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VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Tuesday sought to put the widening scandal overleaked documents into a very different light, saying the stolenpapers didn't just concern matters of internal church governancebut represented the thoughts of people who in writing to the popebelieved they were essentially speaking before God. As a result, Pope Benedict XVI feels particularly pained over theleaks and wants to get to the bottom of the scandal to heal thebreach and re-establish a sense of trust among the faithful,according to the Vatican's undersecretary of state, ArchbishopAngelo Becciu. "I consider the publication of stolen letters to be anunprecedentedly grave immoral act," Becciu told the Vaticannewspaper L'Osservatore Romano. "It's not just that the pope'spapers were stolen, but that people who turned to him as the vicarof Christ have had their consciences violated." The so-called "Vatileaks" scandal has tormented the Vatican formonths and represents one of the greatest breaches of trust andsecurity for the pope in recent memory. Benedict's personal butlerhas been arrested, accused of theft, after documents he had nobusiness having were found in his Vatican City apartment. Few think the butler acted alone, and the investigation iscontinuing on three separate tracks. The butler, Paolo Gabriele, is due to be formally questioned in thecoming days by Vatican prosecutors following his May 23 arrest,Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said. His lawyersreported that he had pledged to fully cooperate with theinvestigation to get to the truth, raising the specter that higherranking prelates may soon be implicated. The motivations for the leaks remain unclear: Some commentators saythey appear designed to discredit Benedict's No. 2, the secretaryof state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Others say they're aimed atundermining the Vatican's efforts to become more financiallytransparent. Still others say they aim to show the 85-year-oldBenedict's weakness in running the church. Becciu said the pope was particularly pained that someone so closeto him had been arrested for behavior that was "unjustifiable underany pretext." "Certainly, the pope feels pity for him," Becciu said. "But still,what has happened was brutal." "When a Catholic speaks to the Roman pontiff, it's a duty to openyourself up as if you were before God, also because you feelcomplete guarantees of confidentiality," he said, trying todescribe the significance of the leaks to the Vatican. Lombardi said the scandal was grave enough that Benedict hasestablished a commission of high-ranking cardinals to investigatealongside the criminal investigation and an internal administrativeprobe. The cardinals' commission is headed by a heavyweight: CardinalJulian Herranz, an Opus Dei prelate who headed the Vatican's legaloffice as well as the disciplinary commission of the Vaticanbureaucracy before retiring. In addition, the pope's personal bodyguard, Domenico Giani, aformer Italian secret service agent, has been on something of acrusade tracking down the origin of the leaks in recent months,Vatican insiders report. "We aren't afraid of the problems, the difficulties and also theerrors and guilt that might come out," Lombardi told reportersTuesday. "We are trying to do the right thing, following adifficult path of truth and taking the necessary measures toreestablish the trust and good functioning of the governance of thechurch and its institutions." He said it certainly was a "difficult test" for the pope and hisaides but that he hoped that the problems would be identified sothat the Vatican can "enjoy the trust of the people God, which thepope certainly merits and we his collaborators must try tosupport." The Vatileaks scandal broke in January when Italian journalistGianluigi Nuzzi broadcast letters from a former top Vaticanadministrator who begged the pope not to transfer him for havingexposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros(dollars) in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor CarloMaria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S. ambassador. The scandal widened over the following months with documents leakedto Italian journalists that laid bare power struggles inside theVatican over its efforts to show greater financial transparency andcomply with international norms to fight money laundering. Therewas even a leak of a memo claiming that Benedict would die thisyear. The scandal reached a peak last weekend, when Nuzzi published anentire book based on a trove of new documentation, includingpersonal correspondence to and from the pope and his privatesecretary, much of which paints Bertone in a negative light. The Vatican has called the publication a "criminal act" and warnedof legal action for those who stole, received and disseminated thedocuments. Nuzzi, who in 2009 published a book on leaked documentsfrom the Vatican bank, has justified the publication as an act oftransparency. ___ Follow Nicole Winfield at /nwinfield. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Kraft Paper Shopping Bags , Poly Mailer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Kraft Bubble Mailer.
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