The pope's butler was convicted Saturday of stealing thepontiff's private documents and leaking them to a journalist, and was sentencedto 18 months in prison.
Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre read the verdict aloud two hoursafter the three-judge panel began deliberating Paolo Gabriele's fate.
The sentence was reduced to 18 months from three yearsbecause of a series of mitigating circumstances, including that Gabriele had noprevious record, had worked for years for the Holy See, acknowledged that hehad betrayed the pope and was convinced, "albeit erroneously" that hewas doing the right thing, Dalla Torre said.
Gabriele was accused of stealing the pope's private correspondenceand passing it on to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book revealed theintrigue, petty infighting and allegations of corruption and homosexualliaisons that plague the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.
In his final appeal to the court Saturday morning, Gabrieleinsisted "I don't feel like a thief" and said he leaked the pope'sprivate correspondence out of a "visceral love" for the church andthe pope. He has said he felt the pope wasn't being informed of the "eviland corruption" in the Vatican, and that exposing the problems would putthe church back on the right track.
Gabriele's attorney, Cristiana Arru, said the sentence was"good, balanced" and said she was awaiting the judges' writtenreasoning before deciding whether to appeal.
Nuzzi's book, "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's SecretPapers" convulsed the Vatican for months and prompted an unprecedentedresponse, with the pope naming a commission of cardinals to investigate theorigin of the leaks alongside Vatican magistrates.
Arru said Gabriele would return to his Vatican Cityapartment to begin serving his sentence. He has been held on house arrest theresince July after spending his first two months in a Vatican detention room.
Gabriele was also ordered to pay court costs.
A papal pardon is widely expected, though it's not knownwhen it might be granted.
In her closing arguments, Arru insisted that onlyphotocopies, not original documents, were taken from the Apostolic Palace,disputing testimony from the pope's secretary who said he saw original lettersin the evidence seized from Gabriele's home.
She admitted Gabriele's gesture was "condemnable"but said it was a misappropriation of documents, not theft, and that as aresult Gabriele should serve no time for the lesser crime.
