Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI led his final papal mass in Rome, as he prepares to step aside later this week. But the face of a weary pope has prompted spectators to wonder if a possible gay Vatican scandal is the real reason behind Benedict calling it quits.
According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, there is a brewing scandal inside the Vatican involving several gay priests and officials, who were being blackmailed by male prostitutes and others knowledgeable of their underground gay network. Reports are that various Vatican priests have routinely engaged in secret gay sexual encounters in “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.”
The gay network of the supposedly celibate priests was reportedly detailed in a 300-page report which was delivered to the Pope by 3 cardinals who were looking into the “Vatileaks” affair, a series of Papal dispatches which were stolen and leaked by Pope Benedict’s butler last May. Ironically, the Pope resigned on the same day he received the report.
The cardinals found that “various lobbies within the Holy See were consistently breaking” the sixth and seventh commandments (no adultery, no stealing), and were influencing the Vatican. Pope Benedict alluded to the affair in his Ash Wednesday homily, when he spoke against vague internal “divisions.”
Pope Benedict’s tenure has long been tainted by the haunting scandal of decades of pedophilia by priests involving young boys. Could an active gay sexual network right under his nose in the Vatican been the last straw in his papacy?
"Could an active gay sexual network right under his nose in the Vatican been the last straw in his papacy?"
At this point, given the scandals already uncovered, I'd say it's certainly a possibility.
However, absent any concrete proof made available to the public, we'll never know.