VATICAN CITY (ITALY) — The arrival of red-robed Roma Catholic cardinals to begin the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI has been overshadowed by reports in the Italian news media alleging gay sex scandals within the walls of the Vatican, reports the Holy See has vehemently denied.
The deluge of innuendoes and negative press is, according to some Vatican experts, the fruit of carefully orchestrated leaks intended to weaken some contenders for the Papal Throne.
On Saturday, February 23, the Vatican Secretariat of State said that the “widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions” is “deplorable,” with Vatican officials comparing the reports to past efforts to influence the papal election, and suggested the rumors are “based on judgments that do not typically capture the spiritual aspect of the moment that the church is living.”
On February 11, Benedict announced that he would resign as leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics by the end of this month. Declaring that he was stepping down “in full liberty and for the good of the church,” the pope—who was born Joseph Ratzinger—cited advancing age and fatigue.
Last week, articles in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica—a center-left publication—and the Panorama—a weekly publication that skews center-right—reported that three cardinals appointed by Benedict to investigate an earlier Vatican scandal related to stolen documents had found evidence of highly-placed papal officials who were compromised by their personal—and possibly sexual—behavior.
“The report is explicit. Some high prelates are subject to ‘external influence’—we would call it blackmail—by non-church men to whom they are bound by ‘worldly’ ties,” the story in La Repubblica stated.
The newspaper wrote that the pope made the decision to resign on December 17, 2012, the day same day he received a report compiled by the cardinals who had been assigned to investigate so-called “Vatileaks” scandal, in which the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence.
La Repubblica claims that the report (“two volumes of almost 300 pages—bound in red”) describes several Vatican factions, including one whose members are “united by sexual orientation.”
The newspaper quoted a source “very close to those who wrote [the report]” who claimed that, “Everything revolves around the non-observance of the Sixth and Seventh Commandments.”
The Sixth Commandment (“Thou shalt not commit adultery”) is linked in Roman Catholic doctrine to forbidding homosexual acts. The Seventh Commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”) forbids theft.
According to La Repubblica, the cardinals’ report identified several places in and around Rome used by the members of ths gay faction, including a sauna in a suburb of the Eternal City, a villa, a beauty parlor, and a university residence belonging to an Italian archbishop.
Although the Vatican does not explicitly condemn homosexuals, the church that homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered,” and Benedict has forbidden sexually active gay men from applying for the priesthood.
