Pope Francis says 'gay lobby' at work inside the Vatican
Published June 12, 2013
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY – In private
remarks to the leadership of a key Latin American church group, Pope Francis
lamented that a "gay lobby" was at work at the Vatican.
It was an apparent reference to
allegations in the Italian media that blackmail was taking place within the
Vatican against high-ranking prelates who are gay.
The Latin American and Caribbean
Confederation of Religious -- the regional organization for priests and nuns of
religious orders -- confirmed Tuesday that its leaders had written a synthesis
of Francis' remarks after their June 6 audience. The group, known by its
Spanish acronym CLAR, said it was greatly distressed that the document had been
published and apologized to the pope.
In the document, Francis is quoted
as saying that while there were many holy people in the Vatican, there was also
a current of corruption. "The `gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it
is there ... We need to see what we can do ..." the synthesis reads.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev.
Federico Lombardi, said Tuesday the audience was private and that as a result
he had nothing to say.
In the days leading up to Pope
Benedict XVI's Feb. 28 resignation, Italian media were rife with reports of a
"gay lobby" influencing papal decision-making and Vatican policy
through blackmail, and suggestions that the scandal had led in part to
Benedict's decision to resign.
The unsourced reports, in the Rome
daily La Repubblica and the news magazine Panorama, said details of the scandal
were laid out in the secret dossier prepared for Benedict by three trusted
cardinals who investigated the leaks of papal documents last year. Benedict
left the dossier for Francis.
At the time, the Vatican denounced
the reporting as defamatory, "unverified, unverifiable or completely
false."
The initial reporting has never been
precise on what exactly was meant by a "gay lobby," but Repubblica
and Panorama went beyond saying there was merely a homosexual subculture at the
Vatican. Rather, they raised allegations that high-ranking prelates were being
blackmailed because they were gay.
On Wednesday, Italian gay rights
groups denounced the reporting of the entire affair as insensitive and
homophobic.
"That priests have sex with
other men doesn't authorize anyone to speak about a gay lobby, because we're
not talking about a group that represents the interests of the homosexual
community but rather a group that is an integral part of a power structure --
the Vatican -- which is violently homophobic," said Franco Grillini,
president of Gaynet rights group.
Francis' remarks on the matter, as
reported by the CLAR leadership, were published Tuesday in Spanish on the
progressive Chilean-based website "Reflection and Liberation" and
picked up and translated by the blog Rorate Caeli, which is read in Vatican
circles.
In the synthesis, Francis was quoted
as being remarkably forthcoming about his administrative shortcomings, saying
he was relying on the group of eight cardinals he appointed to lead a reform of
the Vatican bureaucracy.
The document quoted him as saying:
"I am very disorganized, I have never been good at this. But the cardinals
of the commission will move it forward."
In its statement, CLAR said no
recording had been made of Francis' remarks but that the members of its
leadership team -- a half-dozen men and women -- together wrote a synthesis of
the points he had made for their own personal use.
"It's clear that based on this
one cannot attribute with certainty to the Holy Father singular expressions in
the text, but just the general sense," the statement said.
