Vatican Scandal Continues - Is a Cardinal Involved?

Personally, I find few things more fun to watch than the dirty laundry of the Vatican being dragged out into the light of day.  Where the current “Vatileaks” scandal will go is hard to tell, but it seems the Italian media is in a frenzy and that speculation exists that tales of a power struggle and other titillating tidbits may come out.  Given all the evil that the Church hierarchy has done and continues to do, I for one hope the scandal shakes things up to the core of the secretive and possibly illegal activities that center on the Vatican.  The only thing more fun would to have documentation come forward that Benedict XVI has a gay lover.  Here are highlights from an updated story in the Washington Post:

One of the Vatican’s biggest scandals in decades widened Monday with the pope’s butler — arrested for allegedly having confidential documents in his home — agreeing to cooperate with investigators, his lawyer said Monday.

Paolo Gabriele’s pledge to cooperate with Vatican magistrates raises the specter that high-ranking prelates may soon be named in the investigation into leaks of confidential Vatican correspondence that have shed a light on power struggles and intrigue inside the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

Italian media reported Monday that a cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the “Vatileaks” scandal. However, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, denied the reports. He said many Vatican officials were being questioned in the investigation but insisted “there is no cardinal under suspicion.”

He also dismissed as “pure fantasy” a rash of other unsourced reports about the investigation in the Italian media, which have been on a frenzy ever since reports of Gabriele’s detention emerged Friday.

Gabriele, the pope’s personal butler since 2006, was arrested Wednesday evening after documents he had no business having in his possession were found inside his Vatican City apartment. He remains in custody in a Vatican detention facility, accused of theft, and has met with his wife and lawyers.

Gabriele’s arrest gave the already sordid scandal of the leaks an unfathomable Hollywood twist. So far, he remains the only one who has been arrested, but Lombardi stressed that the investigation was continuing.