God's business address on Earth is no stranger to scandal. Peter Stanford argues that this latest investigation into a crime within its walls makes a powerful case for reform

I have never quite understood the need for the Vatican City State, which as anoraks will be able to tell you is, at 109 acres, the world's smallest sovereign country. The theory is that the leader of the world's one billion Catholics cannot live under the authority of any secular government. The Vatican has therefore been, since 1929, an internationally-recognised spirit zone in which the Pope can operate freely without fear of interference.

Other religious leaders, of course, appear to do perfectly well without such special treatment. Canterbury, for instance, is not about to become an independent republic with Rowan Williams as President. Moreover by being an earthly ruler as well as a religious one, the pontiff can get himself into some less than edifying messes. Such is the lot of all governments, but if you specifically create a state that is founded on higher religious principles, then people expect better standards of it than elsewhere. So the organisation of daily life in the Vatican City State, its dealings with other governments and its handling of its own citizens have to be whiter than white if it isn't to bring the whole Catholic Church into disrepute.