Pope Benedict XVI’s onetime butler declared he was innocent of a charge of aggravated theft of the pope’s private letters, but acknowledged that he photocopied the papers and said he feels guilty that he betrayed the trust of the pontiff he loved like a father.

The pope’s butler has said he is innocent of stealing private correspondence but guilty of betraying the trust of the pontiff, whom he said he loved like a son would his father.

Pope Benedict XVI has returned to the Vatican after three months on holiday to find his former butler on trial in one of the most damaging scandals of his pontificate: the leaks of stolen papal correspondence detailing power struggles, defamation campaigns and allegations of corruption at the highest level of the Catholic Church.

THE firing on May 24 of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the president of the Vatican Bank, because of a failure to “promote transparency”, must have sent a frisson of fear through the upper echelons of the Roman Curia, coming as it did three decades after another scandal involving the same institution.

The Vatican has blamed the media for fuelling the scandal over leaked documents and insisted there were no power struggles or problems of unity in the Holy See's governance.

The Pope's butler was formally questioned today in the investigation into the leaks of the pontiff's papers, a scandal that represents one of the gravest security breaches in recent Vatican history.

Pope Benedict XVI has broken his silence over the leaked documents scandal that has convulsed the Vatican, saying he was saddened by the betrayal but grateful to those aides who work faithfully and in silence to help him do his job.

The Pope’s butler has been arrested in its embarrassing leaks scandal, adding a Hollywood twist to an already remarkable tale of power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance.