photo credit: AP
Rumors have been swirling around Pope Benedict's resignation from the moment he announced he was giving up his post.
The accusation flew fast and wild. Many said this was a harbinger of the end of the millenary institution - and even in some more imaginative but predictable cases, the end of the world - others instead were willing to accept wholeheartedly the idea that the aging pontiff truly cannot discharge his duties.
Even the Polish curia expressed dismay that the pontiff did not want to carry on with his obligation, which is seen by many as a divinely sanctioned duty, until his death.
But then the rumor mill started. And there's very little indication that it will stop anytime soon.
One of the most scandalous and controversial twist is that offered by the Italian press, which has published a report that the pontiff possibly stepped down probably in light of the pending release on an internal investigation on the Vatileaks scandal, now tainted with the suspicion of blackmail from people outside the Vatican who are alleged to have had liaison with high ranking members of the curia in what the allegations contend was a sex ring inside the Vatican.
The Vatican has had its share of woes in the past few years, but this premature retirement of a pope, coupled with all the stinging accusations, are placing the Vatican at a crucial crossroad. Either retrench, and risk losing even more faithful to antiquated dogma, or modernize, which was anathema to the aging pontiff.
In the midst of this turmoil, the Vatican has had to do what it abhors to do: make statements to defend itself from the lurid allegations, and in so doing breaking with a tradition in which silence reigned even in the most gossip fraught time.
The Vatican however has already declared that whatever the outcome on the probe of the leaks that occurred when the pontiff's secretary made away with personal papers in the Pope's office, will remain the privy of the pontifical office, thereby squelching any possibility of further dispersal of the information contained in the crucial report.
And that of course, has already added to the fury of conspiracy theorists.
Source : NBC news 2.25.13
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