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| Pope Francis reads a message during the Angelus noon prayer he celebrated from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter's square at the Vatican, Sunday, June 9, 2013. |
VATICAN CITY
(AP) -- Pope Francis lamented that a "gay lobby" was at work at the
Vatican in private remarks to the leadership of a key Latin American
church group - a stunning acknowledgment that appears to confirm earlier
reports about corruption and dysfunction in the Holy See.
The
Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious - the regional
organization for priests and nuns of religious orders - confirmed
Tuesday that its leaders had written a synthesis of Francis' remarks
after their June 6 audience. The group, known by its Spanish acronym
CLAR, said it was greatly distressed that the document had been
published and apologized to the pope.
In the
document, Francis is quoted as saying that while there were many holy
people in the Vatican, there was also corruption: "The `gay lobby' is
mentioned, and it is true, it is there ... We need to see what we can do
..." the synthesis reads.
The Vatican
spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Tuesday the audience was
private and that as a result he had nothing to say.
In
the days leading up to Pope Benedict XVI's Feb. 28 resignation, Italian
media were rife with reports of a "gay lobby" influencing papal
decision-making and Vatican policy through blackmail, and suggestions
that the scandal had led in part to Benedict's decision to resign.
The
unsourced reports, in the Rome daily La Repubblica and the news
magazine Panorama, said details of the scandal were laid out in the
secret dossier prepared for Benedict by three trusted cardinals who
investigated the leaks of papal documents last year. Benedict left the
dossier for Francis.
At the time, the Vatican denounced the reporting as defamatory, "unverified, unverifiable or completely false."
Francis'
remarks on the matter, as reported by the CLAR leadership, were
published Tuesday in Spanish on the progressive Chilean-based website
"Reflection and Liberation" and picked up and translated by the blog
Rorate Caeli, which is read in Vatican circles.
In
the synthesis, Francis was quoted as being remarkably forthcoming about
his administrative shortcomings, saying he was relying on the group of
eight cardinals he appointed to lead a reform of the Vatican
bureaucracy.
The document quoted him as
saying: "I am very disorganized, I have never been good at this. But the
cardinals of the commission will move it forward."
In
its statement, CLAR said no recording had been made of Francis' remarks
but that the members of its leadership team - a half-dozen men and
women - together wrote a synthesis of the points he had made for their
own personal use.
"It's clear that based on
this one cannot attribute with certainty to the Holy Father singular
expressions in the text, but just the general sense," the statement said
