The Vatican's de facto prime minister has spoken for the first time about the scandal of documents being stolen from the Pope's desk, saying Benedict XVI is the victim of "ferocious" attacks by unknown plotters.
Pope Benedict xvi flanked by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State and the Pope's right-hand man, said the theft and leaking of compromising documents by unidentified whistle-blowers seemed to be part of a concerted campaign against the 85-year-old pontiff.
Many of the leaked documents appeared to be aimed at discrediting Cardinal Bertone himself, casting in a negative light his apparent attempts to block efforts to tackle corruption and nepotism within the administration of the city state.
"Attacks have always existed ... (but) this time it seems that the attacks are more targeted, sometimes also ferocious, biting and organised," the cardinal said in an interview with Rai1 public television.
He insisted that the Pope would not allow himself to be "intimidated" by the furore over the leaked documents.
Exactly who is behind the theft of the papers and letters remains a mystery, but there is widespread speculation in Rome that they are part of Machiavellian machinations at the very highest levels of the Catholic Church hierarchy.
Many Vatican analysts believe the leaking of the papers is a deliberate attempt to topple Cardinal Bertone, against a background of jockeying for power in anticipation of the Pope's death and the election of a new pope.
So far only one person has been arrested in connection with the scandal – Paolo Gabriele, Benedict's butler, who has been held for nearly two weeks in a "secure room" in the headquarters of the Vatican Gendarmerie, the Holy See's 130-strong police force.
Accused of "aggravated theft", he is due to be formally questioned by Vatican investigators on Tuesday.
At least five other people are suspected of being part of the plot and of having held secret meetings with the butler, according to the Italian press.
Vatican gendarmes who found a pile of stolen documents when they searched the butler's apartment also discovered the names of Italian journalists to whom he was passing the papers, La Stampa reported on Tuesday.
A large tranche of leaked documents form the basis of a book recently published by an Italian investigative journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi.
The most recent – including two signed by the Pope's private secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein – were sent to La Repubblica on Sunday.
They were accompanied by a covering letter which claimed that the butler was simply a pawn in the whole affair and that Cardinal Bertone and Monsignor Ganswein were the real powers behind the whispering campaign.
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