Vatican Issues Denial Of 'Gay Lobby' Reports

Earlier this week, two Italian newspapers, The Panorama weekly and The Repubblica, both reported that Pope Benedict had resigned from his post due to "various lobbies, including a gay lobby." The Vatican has now responded - and they are none too pleased with the reports and the Italian media.

The Guardian reports:

The Vatican secretariat of state said in a statement: "It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave … that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions."

According to The AFP, which calls today's statement by the Vatican "unusual," Catholic Church spokesman Federico Lombardi has also commented calling the reports "gossip, disinformation and sometimes calumny."

The Pope will officially step down this Thursday.

Report: 'Gay Lobby' Within Vatican Influenced Pope's Resignation

Pope Benedict's dismay at an internal report on "various lobbies, including a gay lobby," exercising "inappropriate influence" within the Vatican, influenced his resignation, according to La Repubblica via the Irish Times:

The newspaper suggests that such was Benedict’s dismay when presented with the details of the report on December 17th that it hardened his long-meditated decision to resign. The internal report prepared by Cardinals Julian Herranz, Josef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi had been commissioned by Benedict himself...

...In this morning's article, it is claimed that the cardinals reported that various lobbies within the Holy See were consistently breaking the sixth and seventh commandments, namely "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not commit adultery".

The "stealing" was in particular related to the Vatican Bank, IOR, whilst the sexual offences were related to the influence of an active gay lobby within the Vatican.

Past reports begin to make sense in light of the news:

La Repubblica claims the cardinals' 300 page report speaks of "Impropriam Influentiam" on the part of various lobbies, some of them of a "worldly nature", reflecting an "outside influence". The Rome daily recalls the figure of papal gentleman, Angelo Balducci, accused three years ago of being a member of a gay ring active within the Vatican and involving choristers and seminarians.

Do you think the Vatican's gay lobby was responsible for this?

Vatican to Shield Pope from Arrests Over Sexual Abuse Till He Dies

Why is the Pope going to live in the Vatican after he retires?

Protection, according to Reuters:

The final key consideration is the pope's potential exposure to legal claims over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals.

In 2010, for example, Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year and the Vatican said it was a major victory that proved the pope could not be held liable for the actions of abusive priests.

Benedict is currently not named specifically in any other case. The Vatican does not expect any more but is not ruling out the possibility.

"(If he lived anywhere else) then we might have those crazies who are filing lawsuits, or some magistrate might arrest him like other (former) heads of state have been for alleged acts while he was head of state," one source said.

And he can travel into Italy too:

The 1929 Lateran Pacts between Italy and the Holy See, which established Vatican City as a sovereign state, said Vatican City would be "invariably and in every event considered as neutral and inviolable territory".

There have been repeated calls for Benedict's arrest over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Sinead O'Connor Congratulates Pope Benedict on His 'Greatest Achievement': Retiring

Sinead O'Connor, who famously ripped a portrait of Pope John Paul II to pieces on SNL in 1992 while saying "fight the real enemy," said this today about Pope Benedict XVI's retirement:

I would like to congratulate Pope Benedict on his wise decision to retire before the very worst of what has been going on is discovered. I appreciate his alluding to some of it in his statement and assure him The Most High forgives those who can faithfully say they did wrong.

The church had been brought into dreadful disrepute by lies and blasphemies against The Holy Spirit. Benedict’s greatest achievement is this act of retiring. There is a chance now for the church to be re-built and made fit to house The Holy Spirit.

Pope Benedict XVI Resigning February 28

Pope Benedict will step down February 28, the Vatican has confirmed. The resignation took the Vatican by surprise, as it is the first time in six centuries (not since 1415) that a Pope has resigned.

The full text of his resignation and see an ABC News report, AFTER THE JUMP....

Reuters reports:

The 85-year-old pope said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months "to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me".

"For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter," he said according to a statement from the Vatican.

His attacks on gay marriage and gay families will not be missed. The office will be vacant until a successor is chosen.

The Pope has said in recent months that gays "[manipulate] their God-given identities to suit their sexual choices — and [destroy] the very 'essence of the human creature' in the process". Benedict said in December that gay marriage offends human truth, and threatens justice and peace.

He also blessed the lawmaker behind Uganda's "kill the gays" bill.

Last September he called gay marriages "defective" and called on U.S. Bishops last March to defend against the passage of marriage equality laws.

Though, he's not against the occasional male strip show:

Continuing, he has said in November 2010 "sexuality has an intrinsic meaning and direction, which is not homosexual," a follow-up to a September 2010 attack in which he said that marriage equality laws "contribute to the weakening of the principles of natural law" and to "confusion about society’s values."

In June of 2010 an unauthorized painting depicting Benedict marrying two men went on display in London:

It was shortly after he begged forgiveness from God for the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal that he helped cover up.

In May 2010 he called gay marriage "dangerous" and "insidious". A few months earlier he said "In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.”

Gays endanger humanity, he said in January 2010, right after embracing an anti-gay Holocaust denier.

In December 2008 Pope Benedict said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

In 2007, he called gay marriage an obstacle to world peace. These statements were "non-negotiable" he told Catholic lawmakers, politicians, and those in power.

At Christmas in 2006, the Pope "warned that mankind would destroy its own identity should it follow theories which place same-sex couples at the same level as husband and wife." He added that supporting same-sex marriage "tacitly accredits those dismal theories that strip all relevance from the masculinity and femininity of the human being as though it were a purely biological issue."

The full text of his resignation and see an ABC News report, AFTER THE JUMP....

Italian PM Monti Now Saying No To Marriage Equality

One has to assume Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's pals at the Vatican weren't pleased with his previously laissez-faire approach to marriage equality, because the lawmaker, up for reelection, has changed his tune.

Monti surprised observers earlier this month by saying that marriage equality was up to the Parliament and only the Parliament. Now he's saying, "never mind:" families should only be one man, one woman and their offspring.

"My thought is that the family should be made up of one man and one woman, and I consider it necessary that children should grow up with a mother and a father," Monti said yesterday, according to Reuters, marking the first time he's brought up social issues during his bid to keep his post. 

"Parliament can find other solutions for other kinds of unions and cohabitations."