Vatican tribunal condemns theft by ex-butler

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican tribunal that convicted the pope's ex-butler of stealing private papal correspondence sharply condemned the theft yesterday as causing "reprehensible" damage to the pontiff, the Holy See and the entire Catholic Church, and said investigations are continuing.

The three-judge tribunal issued its written explanation of how it reached its Oct. 6 verdict against Paolo Gabriele, convicted of aggravated theft and sentenced to 18 months in prison, currently being served under house arrest.

The Vatican spokesman, who had spoken previously of the "concrete" likelihood that Gabriele would be pardoned by the pope, backed off that assertion yesterday, saying only that a pardon was "possible."

Gabriele confessed to photocopying papal documents and giving them to an Italian journalist, saying Pope Benedict XVI wasn't being informed of the "evil and corruption" around him and that he believed that exposing the problems publicly would put the church back on the right track.

The revelations of petty bureaucratic infighting, intrigue and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons marked the biggest Vatican security breach in modern times.

Noting what they called Gabriele's "simplistic" intellectual capacity, the judges acknowledged that he had thought he was doing the right thing by leaking the documents. But they said his crime was a "reprehensible" violation of trust that damaged the pope himself and the rights of the Holy See, the Vatican City state and the entire church.