VATICAN CITY
PolicyMic

Sylvia Camaj

An article in the Guardian reported on Friday that a controversial report carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica links Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation to the existence of blackmail and a gay lobby in the Vatican.

The pope’s spokesperson has declined to confirm or deny the report, a public relations tactic that could imply that the Vatican has something to hide: is the Vatican trying to cover up homosexuality within the institution? Is the pope himself, perhaps, gay? By the nature of the blackmail, these speculations are not impossibilities.

La Repubblica said that the day the pope made the decision to resign — December 17 — was also the day he received a report compiled by three cardinals in charge of looking into the “Vatileaks” incident (a scandal that first came to light late last January, involving leaked Vatican documents allegedly exposing internal…