Photo ~ Gianluigi Nuzzi

AP Interview: Papal leaks author calm amid storm

ROME – For someone at the center of one of the Vatican's greatest scandals in recent decades, Gianluigi Nuzzi seems awfully cool.

But Nuzzi, 42, is very much in the hot seat for revealing the secrets of one of the most secretive institutions in the world, accused of an unprecedented attack on both the pope and the Catholic Church.

"His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI" was published last week. In the few days since, it has become the most-talked about book in Italy and the Vatican, 273 pages of leaked Holy See documents and analysis of the Vatican's internal machinery that represents its biggest security breach in recent history.

The documents expose episodes of political infighting, intrigue and accusations of corruption and homosexual liaisons going on under the watch of the 85-year-old Benedict.

Taken together with other leaks that have emerged in the Italian press in recent months, they paint a picture of a Catholic Church hierarchy in utter disarray.

The papers include letters to the pope and his private secretary, bank statements, a handwritten memo the pope's personal secretary wrote in his native German about a meeting with a member of the disgraced Legion of Christ.

None of the documents represents a smoking gun that will bring down the papacy.

Most are of interest only to Italians, as they concern relations between Italy and the Vatican and a few local scandals and personalities.

But their very existence and the fact that they were taken from the pope's own desk has provoked an unprecedented reaction from the Vatican.

A criminal probe, a high-level internal investigation and administrative whodunit is under way, and Nuzzi has been put on notice that legal action is pending.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/30/ap-interview-papal-leaks-author-calm-amid-storm/print#ixzz1wXUM4eQC