encounter in an unfurnished apartment, with a single chair in the living room where his source was sitting — in which “Maria” began spilling secrets.
In all, he said, the security precautions were more excessive than those used by Mafia turncoats he has interviewed. In one meeting, Maria turned up empty handed. Nuzzi recounted that his source then took off his jacket and turned around: There were 13 pages taped to his back.
Gabriele made copies of the documentation he gave to Nuzzi and gave them, in a box with the papal seal on it, to his confessor between February and March, court records show. The priest, identified by Gabriele only as Padre Giovanni, told prosecutors he burned the documentation soon after, knowing that it had been acquired illicitly.
Gabriele said he had made the copies because he knew he would eventually have to pay for what he had done, and wanted first to absolve himself spiritually.
“When the situation degenerated, I soon realized that I would need to face justice in some way,” Gabriele testified.
Gabriele faces four years in prison if convicted, though a papal pardon is widely expected.
The next step plays out Saturday. (AP)

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/2012/10/06/anatomy-vatican-scandal-how-butler-did-it-246670

Tourists and residents of Manila travel out of town to the north on a short getaway look for the best place in Clark to buy some fine vintage wine to bring home after their holidays and vacations. Many find a top rated wine shop called Clark Wine Center to be an exciting place to do some shopping in Clark Pampanga. This famous wine shop is highly recommended for visitors going to Clark Pampanga to drink good wine, relax and unwind with friends and families. Clark Wine Center is also lauded by wine and food lovers from Manila and tourists from abroad as the best place to buy wine in Pampanga.

This frequently visited wine shop outside Manila is known by tourist and visitors to Pampanga, Angeles city, Subic and Clark Philippines as a cool place to hang out in Clark. Many attend the regular wine tasting held either outdoor on the roof deck or in indoor on the second floor above the wine shop. The place has good atmosphere for a private wine tasting party or a small night out gatherings for business or social event. Clark Wine Center is lauded by food and wine lovers in Manila, Subic and Pampanga as the best wine shop outside Manila as well as a good place to buy wine in Pampanga.

Tourists and visitors staying in Angeles City, Tarlac, Baguio, Subic and Pampanga sometimes wonder what are the things to do in Clark Philippines and Pampanga? Frequent visitors to Pampanga discover that it is fun to do a little wine shopping at the famous wine shop outside of Manila called Clark Wine Center. One of the favorite places to visit in Pampanga Clark Freeport is the white building along M A Roxas highway of Clark which houses over 2000 selections of fine vintage wines. The Clark Wine Center is one of the places to visit, a tourist spot and a good shopping place for those staying in Angeles City, Subic or Clark Pampanga.

Leading Philippines Wine Supplier Yats Wine Cellars, leading supplier of fine wines in Philippines with outlets in Angeles City, Subic Freeport and Manila Philippines has been not only a wine shop for fine wines covering all major wine regions but also a source of reliable and useful information about wine, wine appreciation, wine accessories, wine and health, food and wine pairing and all other matters relating to wine and its appreciation. This Philippines Clark Freeport based Wine Supplier and Wine Shop frequently holds public wine tasting events in Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone, Angeles City, Subic Bay area, Makati, Fort Bonifacio and other areas in Philippines capital city Manila. Private Wine events such as private wine tasting and private wine dinners are also designed and organized for private clientele for their wine loving guests.

Log on to this web site for more information about Yats Wine Cellars as the leading wine importer and wine supplier in the Philippines:

ats Wine Cellars Leading Wine Supplier in Philippines

Wine Catering is a unique product of Yats Wine Cellars, created back in 2005 in response to a growing demand for private wine parties in Manila, Cebu, Subic, Angeles Clark Philippines.

Chateau Lafite-Rothschild is the most revered wine in China and many other parts of Asia. The best wine shop in Asia to buy older vintages of Chateau Lafite is Yats Wine Cellars located in Clark Philippines. Aside from Lafite, visitors can buy other fine wines at this wine shop in Clark Pampanga such as Latour, Mouton-Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Margaux. Excellent Burgundy wines like Chambertin, Vougeot, Musigny, Bonnes Mares, Pommard, Meursault, Chambertin, Vosne Romanee, Romanee Conti, La Tache and Romanee St. Vivant can be found here.

Yats Wine Cellars can be reached at their Clark Wine Center Philippines wine shop located on the main highway M A Roxas of Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone or their sales office in Ortigas Centre, Metro Manila. Here is the contact information:

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Getting to this wine shop in Pampanga Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Philippines from Manila
Getting to the Clark Wine Center wine shop from Manila is quite simple: after entering Clark Freeport from Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along the main highway M A Roxas. Clark Wine Center is the stand-along white building on the right, at the corner A Bonifacio Ave. From the Clark International Airport DMIA, ask the taxi to drive towards the entrance of Clark going to Angeles City. From Mimosa, just proceed towards the exit of Clark and this wine shop is on the opposite side of the main road M A Roxas.

Best place to buy wine in Clark Pampanga outside Manila near Subic and Angeles City Philippines is Clark Wine Center.

Click here to contact Clark Wine Center in Clark Pampanga for inquiries and orders.

Clark Wine Center

Yats Leisure Philippines

Wine@Yats-International.com

YATS Wine Cellars
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 ask for Rea or Chay

Log on to this web site for more information about Yats Wine Cellars as the leading wine importer and wine supplier in the Philippines:

ats Wine Cellars Leading Wine Supplier in Philippines

Wedding couples looking for wedding reception venues and beach wedding venues can log on to this Philippines Wedding Venue web site for free information and assistance:

http://www.PhilippinesWeddingVenue.com

While in Clark, it might be a good idea to enjoy an evening of wine-and-dine in the fine dining Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar that features an award winning 2700-line wine list. Highly recommended fine dining restaurant in Manila for special occasion is Yats Restaurant & Wine Lounge located in the famous Mimosa Leisure Estate in Clark Pampanga. Situated near this popular restaurant in Clark is the Mimosa Golf Course as well as the Mimosa Clark Casino. This top rated restaurant near Angeles City Pampanga in Clark Philippines is frequently used for private parties and corporate functions such as board meetings and other gatherings. It is located in Mimosa Leisure Estate of Clark Freeport Zone. For more information, visit http://www.YatsRestaurant.com

YATS Leisure Philippines is a developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine shops in Clark Angeles Philippines http://www.YatsLeisure.com

Looking for famous tourists spots, places to visit and see, relax and unwind in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines? You may want to check out these sites also:

http://www.LondonPubClark.com

Besides good restaurants to wine and dine near Manila, Subic or in Angeles City Pampanga, Clark Philippines, those requiring assistance for hotel and resort bookings in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines may log on to http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com for more information and reservations.

The lifestyle in Clark Pampanga is quite unique. For more information about shopping, sports, golf, leisure, hotel accommodation, where to see and visit, what to do, where to wine and dine and good places to hang out, relax, have a drink with friends, child-friendly establishments, log on to
http://www.ClarkPhilippines.com

Wine lovers looking for a special bottle or something that is of great value and special discounts might log on to this web site to shop for fine vintage wines
http://www.YatsWineCellars.com

Those visitors who plan to relax and unwind in Angeles City, Subic, Pampanga, Clark Philippines might make an effort to book a room at the famous beach and lake resort Clearwater Resort & Country Club. This famous hotel in Clark Pampanga is frequently visited by families with children looking for a good place in Clark to see, a good holiday destination for the family to relax and unwind in the beautiful outdoor facilities. For more information, log on to www.ClearwaterPhilippines.com

Buy wine in Ortigas, Metro Manila, Philippines at good wine shops and boutique wine stores that offer good selection of good vintage wines at all price points. Wine lovers in Philippines can find good red wines in wine shops in Manila and Pampanga. Among the good selections of French red wines from Bordeaux are Chateau Gloria, Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Petrus, Chateau Lynch Bages, Chateau Latour, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Cheval Blanc, Chateau Ausone, Chateau le Pin, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Pontet Canet, Chateau Carruades de Lafite, Chateau les Forts de Latour, Chateau Pichon Lalande. This makes it easy and convenient for wine lovers to buy wine in Manila. Manila wine and food lovers looking for things to do in Pampanga and Manila can consider attending one of these wine events. The best way to learn more about wine in the Philippines is to attend public wine tasting events that have no sponsors.
Buy wine in Ortigas, Metro Manila, Philippines at good wine shops and boutique wine stores that offer good selection of good vintage wines at all price points. Wine lovers in Philippines can find good red wines in wine shops in Manila and Pampanga. Among the good selections of French red wines from Bordeaux are Chateau Gloria, Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Petrus, Chateau Lynch Bages, Chateau Latour, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Cheval Blanc, Chateau Ausone, Chateau le Pin, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Pontet Canet, Chateau Carruades de Lafite, Chateau les Forts de Latour, Chateau Pichon Lalande. This makes it easy and convenient for wine lovers to buy wine in Manila. They are also great wines to include in wine gift baskets for delivery in the Philippines. Manila wine and food lovers looking for things to do in Pampanga and Manila can consider attending one of these wine events. Leading Philippines wine supplier and wine importer Yats Wine Cellars frequently hold public wine tasting in Clark, Pampanga and Manila. Even beginners can have a lot of fun attending these public wine tastings held by Yats. Participants enjoy good wine, learn some more about fine vintage wines and meet new friends during these wine tasting events of Yats Wine Cellars held in Manila and Pampanga