Paolo Gabriele, 46, has admitted taking confidential documents and leaking them to the Italian media - although no guilty plea has been entered.
Mr Gabriele has told investigators that he was hoping to expose "evil and corruption" within the Church.
He is standing trial along with a Vatican technician, and faces up to four years in prison if found guilty.
The formal charge is "aggravated theft" because of where the alleged crime took place - inside what was supposed to be the most secure area of the Pope's domain right in the centre of Rome, the papal penthouse apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace.
Mr Gabriele is alleged to have handed photocopies of many of the stolen documents to an Italian journalist who published facsimile copies of them in a book earlier this year, cataloguing corruption and petty rivalry among top-level Vatican administrators.
The Vatican says he also gave another set of copies to an Italian priest - described as his "spiritual adviser" - who decided to burn them. The unnamed priest told Mr Gabriele to confess only to the Pope himself what he had done.
Mr Gabriele was the Pope's trusted servant for years and held the keys to the papal apartments.
Many of the letters and other documents he took from the pontiff's desk were published in a book, His Holiness, by an Italian investigative journalist in May.
The so-called "Vatileaks" scandal has exposed alleged corruption and internal conflicts at the Holy See.
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says it has been one of the most difficult crises of Pope Benedict's seven-year papacy.
Mr Gabriele's co-defendant is computer technician Claudio Sciarpelletti, who is accused of aiding and abetting a crime.
No TV cameras or recorders are being allowed inside the courtroom. The proceedings will be reported by a pool of eight Vatican-accredited journalists.
No comments:
Post a Comment