Will the Pope’s Former Butler, Paolo Gabriele, Pay in a Vatileaks Trial?

Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's 46-year-old butler Photo: AFP/GETTY

The pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, who has been languishing in a secret cell inside the fortified walls of Vatican City since May 23, has been released to house arrest. But while he has moved back into his familial apartment with his wife and three children, he cannot leave the sacred grounds of the tiny city-state until the Vatican tribunal makes the most important decision of his life. Will they absolve him of stealing papal documents and leaking them to the press, and let him go? Or, more likely, will they send him to trial, where he faces a six-year prison sentence?

The stakes are high for Gabriele, who until his arrest was best known for holding the papal umbrella when it rained and assisting the holy father with his somewhat mundane daily routine. But for the last year or so, he allegedly has also been siphoning secret scrolls from the pope’s private desk and giving copies to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who published them in a best-selling book, according to the pope’s spokesman Federico Lombardi, who refers to Gabriele fondly by his first name even as he condemns the unthinkable act of betrayal that has become known simply as “Vatileaks”.