VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict’s former butler who leaked sensitive Vatican documents, believes his sentence of 18 months under house arrest is fair and will not appeal it, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Cristiana Arru told Reuters that Gabriele wanted the sentence, handed down last Saturday when he was convicted of aggravated theft, to stand because he thought it was reasonable.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict urged lapsed and lukewarm Roman Catholics on Thursday to rediscover their Church and stop the advance of “spiritual desertification”.

The pope made his comments in the homily of a Mass before tens of thousands in St Peter’s Square on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a far-reaching event in the Church’s 2,000-year history.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Arabic made its debut as one of the official languages at Pope Benedict’s weekly general audiences on Wednesday as part of a Vatican attempt to reach out more to Christians and Muslims in the Middle East.

The Vatican is concerned about the exodus from the Middle East of Christians, many of whom leave because they fear for their safety. Christians now comprise five percent of the population of the region, down from 20 percent a century ago.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The swift conviction of Pope Benedict’s former butler leaves lingering suspicions that he was a pawn in a much larger Vatican intrigue involving infighting in the papal court and alleged corruption at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church.

Despite the Vatican’s desire to quickly turn the page on one of the worst scandals in its recent history, the trial of Paolo Gabriele for leaking sensitive documents has left many questions unanswered, leading some to call it a whitewash.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A Vatican court convicted Pope Benedict’s former butler of stealing sensitive documents and sentenced him to 18 months in prison on Saturday, at the end of one of the most sensational trials in the recent history of the Holy See.

A Vatican spokesman said the pope, who reigns as a supreme monarch in the world’s smallest city-state, would “most likely” pardon Paolo Gabriele, which would mean he would not have to serve his sentence.

VATICAN CITY, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A trial that has thrown open
the window on a betrayal of trust and sensitive secrets in the
Vatican will come to a head on Saturday with final arguments
before judges deliver their verdict on Pope Benedict’s former
butler.

The so-called “Vatileaks” trial, which began last Saturday,
is due to wind up after only four hearings when the prosecution
and defence make closing arguments on Saturday morning.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s former butler stole highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked “to be destroyed” and compromised Vatican security through his actions, the Holy See’s police told his trial on Wednesday.

On the third day of Paolo Gabriele’s trial, testimony depicted a man fascinated by the occult, Masonic lodges, secret services and past Italian and Vatican scandals.

VATICAN CITY, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s former
butler Paolo Gabriele, on trial for stealing and leaking papal
documents, possessed papers the pope had marked “to be
destroyed,” police testified at his Vatican trial on Wednesday.

On the third day of the process, held under a 19th century
Italian penal code, members of the Holy See’s small police force
said the theft of encrypted documents had compromised some
Vatican operations.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s former butler, facing trial for stealing papal documents, told a Vatican court on Tuesday that he was held in a tiny room with the light on constantly and put under psychological pressure in the first few weeks of his detention.

A judge ordered an investigation of the Vatican police force after Paulo Gabriele made the assertions on the second day of the trial.