Like much of the rest of his papacy, Benedict's last day in office was overshadowed by claims of secrecy and intrigue.
An Italian news magazine, Panorama, claimed that Vatican authorities had conducted, and are still conducting, an extensive covert surveillance programme, tapping the phone calls and intercepting the emails of cardinals and bishops in the Curia, the governing body of the Catholic Church.
The surveillance operation was to weed out Vatican insiders who may have helped Paolo Gabriele, the butler, steal and leak to the press compromising papal documents, in a scandal that rocked the Catholic Church and reportedly contributed to Benedict's decision to resign.
The Vatican confirmed that secret surveillance had indeed taken place, but on a far smaller scale than that portrayed by Panorama.
In response to a question by The Daily Telegraph at a press briefing, Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said surveillance had taken place but "not of the dimensions described".
"In the context of Vatileaks, some intercepts and checks were authorised by the Vatican magistracy," he said.
It was investigators from the Vatican magistracy who led the prosecution against Mr Gabriele in a lightning-fast trial which resulted in his conviction for aggravated theft.
He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars but spent only a few weeks in a Vatican "secure room" before receiving a pardon from Benedict just before Christmas.
Father Lombardi said the secret surveillance operation involved the wiretapping of "two or three" telephone lines, but did not specify who they belonged to.
The Vatileaks scandal exploded last year when it emerged that the Pope's personal valet had been stealing documents from the papal apartments and leaking them to journalists in what he said was an attempt to expose "evil and corruption" within the Church.
Benedict personally appointed three elderly cardinals, including a prominent member of Opus Dei, to investigate the leaks, amid suspicions that the butler had not acted alone.
Many of the documents damaged the standing of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as Secretary of State is equivalent to the Vatican's prime minister and is second in authority only to the Pope.