http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/fe ... il-inquiry (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/pope-retired-amid-gay-bishop-blackmail-inquiry)
QuoteA potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders.
The pope's spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica.
The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.
Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with having stolen and leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.
According to La Repubblica, the dossier comprising "two volumes of almost 300 pages – bound in red" had been consigned to a safe in the papal apartments and would be delivered to the pope's successor upon his election.
The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation".
In an apparent quotation from the report, La Repubblica said some Vatican officials had been subject to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature". The paper said this was a clear reference to blackmail.
It quoted a source "very close to those who wrote [the cardinal's report]" as saying: "Everything revolves around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments."
The seventh enjoins against theft. The sixth forbids adultery, but is linked in Catholic doctrine to the proscribing of homosexual acts.
La Repubblica said the cardinals' report identified a series of meeting places in and around Rome. They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.
Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said: "Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter. Let each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be following up on the observations that are made about this."
He added that interpretations of the report were creating "a tension that is the opposite of what the pope and the church want" in the approach to the conclave of cardinals that will elect Benedict's successor. Another Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, alluded to the dossier soon after the pope announced his resignation on 11 February, describing its contents as "disturbing".
The three-man commission of inquiry into the Vatileaks affair was headed by a Spanish cardinal, Julián Herranz. He was assisted by Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, a former archbishop of Palermo, and the Slovak cardinal Jozef Tomko, who once headed the Vatican's department for missionaries.
Pope Benedict has said he will stand down at the end of this month; the first pope to resign voluntarily since Celestine V more than seven centuries ago. Since announcing his departure he has twice apparently referred to machinations inside the Vatican, saying that divisions "mar the face of the church", and warned against "the temptations of power".
La Repubblica's report was the latest in a string of claims that a gay network exists in the Vatican. In 2007 a senior official was suspended from the congregation, or department, for the priesthood, after he was filmed in a "sting" organised by an Italian television programme while apparently making sexual overtures to a younger man.
In 2010 a chorister was dismissed for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. A few months later a weekly news magazine used hidden cameras to record priests visiting gay clubs and bars and having sex.
The Vatican does not condemn homosexuals. But it teaches that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered". Pope Benedict has barred sexually active gay men from studying for the priesthood.
Gosh darn I love the Vatican. This is better than any Soap Opera. Gay legions of men running around in garish, colorful robes procuring sex from male prostitutes? Woot! Exactly what I thought was happening all the time in the first place.
It's hilarious that this problem only exists because they make it one. There are loads of places around the world these guys can go to and live a perfectly healthy life as a homosexual male, but they decide to go and live in the Vatican.
Let me go grab some popcorn. This shit's gonna get good before it's all over.
The fact that this stuff is coming out in the media means that the decision has been taken behind closed doors on both sides of the intrigue that the gloves are off and the fight is to the finish.
Either way, the church loses. This shit's gonna be good TV.
You have to admit that elderly grown men running around in colorful robes chased in Gold and wearing precious gems about their person does smack as a bit, uh, hinky. Okay, it's a stereotype. But DAMN what a stereotype. And yeah, I am definitely watching the fallout on this puppy.
:popcorn:
Wow. This is awesome. It's like "Angels and Demons", but without antimatter bombs! (As far as we know) :mrgreen:
Quote from: "stromboli"You have to admit that elderly grown men running around in colorful robes chased in Gold and wearing precious gems about their person does smack as a bit, uh, hinky. Okay, it's a stereotype. But DAMN what a stereotype. And yeah, I am definitely watching the fallout on this puppy.
:popcorn:
Have you read any Frank Herbert? His analysis of the politics of religion is really resonating right now.
I can already see the Chick Tracts: "Vatican run by cabal of scheming homosexuals."
I just lol at religious people when they freak out about secularism, gay marriage, abortion, et al bringing down western society and threatening Christianity. Nobody can do a fraction of the damage to Christianity that the Catholic church is capable of doing and has done the past 20 years or so, with the second runner ups being the right wing fundies in politics particularly starting with the Bush administration. Christianity will be its own undoing.
Quote from: "stromboli"You have to admit that elderly grown men running around in colorful robes chased in Gold and wearing precious gems about their person does smack as a bit, uh, hinky. Okay, it's a stereotype. But DAMN what a stereotype. And yeah, I am definitely watching the fallout on this puppy.
:popcorn:
Oh my goodness Oh my goodness..........I may be enjoying this all a bit too much. Call me sick and twisted.
Why does the Vatican in pain and anguish please me so???
[spoil:2f22px6u]Karma's a bitch baby. That's what they get for burning me at the stake. Might take awhile but my curses always work.[/spoil:2f22px6u]
Despite all the fun guaranteed, I have some concerns with the decline of Catholicism in Europe and consequently the "third world" because of the likely replacements. The Islamic and (here called) new evangelicals.
Quote from: "Mathias"Despite all the fun guaranteed, I have some concerns with the decline of Catholicism in Europe and consequently the "third world" because of the likely replacements. The Islamic and (here called) new evangelicals.
*throws coffee mug at your head*
buzz kill
:Hangman:
Quote from: "Mathias"Despite all the fun guaranteed, I have some concerns with the decline of Catholicism in Europe and consequently the "third world" because of the likely replacements. The Islamic and (here called) new evangelicals.
Unfortunately, this is very true. One religion is just as bad as another, and if the Catholic Church goes away, there will be a void to be filled by another religion. It won't occur to people to simply not accept ANY religion; they want to believe in God, and will flock to anyone who can fulfill their need.