Gay “clubs” operate openly in Catholic seminaries, the institutions that prepare men for the priesthood, the late Pope Benedict XVI has claimed in a posthumously published book scathing of Pope Francis’s progressive agenda.
In a blistering attack on the state of the Catholic Church under his successor’s papacy, Benedict, who died on Dec 31 at the age of 95, said that the vocational training of the next generation of priests is on the verge of “collapse” thanks to the ultra liberal policies of Pope Francis.
He claimed that some bishops allow trainee priests to watch pornographic films as an outlet for their sexual urges.
It is one of a handful of recent books by conservative Vatican figures which have poured scorn on the decade-old papacy of Francis, who was elected after his predecessor’s historic resignation in 2013.
According to John Allen, a leading Vatican analyst who writes for Crux, the Catholic news outlet, a civil war could be brewing in the Roman Catholic Church.
Benedict died in December at the age of 95 and is buried in the Vatican. His book, entitled ‘What Christianity Is’ is the latest work by recently deceased Vatican leaders to criticise Pope Francis.
It was Benedict’s firm wish that the book be released after his death and entrusted its publication to Dr. Elio Guerriero, who also wrote Benedict’s biography, and was known for “his theological competence,” according to the book.
Earlier this month it was revealed that former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell had written an anonymous blog before he died in which he described the leadership of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe”.
The Vatican has not addressed the claims.
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