Clean Augean Stables, Kill Nemean Lion, Slay Hydra, Rid Vatican Of Evil...

Hercules was given twelve labors to perform, all tasks considered impossible to accomplish.

If he'd been given the task of ridding the Vatican of evil, he might have come up against something truly impossible.

According to the Pope's disgraced butler, Paolo Gabriele, he stole documents from the Pope's private apartments as his labor to rid the Vatican of corruption that he saw spreading throughout the Church.

He has been charged with common, ordinary theft, although no one has shown that the gentleman profited from his thievery.

To an extent, his labor has shed some light on the inner workings of the Vatican, in that several of the documents Mr. Gabriele stole reveal some classic insider deals. Those who knew somebody were granted contracts, so that there was no competitive bidding and no awards based on value.

Those select few turned profits, as much as stealing the money themselves while no one did anything to stop them. It was corruption throughout the system, a corruption that troubled Mr. Gabriele to such a degree that he blew the whistle.

Except there is no protection for whistle-blowers in the Vatican.

He faces several years in prison if convicted, with the trial not yet ready to begin. It takes time to put out the sort of fires that Mr. Gabriele started, those pesky conflagrations that have the faithful asking questions and not putting their hard-earned coin into the Peter's Pence collection.

The Pope can pardon the criminal, if he chooses, but Benedict XVI is a frail old man who cannot clean the Vatican of the filth that is sinking the Catholic Church.

There is only so far that the "pray, pay and obey" mantra can take you when you're trying to control an out-of-control bureaucracy filled with Italians who are steeped in the ways of Machiavelli.

Perhaps the butler will indeed be pardoned, so that there is no trial. What better way to hide the facts than to sweep all under the rug. Butlers do their fare share of sweeping, don't they?