The Butler Did It

The pope's private butler has been arrested and charged with leaking embarrassing and confidential Vatican documents to the Italian press.

The pope's butler has been arrested by Vatican police on suspicion of leaking a large number of confidential letters addressed to Benedict XVI which have lifted the lid on alleged corruption and nepotism at the Holy See. A Vatican spokesman declined to confirm the butler's arrest, which was widely reported by Italian media on Friday, stating only it had arrested a person discovered in illegal possession of "confidential documents". Paolo Gabriele, 46, who has worked as Benedict's butler since 2006, was reportedly taken into custody after investigators found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children. The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of Opus dei, a full "pontifical mandate" to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks.

Among the scandalous revelations being published in a book is the claim that Vatican's official newspaper started a rumor that the editor of a rival paper is gay.