Italy: Pope Meets Cardinals from 'Vatikleaks' Commission

Adnkronos
February 25, 2013

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Italy-Pope-meets-cardinals-from-Vatikleaks-commission_314218457482.html


Vatican City, 25 Feb. (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI was Monday due to meet with the three cardinals who probed the 'Vatileaks' scandal involving the leaking of his personal correspondence to Italian media last year by his former butler.

The pontiff's meeting with Spain's cardinal Julian Herranz, Italy's Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi and the Slovak cardinal Jozef Tomko came after Italian daily La Repubblica cited an unnamed source last week as claiming Benedict resigned after the cardinals' report uncovered a 'gay lobby' in the Vatican.

The meeting came the same day the pope accepted the resignation of UK's most senior Catholic cleric Cardinal Keith O'Brien, after he was accused of 'inappropriate acts' against priests in a series of allegations by three priests and one former priest that were disclosed by Britain's Observer newspaper.

O'Brien said on Monday he would not take part in the election for a successor to the 85-year-old pope when he steps down on Thursday. His landmark abdication, on the grounds of old age and frailty, is the first by a pope in 600 years.

Herranz, De Giorgi and Tomko were tasked by Pope Benedict XVI to shed light on the Vatileaks scandal and produced a 300-page dossier presented to the pontiff in two parts - one in July and the other in December.

The commission's report allegedly uncovered venomous power struggles and corruption within the Holy See but La Repubblica last week went further to claim the existence of a lobby of "worldly" gay prelates that could affect individual promotion prospects and wield "external influence," claims attacked by the Vatican.

The report is said to say that there was widespread breaking of commandments within the Holy See, in particular the seventh commandment, “thou shalt not steal”, and the sixth, “thou shalt not commit adultery,” which in Catholic doctrine is linked to the proscribing of homosexual acts.

Last Friday, Benedict appointed Father Antonio Camilleri to replace Father Ettore Balestrero as the new undersecretary for relations with states amid rumours of the latter's involvement in the recent Vatileaks affair.