Vatican City

Barbie Latza Nadeau at The Daily Beast writes about all the conspiracy theories that are flying around about Pope Benedict resigning. One thing is in common with a few of them…they feature dodgy catholic ratbags:

While the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal was obviously a huge weight on the pope’s shoulders, Vatican watchers say it was actually the VatiLeaks butler saga and allegations of impropriety at the Vatican Bank that played more important roles in his resignation. “Benedict may not have quit because of the pedophilia scandals or any other specific controversy,” says Vatican expert John Allen. “But it’s hard to believe they didn’t play a role, at least as background.”

Financial impropiety, and dirty filthy pedo priests…then there are the health scare rumours:  Read more »

Stuff.co.nz

No, really, he did, the Pope’s butler that is…its was him:

An already sordid scandal over leaked Vatican documents took a Hollywood-like turn on Saturday (local time) with confirmation that the pope’s own butler had been arrested after documents he had no business having were found in his Vatican City apartment.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it’s serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents detailing power struggles, political intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of Catholic Church governance. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI’s own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff’s No. 2.