[Alex Murphy]

A lame-duck pope. A secret dossier. Rumors of a gay cabal. A cardinal accused of "inappropriate" behavior. The Vatican is in an uproar, and church scholars say there hasn't been this much drama surrounding a conclave since 1800, when Pope Pius VI died while being held prisoner by Napoleon. One Vatican watcher says you have to go back to 1730 — when Pope Benedict XIII's right-hand man fled Rome in disguise amid allegations of corruption — to find a conclave buffeted by this much scandal....

....The pope's historic Feb. 11 announcement has been overshadowed, however, by an extraordinary wave of revelations and accusations. There were calls for cardinals accused of mishandling the sex-abuse crisis to abstain from voting. Then came a report that Britain's top cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien had been accused of bad behavior by priests, followed by his resignation on Monday. Over the weekend, the Vatican had to deny an Italian newspaper report that Pope Benedict abdicated because an internal probe into the so-called Vatileaks mess had uncovered a network of gay priests who were being blackmailed. Now comes the news that the pope will only let two people see the report on the document leaks — himself and his successor — despite calls for the Holy See to become more transparent....

"...the cardinals are going into the conclave blind, not knowing who among them may have stuffed their pockets or been part of gay sexual enclaves"

[vladimir998]

I saw this article earlier. I thought it was overblown nonsense then too.

[flaglady47]

Gee, you’d never guess this article came from NBC, would you. /s

[livius]

Reese is a radical leftist who was actually removed from the editorship of the Jesuits’ rag (”America”), so why anybody would consult him, I can’t imagine. Except that he is the MSM’s favorite “Catholic.”

BXVI was seriously undermined by people like him, and I think a lot of people realize this, even without the report. If there’s a housecleaning, it’s not going to favor people like Reese.

Supposedly, btw, Cardinal O’Brien (who was appointed by JPII, not by Benedict) was the result of an error. There were two Bishop O’Briens in Scotland (the other one being very orthodox) and JPII’s secretary, a Pole with a lot of consonants in his name, sent the notice to the wrong one.

[ansel12]

Are other Christian churches secretive and full of palace intrigue and deep hidden historical mysteries and institutional concealment, I know that Mormonism is, and Scientology, but are there normal religions or Christian denominations that are like this?

Why is there a private face, and a public face, for church people?

[Jim Noble]

the Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on the Catholic Church an heretic forced to resign as editor of America because of his anti-Catholic diatribes at Georgetown University.

There. Fixed it.

[Biggirl]

Never saw such a DISGUSTING article at a time when the Church is going through a very major transition.

[gorush]

There is some symmetry in America being taken over by Marxists while the Catholic Church is taken over by fudge-packers.
We live in interesting times...when it is good to be old.