DownWithTyranny!: Did Pope Ratzinger Abdicate Over A Much Worse Boy Rape Scandal In The Vatican Hierarchy Than Has Ever Been Reported Before?

Gays? Where?

There are all sorts of reasons being given for Benedict's unprecedented abdication and his decision to be shut up, incommunicado, in a cloister for the rest of his life. On the positive side, he could have done it because he knew he was no longer physically and mentally (or even spiritually) up to the job and wanted to do the right thing for the organization and for the more than a billion Catholics who profess at least a nominal allegiance to his sect. More discerning critiques said the Pope stepped aside because of another in a series of scandals involving the Vatican Bank.

But what about the predilection of Catholic priests for getting up into the pants of the young children of their faithful? Conventional wisdom among the Catholic hierarchy is that boy rape is just confined to a few hundred rogue priests here and there with maybe a bit of cover-up by compassionate higher-ups once in a while. A series of scandals along these lines have cost the Vatican billions of dollars in payoffs and fines. But no top Vatican officials have been charged, let alone tried or imprisoned, despite evidence that the cover-up was orchestrated by the Pope and his henchmen themselves. And is it just lowly priests who are addicted to sex with underage children? What about when the lowly priests ascend the ladder of authority and become bishops and cardinals? Does that happen too?

The biggest newspaper in Italy, La Repubblica, reports that some top Vatican prelates were indeed boinking the boys-- and being blackmailed by males prostitutes to keep it under wraps. The Pope is neither confirming nor denying the devastating reports. “What’s coming out is very detailed X-ray of the Roman Curia that does not spare even the closest collaborators of the Pope,” wrote respected Vatican expert Ignazio Ingrao in the magazine Panorama. “The Pope was no stranger to the intrigues, but he probably did not know that under his pontificate there was such a complex network and such intricate chains of personal interests and unmentionable relationships.”

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."

...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.