I HEART CHAOS

Even though the once and future Joseph Ratzinger had said shortly after he took papal office that if his health ever became an issue, he might seriously think about resigning, a resigning Pope is a huge deal. It’s especially suspicious considering the unfolding sex abuse culture that seems to have pervaded the Church.

A couple weeks ago, there was news that Benedict’s resignation was because of an arrest warrant over his handling and cover-up of the depth of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church and that he was hoping by resigning, he could get protection from the Italian government and spare any possible financial hardship on the Church itself.

And now on top of that, there appears to be a faction of gay pedo clergy that are being blackmailed by someone outside the Vatican to keep the Church’s crimes out of prying eyes, but the whole thing is threatening to explode any minute, which could bring tremendous harm to Vatican’s current power structure.

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”.

Via