The Vatican is denying reports that Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was linked to an emerging scandal involving gay priests and high-priced blackmail, according to USA Today.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, who didn’t specifically mention the scandal, said, “It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave … that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions.”
A story that was originally in the Rome newspaper La Repubblica claims the pope’s decision to step down dates to Dec. 17, 2012, after he first saw a nearly 300-page dossier—dubbed “VatiLeaks” by the Italian press—that details meetings between priests and other officials working in the Vatican and laymen who were “united by their sexual orientation.”