Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

As the Vatican waits for a new pope under a cloud of scandal, the journalist at the center of the Vatileaks case is revealing the high-stakes, cloak-and-dagger operation he undertook to protect the butler who went public with the secrets.

Investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi told NBC News' Richard Engel how he met Paolo Gabriele in public squares and used old-fashioned public phones to set up rendezvous to make it harder for anyone to eavesdrop on their blockbuster conversations.

He gave Gabriele a code name -- Maria -- and would leave it on the door buzzer he was to press for meetings in a Rome apartment, Nuzzi said in a "Rock Center with Brian Williams" interview.

"He was excited, he was careful, he was afraid," Nuzzi said.

Slideshow: Pope Benedict XVI's departure

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The pope delivers his final audience in St. Peter's Square as he prepares to stand down.

Launch slideshow

"Then I understood why: because the Vatican has a very strong security system...Once Paolo Gabriele told me a confidence, which I do not know if it is true. He told me the cameras inside the Vatican as so powerful that they can even read the lips of people."

Their first sit-down, set up by intermediaries before Nuzzi even knew who he was meeting, was a "dangerous encounter," he said.

A dozen or so more followed, during which Gabriele gave Nuzzi photocopies of the pope's personal papers, including letters from a top aide,  Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò, who had investigated the alleged corruption. In one of the letters, Viganò complained that he felt he was being slandered and sidelined from the inside. He was eventually transferred off the case, and moved to Washington, D.C., to become Papal Nuncio, the Vatican’s diplomatic envoy.

Nuzzi used the documents for broadcast reports and a book that shed light on the infighting and dysfunction at the highest level of the church bureaucracy last year.

Gabriele, who said he was trying to help the pope and the church by shining a light on the dark underbelly of the Vatican, was eventually unmasked as the source of the leaks and sentenced to 18 months in Vatican custody. He was later pardoned by the pope and given a job in a hospital.

Pope Benedict XVI commissioned three retired and independent cardinals to investigate the leaks and they presented him with a report late last year, weeks before the pontiff shocked the world by announcing his abdication.

The Vatican has since denied reports that the cardinals' dossier contains details of a gay cabal in the Vatican and blackmail threats. Allegations of a gay Vatican subculture predate the Vatileaks scandal. In 2010, journalist Carlo Abbate went undercover and filmed Rome priests cavorting with other men.

Abbate doesn't buy the Vatican denials.

"In my opinion, Pope Benedict XVI's move represents his last attempt to save the Catholic Church from the public exposure of the contradictions of the church in the matter of sexuality," he said. "In a sense, he is casting himself aside in order to let those contradictions rise to the surface."

Benedict cited his age when he announced his resignation on Feb. 11 though he has also referred to the Vatican's difficulties. The 115 cardinals who will elect his successor have assembled in Rome but they will not see the Vatileaks report because Benedict decreed that only the next pontiff will get a copy.

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• Full coverage of the papal abdication from NBC News

A lame-duck pope. A secret dossier. Rumors of a gay cabal. A cardinal accused of "inappropriate" behavior.

The Vatican is in an uproar, and church scholars say there hasn't been this much drama surrounding a conclave since 1800, when Pope Pius VI died while being held prisoner by Napoleon.

One Vatican watcher says you have to go back to 1730 — when Pope Benedict XIII's right-hand man fled Rome in disguise amid allegations of corruption — to find a conclave buffeted by this much scandal.

"This is not a healthy situation for any kind of institution," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on the Catholic Church at Georgetown University.

"It looks like amateur hour."

The conclave that will begin next month to choose Pope Benedict XVI's successor was always going to be an anomaly since it's been centuries since a sitting pontiff resigned.

The pope's historic Feb. 11 announcement has been overshadowed, however, by an extraordinary wave of revelations and accusations.

There were calls for cardinals accused of mishandling the sex-abuse crisis to abstain from voting. Then came a report that Britain's top cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien had been accused of bad behavior by priests, followed by his resignation on Monday.

Over the weekend, the Vatican had to deny an Italian newspaper report that Pope Benedict abdicated because an internal probe into the so-called Vatileaks mess had uncovered a network of gay priests who were being blackmailed.

Now comes the news that the pope will only let two people see the report on the document leaks — himself and his successor — despite calls for the Holy See to become more transparent.

Certainly, there have been other modern conclave controversies. 

The 1903 frontrunner, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, was vetoed by the emperor of Austria-Hungary, prompting a change in rules that allowed Catholic powers to knock down a candidate, said NBC News' Vatican expert, George Weigel.

Hulton Archive via Getty Images, file

Experts say there hasn't been this much pre-conclave uproar since a pope spirited out of Rome by Napoleon's forces died.

The conclave of 1914 had cardinals from Germany and France refusing to speak to each other, and the conclave of 1939 was held against the backdrop of a world hurtling toward war.

But today's level of pre-conclave tension hasn't been seen since 1800, two years after French forces invaded Rome and carried off the pope, several experts said.

"You had a dire situation where Pope Pius VI died effectively still a prisoner of the French. The cardinals could not gather in Rome for the election and had to meet on an island off Venice," said Matthew Bunson, general editor of the Catholic Almanac.

James Weiss, a professor of church history at Boston College, sees the conclave of 1730 more analogous, because it was complicated by internal problems, not outside forces.

He said that when Pope Benedict XIII died after six years, his corrupt and powerful aide, Cardinal Niccolo Coscia, was run out of town amid allegations he looted Vatican coffers.

"The population of Rome attacked his palace and he disguised himself a washerwoman and escaped," Weiss said. Coscia managed to negotiate a return for the conclave, however.

The commotion around the upcoming conclave could have serious consequences.

The Vatileaks intrigue would appear to undermine the cardinals of the Roman Curia, the administrators of the Vatican, while the sex-scandal bombshells weaken the outsiders from dioceses around the world, Reese said.

The various crises underscore some of the Vatican's weaknesses: a lack of transparency and an allergy to change in a rapidly modernizing world with a 24-hour news cycle and exploding social media.

"This is chickens coming home to roost," Weiss said.

Church historians say the clouds hovering over the conclave show why the next pope, unlike Benedict and John Paul II before him, must make Vatican house-cleaning a priority — from streamlining a web-like bureaucracy to standardizing archaic finances.

"It's always an issue when you have an institution that thinks in terms of centuries, to bring about reforms on a turn of a dime." Bunson said,

Bunson said he thinks those reforms are within reach with the right leader, but Weiss wondered if efforts to usher in a new era aren't already being undercut by the Vatican's announcement that the Vatileaks dossier will stay under wraps.

"That means the cardinals are going into the conclave blind, not knowing who among them may have stuffed their pockets or been part of gay sexual enclaves," he said. 

Reese said moving up the date of the conclave — which the pope announced Monday he would allow — could also be antithetical to change because it gives the cardinals less time to consider outsider candidates.

"This is the most important thing these cardinals will ever do," he said. "There’s no reason to rush."

NBC News' Erin McClam contributed to this report.

Related:

Pope says Vatileaks probe will stay secret

Britain's top Catholic cleric resigns amid allegations of inappropriate behavior

LA's Cardinal Mahony calls himself a scapegoat

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images

Members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard have long given Vatican employees their permission to enter. Starting in January, electronic cards will handle some of that duty.

ROME — The Vatican is the only fully fortified state in the world, protected by 40-foot-high walls. The few porte, the arched access gates into Vatican City, are manned by Swiss Guards dressed in their colorful Renaissance uniforms and carrying swords.

Visitors are asked to sign in and are allowed only upon invitation. But for Vatican employees, usually a nod of recognition will do. The Vatican is the smallest state in the world, and pretty much everybody knows each other.

But things are quickly changing.

This month, the Vatican is introducing an electronic badge for some of its thousands of employees. Workers will be expected to swipe in and out when entering and exiting.

Some of the world's media have linked the step-up in security directly to the "Vatileaks" scandal, the unprecedented security breach in which Paolo Gabriele, the pope's former butler, photocopied and leaked confidential documents to the Italian media.

Ex-butler sentenced in Vatican leaks case

Pope pardons ex-butler

So is the Holy Father turning into Big Brother?

No, a Vatican employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told NBC News: "I haven't received my card yet, but I have seen swiping machines being installed at Porta Sant'Anna," the main gate for Vatican employees. "This is not a case of Big Brother, more like the Vatican coming in line with the modern world and issuing a badge like any other big company."

The Vatican employs roughly 3,000 people and generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue, mainly from tourism and donations. If it were a company, it would be a midsize business with a healthy income and solid assets, despite having recorded a $19 million loss in 2011. But unlike most private companies, the Vatican has allowed some employees an unprecedented degree of flexibility in their working hours.

Robert Mickens, the Rome Correspondent for The Tablet newspaper and a former employee at Vatican Radio, says that this self-governance in some cases has been abused: "When a journalist asked Pope John XXIII how many people work in the Vatican, he replied: 'About half'."

"The Vatican has tried hard to check that people stick to their working hours for years," Mickens said. "At Vatican Radio they introduced electronic badges years ago because people would go for their coffee break and return hours later. So I think that this is more of a case of the Vatican trying to check that its employees do their job than to prevent them from leaking information."

Whether the new system is aimed at preventing a new Vatileaks or merely keeping tabs on employee hours, the Vatican's ancient walls are about to receive a modern twist.

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Pope Benedict's former butler, who was convicted of stealing papal documents,  had not allowed technicians to check his computer for the last six years, a court trying a second suspect in the Vatican leaks scandal heard on Monday.

The detail was made public at the first hearing in the trial of Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer expert who is charged with aiding and abetting Paolo Gabriele, the former butler.

The courtroom inside a Renaissance building was so small it could barely hold the three judges, the five witnesses, the defendant and a selected pool of journalists chosen among the international media. Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom.

Pope's ex-butler Paolo Gabriele gets 18-month sentence in 'Vatileaks' case

No picture has ever been released of the computer expert, so the quasi-mystery over his identity remains, in good old secretive Vatican style.

The leaks scandal unleashed one of the biggest crises of Pope Benedict's papacy, embarrassing the Vatican at a time when it was struggling to overcome several child sex abuse scandals involving clerics, as well as mismanagement at its bank.

AFP/Getty Images

Pope Benedict's former butler Paolo Gabriele

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft at a separate trial last month and sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing sensitive papal documents and leaking them to the media. He kept some confidential information on his computer.

One of the pope's closest household assistants, Gabriele admitted leaking the documents in what he said was an attempt to help disclose corruption and "evil" in the headquarters of the 1.2 billion-member faith.

The former butler attended the opening of Monday's trial for a few minutes but was then ushered out along with other witnesses. He looked calm and was smiling but did not look at Sciarpelletti. Gabriele was wearing the grey suit he sported during his trial, and appeared to be in good spirits despite having been locked for days in a tiny cell in the Vatican Gendarmerie headquarters.

And yet the pope's former butler has all the reason to worry. While it was widely expected that the pope would pardon him following his conviction, he hasn't yet done so. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in October that the pardon was still a possibility, but it would require Gabriele's repentance and a sincere request for pardon to the pontiff and the others affected by his actions.

Pope's ex-butler says eyesight was damaged by 24-hour light in Vatican cell

Gianluca Benedetti, Sciarpelletti's lawyer, said Gabriele's work computer had become "obsolete" and was one of the oldest in the Vatican but that he had refused to allow Sciarpelletti, 48, to touch it.

Sciarpelletti and Gabriele could not therefore have been great friends, much less accomplices, he argued, if Gabriele had not even trusted him to look at his computer.

"Do you think my client would have risked a record that included 20 years of faithful service in the Vatican to help someone who was not even a great friend?" Benedetti asked the court. The court allowed Sciarpelleti's employment record to be entered as evidence.

Sciarpelletti fidgeted nervously during the two-hour hearing, often rubbing his hands and looking at the floor.

Pawns in a bigger game?
While the Vatican has said that Sciarpelletti's role in the whole affair was "minor," excitement grew over the possibility that his trial could reveal whether more people were involved in the leaking of the documents. It also provided the former butler with the opportunity to testify once again, the first time he would comment on the scandal since his conviction.

But when reports from inside the courtroom emerged after only two hours from the start of the hearing, it became clear that Monday's proceedings were only a formality.

Many Vatican watchers are skeptical that Gabriele could have acted alone, suggesting he may have been forced to take the blame in order to shield bigger players inside the Holy See. They say both men could be pawns in a palace power struggle.

Vatican officials say Sciarpelletti's role in the leaks scandal was marginal and expect the trial, which is being held in the same small courtroom, to be speedier than that of the butler, which lasted only four sessions.

After preliminary arguments, Sciarpelletti's trial was adjourned to allow the defense team to study the minutes of the Gabriele trial.

Sciarpelletti spent one night in a Vatican jail cell on May 25, two days after Gabriele was arrested when police searched the ex-butler's home and found many copies of papal documents, some alleging infighting in the papal court and corruption at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

When Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's desk in the Secretariat of State - the nerve center of the Holy See's administration - they found a closed envelope addressed to Gabriele marked "personal."

It contained documentation relating to a chapter in a book about Vatican corruption and intrigue written by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who had received confidential documents from Gabriele.

Sciapelletti's lawyer told the court on Monday that the search was carried out after Vatican police received an anonymous note from someone in the Secretariat of State saying that Sciapelletti and Gabriele had often been seen together.

In four sessions of questioning in May and June, Sciarpelletti provided "wavering and contradictory" answers, according to a court indictment.

On the night of his arrest, Sciarpelletti said he only had a "working relationship" with Gabriele. But he later said the two were friends and that their families had gone on outings together and that he knew Gabriele's childhood had been tough.

Sciarpelletti initially said Gabriele had given him the envelope. But he later said it had been given to him by someone in the Vatican identified only as "W" in court documents, only to change his story again later and say it had been given to him by someone identified as "X."

It is not clear if "X" or "W" are clerics or lay people working in the Vatican.

Apart from Gabriele, other witnesses who will be called to testify include Monsignor Carlo Polvani, Sciarpelletti's superior in the Secretariat of State; Maj. William Kloter, the deputy commander of the Swiss Guards; and two Vatican security officials, including the commander of the police force, Domenico Giani.

Sciarpelletti faces up to one year in jail but is expected to get off with a light sentence or a fine.

The next, and possibly final hearing is scheduled for Saturday. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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VATICAN CITY — The pope’s former butler was convicted in the "Vatileaks" case Saturday and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Paolo Gabriele will serve his sentence under house arrest in his Vatican apartment while awaiting a possible papal pardon, his lawyer said.

Gabriele was found guilty of stealing thousands of Vatican documents — including some of Pope Benedict’s private papers and letters alleging corruption within the church — while working for the pontiff. Some of papers were later leaked to the media.

Defense lawyer Cristiana Arru said after the hearing that she did not plan to appeal the sentence, describing it as "just," Reuters reported.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi suggested the pope would intervene.

"Now that we have a sentence, the pope will evaluate whether to pardon him. There is a concrete and real possibility of his forgiveness, but it will up to him to decide if and when," Lombardi said.

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images

The pope's former butler Paolo Gabriele, seen arriving with the pontiff for a weekly audience in St Peter's Square, Rome, in June 2007, said Saturday he acted out of love for the church.

Before the verdict was announced, Gabriele, wearing a dark gray suit, a white shirt, and a blue tie, insisted he was not a thief and that he had acted out of concern for the Catholic church and the pontiff.

"What I feel strongly inside me, is the conviction of having acted out of exclusive and visceral love for Jesus' church, and for his visible leader. I repeat, I don’t feel like a thief," he told the tribunal.

'Rewarded' one day?
Arru had argued there was no theft, as Gabriele photocopied the documents and did not remove the originals.

She said he was driven by his faith, high morals and by motives that she hoped one day would be "recognized and rewarded" as he was pushed to do what he did by the "evil" he saw around him.

Pope's ex-butler says eyesight was damaged by 24-hour light in Vatican cell

Arru said Gabriele had shown a "lack of respect" toward the confidentiality of the material he had access to, but insisted her client had not actually stolen the documents.

She also said Gabriele had not benefited personally from his actions. Gabriele has always maintained he never received money or presents in exchange of the documents.

Pope Benedict: 'Sadness in my heart' over butler leak scandal

Arru had asked for the charges to be changed from theft to embezzlement.

Gabriele was actually sentenced to the three years in prison requested by the prosecution, but this was reduced to 18 months due to his belief he was acting in good faith, clean record, and admission of guilt.

The prosecutor, Nicola Picardi, said that, according to his psychological profile, Gabriele was "suggestible" and easily influenced by others.

Picardi wondered whether it was possible that other people were involved, but said "there is no proof" that Gabriele, who has insisted he acted alone, had an accomplice.

Picardi added that Gabriele had confessed to the crime to Father Giovanni Luzi, a priest, and handed him some of the documents before his arrest.

After the hearing, Gabriele went back to his Vatican apartment under house arrest.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele testified Tuesday that he was held in isolation in a tiny cell with the light on 24 hours a day for the first two weeks after he was accused of stealing and leaking private documents to the media.

The case -- dubbed "Vatileaks" -- saw the butler imprisoned in the Vatican police station while investigators seized 82 boxes of evidence from the apartment where he lived with his wife and three children.

The president of the Vatican tribunal opened an inquiry into Gabriele’s treatment during his detention after he told the court that the constant light had caused problems with his sight.

He also said his cell was so small that he was not able to extend his arms.

Responding to the claim in court, a spokesman for the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, said, "Vatican cells comply to international standards, but we are taking the accusation seriously and an inquiry has been opened."

Gabriele, 46, told a Vatican court that he was solely responsible for the leaks – confirming what he told prosecutors during the pre-trial investigation – but despite this declared himself innocent of charges of aggravated theft, saying “I only feel guilty of having betrayed the trust the Holy Father placed in me.”

L'Osservatore Romano via AP

The pope's former butler Paolo Gabriele in the courtroom of the Vatican on Sunday.

He denied he was helped by an accomplice and that he had received money or presents in exchange for the documents from an Italian journalist.

Cronyism
Gabriele admitted that in 2010 he started collecting the documents, including letters to the pope in which Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano -- then a senior Vatican functionary -- expressed concern about improper behavior in the Holy See's business dealings.

Vigano denounced a web of corruption, cronyism and nepotism in the awarding of contracts for the maintenance of Vatican real estate to outside companies at inflated prices. Vigano was later removed from his post and sent to become the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington, seen by some as a way to push him away from Rome.

Trial of pope's former butler over leaked papers gets under way

Gabriele said that he felt disheartened by what he described as an unbearable situation. Initially, he planned only to gather information and did not intend to leak the documents to the media, he said.

He said that after leaking the documents he realized he would soon face justice and decided to turn himself in.

However Gabriele did not know how to go about this, so he confessed to a priest only known as Father Giovanni, and gave him a copy of the documents.

Vatican says the 'butler did it,' orders trial

He was asked about Vatican property allegedly found at his home.

Asked about a 16th century edition of the Aeneid, he said he just took it for educational reasons for his son and daughter. “I didn’t know the value of this book,” he said.

And of a $130,000 check found by investigators, he said: “I never saw that check in my house.” He furtherdenied having had a gold nugget at home.

Pope easy to manipulate?
Gabriele also spoke about dining with the pope.

“I had the unique opportunity to speak to him. That’s where I realized that it’s easy to manipulate somebody with such an enormous decisional power. Sometimes he would ask questions about situations he should have been aware of,” he said.

Conducted under a 19th-century criminal code, the trial began with a setback for the defense on Saturday when judges refused to admit evidence from the Church's own investigation.

Gabriele's lawyer, Cristiana Arru, hoped to explain her client's motives by admitting as evidence an inquiry by a commission of cardinals who questioned Vatican employees about the leaks.

Pope Benedict: 'Sadness in my heart' over butler leak scandal

A summary of the inquiry's results released in August showed Gabriele acted because he saw "evil and corruption everywhere in the Church," and felt the pope was not sufficiently informed.

But chief judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre said the commission of cardinals answered only to the pope and that the inquiry had "no relevance" to Vatican City's penal code.

Only evidence gathered by a prosecutor and the Vatican police will be allowed.

Facing charges of aggravated theft, the man who helped the pope dress and rode in the front seat of the Popemobile could now face up to four years in an Italian prison.

Another man, Vatican computer expert Claudio Sciarpelletti is on trial separately for aiding Gabriele.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Gregorio Borgia / AP

Clouds pass over St. Peter's square at the Vatican on Monday.

ROME – It doesn't get more symbolic than this: dark clouds hung over the Vatican on Monday morning after months of glorious sunshine, just as its spokesman announced the outcome of an investigation into one of the biggest conspiracies to emerge from the Holy See in years.

As explained in a 35-page document issued by the Vatican, a judge charged Pope Benedict XVI's former butler with "aggravated theft" for allegedly stealing and leaking private documents from the pope's apartment to the Italian media.

Paolo Gabriele must now stand trial in one of the biggest conspiracies to hit the Vatican in years.

The documents purporting to contain damaging details of alleged corruption and power struggles among the Church's hierarchy provide a rare peek through the keyhole of the secretive Vatican medieval walls.

'Vatileaks'
The scandal, branded "Vatileaks," started in January after Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi revealed for the first time one of the documents in his television program, "The Untouchables," on the Italian channel La7.

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters file

The Pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, bottom left, arrives with Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican in a file photo from May 23, 2012.

In a private letter sent by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano to his superiors, including the pope, he appeared to expose a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the awarding of contracts for the maintenance of the tiny city-state's gardens, buildings, streets, museums and other infrastructure. Vigano complained that much of the work was often given to the same companies at double the cost when compared to what they charged outside the Vatican.

Among the many expenses a medieval state like the Vatican, the cradle of Christianity, needs to maintain its splendor, perhaps the most typical one is the cost of the nativity scene, which adorns St. Peter's Square every Christmas. In one of the leaked letters, Vigano complained that it cost almost $700,000 to put on in 2009, and managed to almost halve its cost the following year.

Despite the cost-saving efforts by Vigano, the archbishop was soon deposed from his post and sent to Washington as a "Nuncio," the Vatican equivalent of an ambassador. What was meant to be a promotion, Vigano denounced as a smear campaign against him by members of the Vatican hierarchy, whom he believed were unhappy about his push for transparency in the church's complex financial structure.

"Holy Father, my transfer right now would provoke much disorientation and discouragement in those who have believed it was possible to clean up so many situations of corruption and abuse of power that have been rooted in the management of so many departments," Vigano wrote to the pope on March 27, 2011, according to the leaked documents.

After the program aired, the hunt for the whistleblower – colorfully called the "crow" (Italian for mole) – was on. In Nuzzi's book he or she was called, almost heretically, "Mary."

The Vatican gendarmerie, the Holy See's "police" force, quickly began searching for clues.

Then, as if out of an Agatha Christie novel, the predictable outcome: the butler did it.

The butler did it
On May 23, the Vatican gendarmerie arrested Paolo Gabriele, the pope's personal assistant. He was one of the very few people to have access to the pope's private chambers and was caught red-handed when a stash of secret documents was found in his apartment.

Andreas Solaro / AFP - Getty Images

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi speaks at a press conference about the charges on Monday.

In his possession, authorities also found some presents sent to the pope, including a check for a $130,000, a gold nugget and a rare 16th century book. He was held for 53 days in a Vatican cell before being put under house arrest.

The decision to order Gabriele to stand trial on charges of aggravated theft for leaking the documents was widely expected. But if the butler did it, was he part of a wider whistleblowing operation aimed at shaking up the Vatican hierarchy as some have suggested?

On Monday, the Vatican revealed that at least one other arrest was made during the investigation. Claudio Sciarpelletti, a layman Vatican IT employee, was also ordered to stand trial, but on lesser charges of aiding and abetting a crime.

Big crime in a small country
Officially, the Vatican is one of the countries with the highest crime rate per capita in the world. The surprising statistic is skewed by the fact that, despite there being only 800 residents, there's an abundance of purse-snatchers from abroad (meaning Italy, which is just across the fences of St. Peter's Square). Its sole judge spends a lot of time dealing with mostly petty crimes.

The last serious crime the court had to deal with was the 1998 murder of a Swiss Guard commander and his wife by a young Swiss Guard, who later took his own life.

The trial for the conspiracy that has shaken the Vatican at the top of its hierarchy will not take place until October at the earliest. If Gabriele is found guilty, he risks up to six years in prison.

Unless, of course, the pope can find it in his heart to forgive - and pardon him.

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Pope Benedict's butler was arrested on Friday in connection with an investigation into leaks of confidential documents, some alleging cronyism and corruption in Vatican contracts, a senior Vatican source said.

The arrest is the first break in an investigation of the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal involving the leaking of secret papers including papal letters.

"The inquiry carried out by Vatican police... allowed them to identify someone in possession of confidential documents," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists, according to BBC News. "This person is currently being questioned."

"It's all very sad," a Vatican source said.

For much of this year, the Vatican has been at the center of a scandal involving the leak to Italian media of documents, some of them personal letters to the pope.

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's bank.

The president of the Vatican's bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted by its board on Thursday.

Pope shocked, saddened
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.

Pope at Easter vigil: Technology without God is dangerous

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 regarding the Vatican Bank.

The private letters to Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the pope from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former deputy governor of Vatican City and currently the Holy See's ambassador in Washington were broadcast in January by an Italian television.

The letters showed that Vigano was transferred after he exposed what he argued was a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to Italian contractors at inflated prices.

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In one letter, Vigano wrote of a smear campaign against him by other Vatican officials who were upset that he had taken drastic steps to clean up the purchasing procedures. He begged to stay in the job to finish what he had started.

Bertone responded by removing Vigano from his position three years before the end of his tenure and sending him to the United States, despite his strong resistance.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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