The Pope is suffering from arthrosis, a degenerative disease of the joints which has made it increasingly difficult for him to walk, according to Vatican insiders.

But according to Vatican insiders one of the most senior clerics within the Roman Catholic Church has actively lobbied on behalf of the general.

Vatican insiders argue that a meeting like that held this week could never produce obvious, tangible results.

Two other Vatican insiders are West Africans.

Srđa Trifković supported him vigorously in Chronicles because he saw him as the only man who might reverse what Vatican insiders see as the decay of European culture.

In late November 2006 Vatican insiders told the international press that the Pope had had a routine examination of the heart.

As a Vatican insider for many years, he will probably be averse to the necessary changes Catholicism needs to give it the dynamism necessary for the new millennium.

This special takes a fascinating look at the world's smallest nation and includes access to areas off-limits to the public and candid interviews with Vatican insiders.

Some days I think he's the total Vatican insider, the perfect technocrat, cold and calculating, the man who knows how it works and can play the system like a Stradivarius... but the next day I'll decide he's the complete religious, practically a monk.

Elizabeth had said Sandanato was either a Vatican insider or a monk.