VATICAN CITY: Visitors to St Peter's Square are unconcerned about Vatican document leaks and the arrest of Pope Benedict's butler

Record ID: 862398

  • Title: VATICAN CITY: Visitors to St Peter's Square are unconcerned about Vatican document leaks and the arrest of Pope Benedict's butler
  • Date: 27th May 2012
  • Summary: VATICAN CITY (MAY 26, 2012) (REUTERS) ST. PETER'S SQUARE AND BASILICA VARIOUS ST. PETER'S DOME
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Vatican City State
  • City:
  • Country: Vatican City State
  • Topics: Crime,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA9ULMOE8C6Y7Y3JEGSD3O9HPR1
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Crowds at the Vatican for the mass ahead of Pentecost on Saturday (May 26) were not overly concerned about the leaked Vatican documents on the arrest of the Pope's butler.
    "Is is really surprising? I don't think it is really and I think that a lot of things are just covered up and have been over the years, so maybe we need to get to grips with a lot more things", commented Geoffrey Wilkinson who was visiting the Vatican on Saturday.
    "To me it's like any big organisation, there will be leaks, it could be for money, it doesn't seem to be any sort of conspiracy necessarily, it's just something that happens in any large organisation. Unfortunately when it's linked to religion it tends to cause more of a furore," added Chris Cooksley.
    "I think they are such an influential power in the world globally, that I think they need to be seen to be setting a good example, and seem to be acting on this and taking it seriously. It's a faith and a belief and they need to be seen to be doing the right thing in response, " said Clare MacDonald.
    The Vatican, embroiled for months in the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal involving the leak of secret papers, said on Friday its police had detained a person in possession of confidential documents.
    A Vatican statement said the person was being questioned by Vatican magistrates, but gave no details. A Vatican source said the person was not a priest. Newspaper headlines on Saturday, confirmed that the Pope's butler had been arrested.
    For much of this year, the Vatican has been at the centre of a scandal involving the leak to Italian media of documents, some of them personal letters to Pope Benedict.
    Some of the documents involved allegations of corruption, mismanagement and cronyism in the awarding of contracts for work in the Vatican and internal disagreement on the management of the Vatican bank. The president of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted by its board on Thursday.
    The Pope, who was said to be shocked and saddened by the leaks, ordered several investigations, including one headed by Vatican police and another by a commission of cardinals.
    The scandal involves the leaking of a string of sensitive documents to Italian media since the start of the year. They included letters by an archbishop who was transferred to Washington after he blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption and cronyism, a memo which put a number of cardinals in a bad light and documents alleging internal conflicts about the Vatican Bank.
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