Pope Benedicti XVI (Creative Commons via archer10)

Paolo Gabriele, 46, was arrested Saturday morning in Vatican City for the leaking of a flurry of sensitive Vatican papers to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who subsequently published many of them in his book "His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI."

The documents, including personal letters to the pope, reveal organizational anxieties within the Catholic Church about corruption and Vatican management.

Nuzzi's book, which was released last Saturday, also includes internal Vatican memos on a number of church-related issues such as the response to the American Catholic Church's post-priest scandal financial woes.

According to The Daily Beast, Nuzzi met with a source, named "Maria," starting in the spring of 2011, who handed him Vatican documents in an effort not to discredit the Catholic Church, but rather instead to encourage the Vatican to be more open with the public.

Indeed, Nuzzi claims that he does not harbor any anti-Vatican sentiment, saying rather:

"I'm not making any judgments either way. There are no personal letters or information about private lives. These are all documents that the church should make public for the sake of transparency."

Pope Benedict XVI has ordered several investigations into the leak, including inquiries by the commission of cardinals as well as the Vatican police, according to the New York Times. 

While the pope himself hasn't commented directly on the scandal, reports are that he is "pained" by Gabriele's apparent betrayal of the papal office's trust.

According to CNN, Gabriele is being held in a special cell in the Vatican, which has its own set of judicial codes and processes apart from Italian justice.

Reach Lilian Min here. Follow her on Twitter here.