“I am hopeful for an open trial that will examine all documents, I hope evidence will be made public and the reasons for slinging mud at the individuals involved.""But I don’t believe the Vatican will.” Gianluigi Nuzzi - author of the bestselling book “Sua Santità” (His Holiness) which contains the documents leaked to him by the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele (the butler admitted to this himself and was committed for trial last week together with an IT technician) – stated this during an interview with Il Giornale di Vicenza, a regional Italian newspaper, commenting on the conclusion of the preliminary investigation into the theft of the Pope’s confidential documents.
Commenting on the fact that he had not been contacted either by Vatican or Italian judicial police bodies (“No. Nobody asked me to confirm any information either on an investigation or a judicial level”), the journalist claimed “that there are many irregularities in the attitudes taken by the Vatican. Starting with the Calvi case. I believe that in relation to my book, there was a greater focus on the document leak and on who – cook, butler, guard or whoever else –handed these to me than on what the documents say.”
Nuzzi did not comment on whether Gabriele was his only source, though he explained that “my sources are based on information based relations with various individuals who contributed to my work, whom I must protect. Whoever gave me the letters is highly trusted.”
As far as the attacks received for spreading the news, he stressed: “I did not steal anything; I have not committed any crime. I published documents which readers ask to be informed about because everything that is out of sight in terms of politics, finance, banks, businesses, the Church, foreign influences, is interesting.”
“The Vatican’s reaction was instantaneous, as was the punishment of the accused,” Nuzzi went on to say. “I don’t think there is any record in the media of an arrest of this kind; it is unusual for someone accused of aggravated theft to be held for so long.”
“I remember that when he was still president of the Vatican bank, Gotti Tedeschi once told me they had renovated the cells under the gendarmerie after money laundering was introduced as an offence. Before, the Vatican had no detention cells and any potential individuals accused of aggravated theft were handed over to the Italian police. Now the cells have been opened for an aggravated theft case: do you think this is normal?”
When asked whether he had been followed or wiretapped over the past months, Nuzzi responded: “I am not really concerned about this, but I suppose I did arouse people’s interest.”