Pope
confirms ‘gay lobby’ at work at Vatican, in remarks
reported by priests and nuns
By Associated
Press,
June 12, 2013 03:05
PM EDT
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.
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