Vatican gay scandal led to Pope’s resignation, says Italian newspaper

The Vatican gay scandal or ‘Vatileaks’ is at the heart of Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign, as per the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica. The Pope’s spokesman hasn’t confirmed or rejected the Vatican gay scandal allegations levelled by La Repubblica. The Italian newspaper has revealed that high-ranking homosexual Vatican clerics were being blackmailed. Pope Benedict XVI arrived at the decision to resign on December 17 itself, alleges the newspaper. On this day, the Pope obtained a catalogue of documents from three Cardinals, appointed to probe the Vatican gay scandal.

In May 2012, a servant of the Pope, Paolo Gabriele, was detained, and was subsequently convicted of thieving private documents from the Pope and leaking them. The Pope’s correspondence depicted the Vatican as a hotspot of factional squabbling and intrigue.

In accordance with the Cardinals’ inquiry into Vatileaks, the implicated gay Vatican clerics were susceptible to extortion. As per La Repubblica, the documents, presented to the Pope by the three Cardinals, contained two volumes of over 300 pages. The Cardinals have remarked in the documents that there are a number of Vatican factions, with one Vatican faction being a homosexual faction. The documents, presented by the three Cardinals to Pope Benedict XVI, suggest that some high-ranking Vatican clerics were threatened by men, with whom the Vatican clerics had relationships of a ‘worldly nature’, implying sexual relationships.

A source, connected to the three Cardinals, was quoted by La Repubblica as voicing that the Vatican gay clergy scandal revolved around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments. As per the source, the sixth commandment forbids adultery and, arguably, even homosexual bonds. The seventh commandment abominates theft.

La Repubblica also revealed a Vatican gay clergy network, which conducted sexual encounters in villas and saunas in Rome and even in the Vatican rooms. In 2007, a senior Vatican official was suspended after an Italian TV show apprehended him in a filmed sting operation, in which the official intended to have sex with a minor.

The Vatican has conventionally claimed that homosexual bonds are in violation of nature. Pope Benedict XVI has previously outlawed openly gay students from studying for the priesthood.

Tags: Italy, Vatican