Butler's betrayal, other scandals took toll on Pope

His health wasn't the only thing that was bothering Pope Benedict XVI. The betrayal by his butler was apparently a constant source of distress, and could have been the last straw in a series of scandals that troubled the papacy, according to sources quoted by the New York Times. The Pope's former butler Paolo Gabriele, 46, went on trial last year after he leaked to a journalist confidential Vatican memos that revealed corruption and intrigue within the Holy See, which were later published in a book. Earlier reports quoted the Vatican as saying that the Pope was deeply hurt by the betrayal of confidence by someone he "knew, loved and respected".

Vatican power struggle  

When Vatican police arrested the Pope's butler last May and raided his home, they found copies of confidential documents and gifts intended for the Pope.

 

Gabriele, who served the Pope his meals and clothed him, had claimed that he was disgusted by the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican and only wanted to help Pope Benedict purge the ranks.

 

The incident became an embarrassment for the Vatican because it showed how easy it was to obtain the papers, which were only meant for the eyes of the Pope.

 

The Vatican said Gabriele's pardon was a "paternal gesture" for someone "with whom the Pope shared a relationship of daily familiarity for many years."

 

The butler, however, was banished from the Vatican.

 

Gabriele had said that he feels guilty for "having betrayed the trust that the Holy Father gave me, whom I love like a son [loves his father]."

 

According to Vatican experts quoted by the New York Times, the butler scandal may have been part of a "complex power battle" within the Vatican by certain factions that wanted to undermine the Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

In January last year, media reports began quoting letters of a high-ranking Vatican official who said that he had discovered corruption within the Church, referring specifically to Bertone who has reportedly been "influenced" by Italian political circles.

 

The Times report quoted Massimo Franco, a Vatican expert and columnist at the Corriere della Sera newspaper, as saying the Pope was "believed to be distraught" by a confidential report on the scandal.

 

Controversies wore down the Pope

 

Aside from the butler scandal, the New York Times said the Pope may have been persuaded to resign after a trip to Mexico, which was haunted by the scandal of Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado.

 

Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ order of priest, was restricted by the Vatican in 2006 from public ministry amid allegations that he sexually abused seminarians.

 

The Pope had initiated a probe of this issue, but during his trip to Mexico he was still called out for the Church's alleged failure to address clerical sexual abuse.

The report also cited the instances when the Pope was criticized for lifting the excommunication of a bishop who had denied the Holocaust and for citing medieval text that claimed some Islamic teachings were "evil and inhuman." The Vatican had said that the Pope did not know of the bishop's view when he lifted his excommunication and that his speech on Islam was taken out of context.

The scandals and missteps had simply worn down the Pope.

 

But Eamon Duffy, professor of the history of Christianity at Cambridge, told the Times that Pope Benedict's  decision to step down is "revolutionary.”

 

“He’s sweeping away the mystical in favor of the utilitarian: That being a Pope is a job, and the Pope must be in the condition to do the job,” he said in the report. – Kimberly Jane Tan/ HS, GMA News