Vatican Documents Leaked: Did Butler Paolo Gabriele Do It?

In this photo taken May, 23, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, flanked by his private secretary, Georg Gaenswein, top left, and his butler, Paolo Gabiele, arrives at St.Peter's square at the Vatican for a general audience. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

He is always at the Pope Benedict XVI's side. Butler Paolo Gabriele is literally at the Pope's right hand.

But now the loyal butler under arrest accused of betraying the man he serves by leaking embarrassing confidential Vatican documents to the Italian media.

The leaked documents have been making headlines in Italy for months -- exposing money laundering and kickbacks at the secretive Vatican bank.

The head of the bank who said he was trying to clean it up fired last week.

Marco Politi, Vatican journalists and papal biographer said if the accusations are true, Gabriele probably did not act alone.

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

In this photo taken May, 23, 2012, Pope... View Full Size

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

In this photo taken May, 23, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI, flanked by his private secretary, Georg Gaenswein, top left, and his butler, Paolo Gabiele, arrives at St.Peter's square at the Vatican for a general audience.

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"If it happened there are others helping him and maybe leading him," he said.

Meanwhile the embattled Pope is said to be deeply "saddened" by the arrest of one of his closest aides.

The butler lives with his family inside the Vatican gates in an apartment where the secret documents were allegedly found.

"The fact that this came from somebody who was in the papal apartment and a member of the papal family is great cause for a crisis of consciousness," said John Allen, with National Catholic Reporter.

There is no prison inside the Vatican walls. Gabriele is being held in room inside the tiny Vatican police station.

He faces trial in a closed Vatican court and if convicted he faces up to 30 years in prison which he would serve in an Italian prison.

Conspiracy and intrigue are nothing new to the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI's seven-year papacy has been consumed by very public scandal.

On Sunday, the Pope faced demonstrators accusing him of covering up evidence in the mysterious 1983 disappearance of the young daughter of a Vatican employee thought to be buried beneath the Vatican in the tomb of a mafia don.