Priests In Panties

My initial reaction to the Pope's resignation was ho-hum, but a story at The Daily Beast yesterday could make me sit up and pay attention. The headline is: "Did a Cross-Dressing Priest Sex Ring Bring Down Benedict XVI?"

Of all the rumors floating around about just why Pope Benedict XVI is hanging up his camauro, one has taken on a life of its own. According to several well-placed vaticanisti—or Vatican experts—in Rome, Benedict is resigning after being handed a secret red-covered dossier that included details about a network of gay priests who work inside the Vatican, but who play in secular Rome. The priests, it seems, are allegedly being blackmailed by a network of male prostitutes who worked at a sauna in Rome’s Quarto Miglio district, a health spa in the city center, and a private residence once entrusted to a prominent archbishop. The evidence reportedly includes compromising photos and videos of the prelates—sometimes caught on film in drag, and, in some cases, caught “in the act.”

Revelations about the alleged network are the basis of a 300-page report supposedly delivered to Benedict on December 17 by Cardinals Julian Herranz, Joseph Tomko, and Salvatore De Giorgi. According to the press reports, it was on that day that Benedict XVI decided once and for all to retire, after toying with the idea for months. He reportedly closed the dossier and locked it away in the pontifical apartment safe to be handed to his successor to deal with. According to reports originally printed by La Repubblica newspaper and the newsweekly Panorama (and followed up across the gamut of the Italian media), the crimes the cardinals uncovered involved breaking the commandments “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” the latter of which has been used in Vatican-speak to also refer to homosexual relations instead of the traditional reference to infidelity. 

The only story is the hypocrisy. It's the same reason I love when gay-baiting Republicans and Fundamentalist ministers get caught with their pants down.

While we're sorta on the subject, to paraphrase Bill Maher, if you're only going to see one documentary this year about pedophilia and its cover up in the Catholic Church, make it the HBO production, "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God." It's already been aired, but you can probably find it at Netflix...and I suppose HBO re-airs the same programs a few times before retiring them, don't they?