VATICAN CITY
CBS News
[with video]
(CBS News) As reports of scandals mark Pope Benedict XVI’s final week as pontiff, questions arise about the efficacy of internal Vatican inquiries into abuse and corruption charges.
Britain’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien announced his resignation Monday morning, amid allegations of inappropriate behavior during his time as a priest. O’Brien denies the charges, but his resignation comes as Benedict is already mired in another controversy. Benedict received a voluminous confidential report Monday complied by three cardinals who investigated the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal.
There has been widespread speculation by Italy’s media that the internal investigation revealed everything from bitter political infighting at the highest levels of the Vatican, to sexual blackmail and a purported “gay lobby” of homosexual prelates within the Church.
Church officials have dismissed the reports as “unsourced and unverifiable,” insisting they have no basis in truth.
Rev. Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, co-director of The Pontifical North American College in Rome and a CBS News consultant, defended the Church’s ability to police itself without outside interference.
“The Roman Catholic church has a process for dealing with such cases. It is thorough, it is just, it is final,” the papal consultant insisted. “That process is already in motion and Cardinal O’Brien will meet the justice he needs, as will the church, as will the perpetrators, and also those who have been victimized.”
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