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Pope’s butler case: Show trial or Vatican transparency?
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The trial of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, which ends on Saturday after just four hearings, has split experts between some who say it is Vatican transparency in action and others who detect a whitewash.
The world’s tiniest state has for the first time opened its doors for the biggest trial of its modern history to a small group of journalists, who have then relayed the content of the courtroom drama to their colleagues.
Cameras have however mostly been kept out, the courtroom tucked away behind the Vatican walls is off limits to the general public and the brief trial of Paolo Gabriele for aggravated theft has been relatively limited in scope.
Vatican expert Marco Politi defined the trial as “nebulous” and said that the charge of aggravated theft against Gabriele for leaking confidential Vatican papers to an Italian journalist covered up for harsher truths.
“The core of this story is the betrayal and the unprecedented leak of documents that reveal conflicts within the Curia, instances of corruption that have not been clarified, battles over the Vatican bank,” Politi said.
“The court is closing its eyes and not going deeper,” he said.
For all the brevity of the trial, Gabriele’s defence has been stronger than many experts had predicted and he has accused Vatican gendarmes of mistreatment during his detention — a charge quickly denied by the papal police.
Some Catholic publications have sprung to the Vatican’s defence, with the weekly Famiglia Cristiana accusing certain media outlets of having turned Gabriele into a “martyr” and of believing his every word “like molten gold”.
Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre has appeared keen to keep the trial limited to the charges and not allowing broader discussions that could help understand Gabriele’s motivations or explore his network of contacts and sources.
Dalla Torre at the first hearing threw out a request from the defence to include in the documents of the trial a secret report into the “Vatileaks” scandal compiled for the pope by a group of cardinals in a parallel inquiry.
The judge said that report had “no relevance” to the case at hand.
He also separated Gabriele’s case from that of Claudio Sciarpelletti, a Vatican computer technician accused of abetting the crime and a case that could shed more light on how Gabriele came to obtain the documents he passed on.
Gianluigi Nuzzi, the journalist Gabriele is accused of leaking documents to has hardly been mentioned at the trial and there are no charges against him.
As the trial concludes, it is not clear how Gabriele could have obtained such a vast number of documents including originals spanning several years. [More]
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14 Comments
Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre has . . . limited [the trial] to the charges and [is] not allowing broader discussions that could help understand Gabriele’s motivations or explore his network of contacts and sources.
I am saddened that a supposed spiritual institution is only concerned with “image” and “legal” issues. There is a higher “moral law” at play here. The “moral law must always trump manmade “legal law.”
The butler, a middle-aged man with a wife and children to support is not going to put his financial welfare on the line unless he so deeply believed that the secrets and the coverups in the church were so disgusting and anti-Christian that his conscience told him he had to bring them to light.
Has anyone bothered to question the amount of money that could be made by selling-out ones employer? Was it twenty pieces of silver? The butler, a trusted employee of the Vatican is on trial for stealing documments. To those who are concerned with shedding light on the secrets they think are deep within the Church and wish to have them exposed to the light. I have some questions: Are you willing to expose your every thought, word, and action to the world? Do you have no secrets which you do not wish to share, perhaps the sins that you have taken with you into the Sacrament of Reconciliation? You who are so quick to judge the Church of God and accuse it of being full (dirty little) secrets and cover-ups and cry for transparency. How would your lives stand-up to the judgement of your fellow man – more important how will your lives stand up to the judgement of Our Lord?
Are you not concerned that our CHurch is supposed to be the model for living? So are we to gather by this model that the correct thing to do is DO WHATEVER YOU WANT – just keep it covered up? Sorry Catholic Lady – that defense is weak and goes against the message of Jesus.
You and I are the Church – and the message of Jesus the Chrisstis Love and reconciliation. Are we the Church models of Christ’s Love? If we cannot love ourselves, how can we show love for others who are outside the Church?
(sorry for the typing error in my post at 1:33 pm)
In order to receive forgiveness one has to admit that something wrong has been done. The heirarchy seems to not believe in this or believes it does not apply to them. We, as Church, may just be more forgiving than the heirarchy can even imagine – but we can’t forgive if they believe nothing is wrong.
Forgiveness comes to the Church through confession and repentance. Forgiveness comes to the Church from Christ not from other members of the Church. We do not need to forgive unless we have personally been wornged.
We are mistaken in believing that “We have the right to know everything” this error recently has come from the mass media. Have you heard the expression that “curiosity killed the cat”, well that seemingly innocent expression has some real roots. Sometimes knowing everything about another can result in both your death and theirs. I am thinking of some of the stories that have come out of the “second world war” and the heroes who put their life on the line to save their neighbours..we need to realize that there are some things that are best not made public. Sorry, concerned perhaps my argument is weak but I do have a point. I in no way advocate keeping sin covered up, sometimes a wound needs to be exposed to the fresh air inorder to heal. There are many teahings of Christ however, one of which is; “you should not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” these particular words of wisdom were taught to me by my wise old grandmother, a true follower of Christ whose family lived in Europe during both the first and the second world wars..
Not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing was in reference to the giving of alms – so one does not look for praise – so I am missing the connection. But see my comments above – if the heirarchy never admits wrongdoing – we never have the chance to forgive. They also give the wrong example by doing so. I don’t anyone expects that sin is going to be absent from the Institutional CHurch, but we don’t expect that the heirarchy will be so full of themselves that they deny it – and in many cases – refuse to fix it. When was the last time you heard a Bishop admit a wrongdoing? When has the Pope said “I am sorry?” When have the Cardinals taken responsibility for some of the wrongdoings? When has one member of the heirarchy taken another member of the heirarchy to task for something? If they pretend to be perfect, well I guess we can only expect that they will live up to it.
Dear Concerned; I know what the passage was in reference to. I was not born yesterday, just because I was not always Catholic does not mean that I am ignorant of scripture or of it’s intended meaning. Actually I have spent many years as a protestant studying scripture and continue to study scripture as a Catholic Lady. It is not always the words but how you apply them to you life that count…
I am still missing the connection you were trying to make. Can you clarify?
Sorry..you must connect the dots. Remember please, that every Catholic does not share the same freedoms as Americans do. Our Pope must protect the interests of the Church throughout the world…
Thanks, Catholic Lady, for going at it with Concerned. She is confused in that she believes she is Catholic. Maybe you can disabuse her of that notion.
If the butler is unable to enter the documents that explain his motives, he is being denied a fair trial. Therefore the whole thing is a show and a mockery of justice. The Church should use this as an opportunity to be more forthright in the corruption that has plagued the Vatican. Instead, they just continue to cover up everything and pretend that it does not exist. Obviously there are many who could and maybe should go on trial for the corruption.