The Butler Did It

You might have missed this story on the weekend, what with the mad dash to prepare for Christmas. The pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, a confident and companion for years was convicted of theft not long ago, for stealing a huge number of sensitive documents from the Vatican. Gabriele said he did it because of his perception of corruption in high Vatican places, although not necessarily the pope himself.  It was his version of Vatileaks, I suppose.

Read this report of what happened on the weekend:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking his private papers in one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.

After the 15-minute meeting, Paolo Gabriele was freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lives with his wife and three children. The Vatican said he couldn’t continue living or working in the Vatican, but said it would find him housing and a job elsewhere soon.

“This is a paternal gesture toward someone with whom the pope for many years shared daily life,” according to a statement from the Vatican secretariat of state.

It's good to know that Pope Benedict was willing to exercise practical forgiveness. Now we might ask what he will do about the cardinals and others Gabriele felt were corrupt.

Did you hear about this? What do you think about it all?