Pope’s butler case: Show trial or Vatican transparency?

VATICAN CITY: The trial of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, which ends on Saturday after just four hearings, has split experts between some who say it is Vatican transparency in action and others who detect a whitewash.

The world’s tiniest state has for the first time opened its doors for the biggest trial of its modern history to a small group of journalists, who have then relayed the content of the courtroom drama to their colleagues.

Cameras have however mostly been kept out, the courtroom tucked away behind the Vatican walls is off limits to the general public and the brief trial of Paolo Gabriele for aggravated theft has been relatively limited in scope.

Vatican expert Marco Politi defined the trial as “nebulous” and said that the charge of aggravated theft against Gabriele for leaking confidential Vatican papers to an Italian journalist covered up for harsher truths. “The core of this story is the betrayal and the unprecedented leak of documents that reveal conflicts within the Curia, instances of corruption that have not been clarified, battles over the Vatican bank,” Politi said.

AFP