Pope Francis Caught Citing ‘Gay Lobby’ During Off-Record Meeting: ‘Stream Of Corruption’ Leaves Vatican Vulnerable
During an off-the-record meeting with Latin American leaders on Wednesday, Pope Francis acknowledged a “gay lobby,” a potential reference to a cell within the Vatican that had been rumored to be involved in the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
“In the Curia there are holy people,” Francis said. “But there is also a stream of corruption. The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there. We need to see what we can do.”
“Gay lobby I think is a confusing term,” CNN contributor Father Edward Beck told Brooke Baldwin. “Probably a better word would be gay cabal, gay clique.”
Francis’s remarks are best understood in light of the “Vatileaks” story, in which Pope Benedict supposedly received an internal report, detailing a hidden network of gay clergymen in Rome who were the targets of blackmail, just around the time of his sudden once-every-six-centuries departure from his post.
“The concern is this,” Beck said. “If there is, in fact, a gay group, it makes them perhaps more vulnerable, some have said, for blackmail.”
“It is only problematic if we find out the clique is active sexually,” Beck continued.
“The Church is not against homosexuality. The Church realizes that homosexuals exist, just as everybody else. The problem is, the Church says ‘celibacy’ and these priests are supposed to be celibate. So if they are not keeping vows—and again, there were some reports, unconfirmed, in Italian media, like La Repubblica, saying that some of these prelates were perhaps seen at gay bath houses in Rome. Again, unconfirmed. If that were the case, that would open up to scandal, then. So perhaps could these prelates, or could these priests be blackmailed by those who had something against the Vatican, so it would make the Vatican more vulnerable, perhaps. That was the concern when the report was released.”
Watch the segment here:
