Vatican butler who stole former pope’s private papers dies aged 54

Thursday, November 26th, 2020

Paolo Gabriele, the Vatican butler who was convicted of stealing and leaking Pope Benedict XVI’s private papers in 2012, has died aged 54.

Vatican News, the Holy See’s media portal, said Mr Gabriele died on Tuesday after a long, undisclosed illness.

Mr Gabriele’s case kicked off the first of two Vatileaks scandals, exposing the internal tumult and turf wars in the Holy See and allegations of corruption and wrongdoing at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

Mr Gabriele was arrested in May 2012 after Vatican police found what they called an “enormous” stash of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment that he had stolen from the papal apartments.

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News category: News Shorts, World.

Tags: Paolo Gabriele, Vatican butler, Vatileaks

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