Pope's butler to stand trial

Pope Benedict XVI's former butler and another Vatican employee must stand trial for stealing and leaking confidential papers in the latest scandal to afflict the Catholic Church, a magistrate has ruled.

Paolo Gabriele, who was arrested in May on suspicion of stealing secret documents from the pope's office and leaking them to journalists, was accused of "aggravated theft" on Monday.

Judge Piero Bonnet also charged Claudio Sciarpelletti, an analyst and programmer in the Vatican state secretariat, with complicity.

Sciarpelletti's name had not been disclosed before.

Gabriele risks up to six years in prison. The Vatican has said the trial will not take place until October at the earliest.

The 46-year-old butler was arrested during an investigation into the leak of private papal documents to the media. He was held for 53 days in a Vatican cell before being put under house arrest in July to await the judge's decision.

The Vatican said after his arrest it had found documents and copying equipment in Gabriele's home, revelations which shocked the close-knit Holy See community and saddened the aged pontiff.

Gabriele admitted he was the source of leaked letters published in a controversial book by an Italian investigative journalist in May.

The bestseller, entitled His Holiness, revealed private correspondence between the Pope and his personal secretary discussing corruption and malpractice among Vatican administrators.

The Vatican called the book "criminal" and vowed to take legal action against the author, publisher, and whoever leaked the documents.

Gabriele told investigators he acted because he saw "evil and corruption everywhere in the church" while the pope was "not sufficiently informed".

As the Pope's butler and personal assistant, Gabriele was one of a select few lay people with access to the papal apartments.

As the Vatican has no jail, Gabriele would probably serve his sentence in an Italian prison under an agreement between Italy and the Vatican, Italian media reported.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Pope, as the sovereign head of Vatican City, could intervene at any time to stop the trial or pardon Gabriele.

Vatican observers believe Gabriele may be the scapegoat for a wider conspiracy to smear certain of the Pope's top aides.

The highly sensitive media leaks, dubbed "Vatileaks", have been an evident embarrassment to the Pope, prompting the rare investigation.

The scandal has dominated the columns of Italian newspapers, filling TV programmes and magazines.

The controversy began in January, when investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published letters from a former top Vatican administrator begging the Pope not to transfer him for having exposed alleged corruption.

Other leaked documents concerned "poison pen" memos criticising Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the pope's number two, and the reporting of suspicious payments by the Vatican Bank.