Butler to go on trial for leaking Pope’s papers

A Vatican scandal will get an unusually public airing next week when the butler who served the Pope’s meals and helped him dress goes on trial for leaking Benedict’s private papers in the hope of cleaning up what he saw as “evil and corruption everywhere in the Church”.

The case, which led to the most serious crisis of Benedict’s papacy, involves the disclosure of sensitive documents alleging corruption in the Vatican and pointing to a power struggle at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

Paolo Gabriele, a 46-year-old father of three living in the city-state, told investigators after his arrest in May that he believed a shock “could be a healthy thing to bring the Church back on the right track”.