One Italian paper says scandal has arisen with gay Vatican priests
Top news coming in to a warm San Francisco today is about Pope Benedict XVI
The Pope now has just a short time before retiring. (See the original article about the Pope retiring here: Photos: Pope Benedict XVI will resign Feb. 28).
That final stretch, however, is not a quiet one.
According to Newser.com, there have been rumors circulating and those rumors have been viciously contested.
One spokesman, says Newser.com, has said the reports are lies. The reports have been called
"unverified, unverifiable or completely false," by the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Rev. Federico Lombardi is likely to be referring to some of Italy's biggest papers which have made sensational allegations about the existence of a "network of gay priests inside the Vatican ... being blackmailed by outsiders," says the Independent newspaper
Lombardi believes that some people who are enemies of the church are trying to discredit the Vatican and are trying to influence who will be chosen as the next Pope.
As speculated by the AP:
"Some Vatican watchers have speculated that because the Vatican bureaucracy is heavily Italian, cardinals might be persuaded to elect a non-Italian, non-Vatican-based cardinal as pope to try to impose some reform on the Curia."
Pope Benedict XVI will be giving his final Sunday blessing tomorrow in St. Peter's Square, Rome.
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See photos in the slideshow above for more on this story.
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