Pope Benedict’s former butler Paolo Gabriele — who triggered the infamous “Vatileaks” scandal — has died at 54, officials said Tuesday.
The Vatican’s Gabriele died in a Rome hospital following a long illness, without elaborating. He leaves behind his wife and three children.
Gabriele worked as Benedict’s private butler for several years before he stole confidential letters and other documents from the pontiff’s desk and leaked them to an Italian journalist in 2012 — who then went on to write a tell-all book about corruption in the Catholic Church.
Gabriele was arrested in May 2012 after police found an “enormous” stash of documents in his Vatican City apartment.
The former butler admitted that he’d given the papers to reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi because he believed the pope wasn’t being informed of the “evil and corruption” in the Vatican — and that exposing it publicly would get the church back on track.
He was convicted on charges of theft and served a few months of his 18-month sentence in a tiny jail cell at the Vatican police barracks, before Benedict pardoned him at Christmas.
It’s believed the scandal played a small part in Benedict’s decision to resign a few months later.
After he was released, Gabriele went on to work at a Vatican-owned pediatrics hospital in Rome.
With Post Wires