Prada slippers are stomping in anger

ROME —The Vatican is conducting a widening probe into leaked documents that prompted the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler last week in a case Italian media have compared to an Agatha Christie novel.

The Vatican Monday ruled out any involvement in the investigation of a cardinal or a woman, after newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Stampa reported that the butler hadn’t acted alone and that a cardinal, the Roman Catholic Church’s highest rank after the pope, was also among the suspects.

The pope is “aware of the delicate situation going on inside the Curia,” or the Holy See’s government, spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters at the Vatican Monday. “No cardinal or woman is under investigation.”

Italian media have offered contradictory versions of the events behind the Friday arrest of Paolo Gabriele, the butler found in possession of classified documents. The case has often been portrayed as part of a palace intrigue pitting loyalists of an increasingly isolated Benedict, 85, against Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s de facto prime minister. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1202302--vatican-case-raises-questions-on-whether-papal-butler-did-it?bn=1