Vatican police seized encrypted documents and confidential papers the Pope had marked ''to be destroyed'' when they raided his butler's apartment, a court heard, according to a report by the UK Telegraph published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Officers from the Vatican Gendarmerie found thousands of papers when they raided Paolo Gabriele's apartment on May 23, acting on suspicions he had leaked highly compromising material to an Italian journalist, who published it in a book.
The haul showed Mr Gabriele, who is charged with aggravated theft, had a keen interest in secret services, espionage, the occult, scandals involving the Vatican bank and the P2, a shadowy Masonic lodge whose members included prominent Italian politicians.
The encoded documents were sent from the Vatican Secretariat of State to papal nuncios, or ambassadors, around the world.
Many of the documents bore the signature of the Pope and shed light on his correspondence with cardinals and other senior figures in the Catholic Church. Some were originals; others had been photocopied.
''There were papers where the Holy Father had written 'To be destroyed' in German,'' said Stefano De Santis, one of the gendarmes.
The stash of documents also referred to the death of ''God's banker'' Roberto Calvi, who was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982.
FULL STORY Vatican papers were 'to be destroyed' (SMH)
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