UPDATE x1: The Telegraph is reporting “Scottish priests ‘out of control sexually’, says former abuse adviser. Roman Catholic priests in Scotland were “out of control sexually” under the leadership of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Church’s former adviser on child abuse claims.” Obviously, Cardinal O’Brien was, emphasis being WAS, part of the Curia. Pope Benedict requested O’Brien’s immediate resignation when four men came forward accusing him of sexual abuse. He immediately offered his resignation.

by Helen Tansey
March 8, 2013

Recently retired Pope Benedict is the only person in the world who knows why he made what appears to be a sudden decision to retire stunning over a billion Catholic parishioners. It’s not like Pope’s just up and retire one day giving a month or so notice.  

Thus, there remains the mystery of why this man who reached the pinnacle of his life’s work suddenly resigned.

John Cornwell, author of A Thief in the Night, Hitler’s Pope, and A Pontiff in Winter to name a few, offered the most credible theory seen thus far in an article published last week titled “Gay sex rings, ‘The Filth’ corrupting the Vatican…and why the Pope REALLY quit.” He states unequivocally Benedict’s reasoning for his departure  –

“… is to save the Catholic Church from ignominy: he has voluntarily delivered himself up as a sacrificial lamb to purge the Church of what he calls ‘The Filth’. And it must have taken courage.

Here is the remarkable thing you are seldom told about a papal death or resignation: every one of the senior office-holders in the Vatican – those at the highest level of its internal bureaucracy, called the Curia – loses his job.

A report Benedict himself commissioned into the state of the Curia landed on his desk in January. It revealed that ‘The Filth’ – or more specifically, the paedophile priest scandal – had entered the bureaucracy.”

Cornwell’s theory is as good as any especially when you consider the Curia includes the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) also known as the Vatican’s bank. The IOR is currently being investigated by Italian prosecutors over a plethora of banking irregularities including money laundering while also freezing accounts and seizing millions in assets.

Al Jazeera’s People & Power program takes a look inside the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) featuring filmmakers Alessandro Righi and Emanuele Piano’s examination “of this latest chapter in the history of a notoriously secretive organisation” which “fits” Cornwell’s theory –