The Vatican denied reports yesterday that an unnamed cardinal is suspected of being a leading mole behind leaks of confidential papal documents, but confirmed many people were being questioned.
“There is no cardinal suspected. I utterly deny the reports,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists following rumors that an operation involving 20 or so whistleblowers was being run by a cardinal.
“In this phase there may be searches carried out and cardinals questioned, but this does not mean there is another person under investigation,” Lombardi said, adding that “many people” were being questioned in a series of hearings.
The comments came as the Vatican struggled to contain rumors in the media about the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal, after Pope Benedict XVI’s butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested last week and secret papers were found in his home.
“The real brains are the cardinals. Then there are the monsignors, secretaries and smaller fry,” one source, who refused to be named but admitted to having leaked documents from the Vatican, told La Repubblica.
Gabriele, who has worked at the Vatican since 2006 and was one of a select few with access to the pope’s private quarters, was arrested a month after Benecict set up a special commission of cardinals to probe the leaks.
Several media outlets yesterday were quoting sources who said Gabriele was just one of about 20 whistleblowers who had been leaking information.
The documents, splashed in the Italian press and a book, have shed light on many Vatican secrets, including the Church’s tax problems, child sex scandals and negotiations with hardline traditionalist rebels.
Although they do not reveal any great surprises, the secret papers have lifted the lid on deep-seated venom among rival figures in the Vatican.
Gabriele’s arrest was greeted with disbelief as the 46-year-old was known for his papal devotion and loyalty and there has been speculation he was a simply a pawn in a game of intrigue and struggle for power inside the Holy See.
“Gabriele will collaborate widely ... after we have had a chance to study the events which are under investigation,” the butler’s lawyer, Carlo Fusco, said in a statement released by the Vatican.
According to the Vatican correspondent for La Stampa newspaper, Marco Tosatti, Gabriele “was a simple person, who would not have had either the desire or the means” to organize a whistle-blowing operation of this size.
“There must have been someone important behind him” who would “have made him believe that he would be helping Benedict” by leaking the documents, he said.
Vatican expert Bruno Bartoloni said Gabriele was not just the pope’s butler, but had officially been promoted to become Benedict’s official secretary Georg Ganswein’s right-hand man — giving him greater access to secret documents.
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