Former Pope Benedict's memoir claims a 'gay lobby' tried to control Vatican

An Italian paper has published the first glimpse of former Pope Benedict's forthcoming memoir, and it's a doozy. The Last Conversations, which will be released Sept. 9, represents the first time ever that a pope has reflected back on his pontificate after it was over — Benedict, of course, being the first pope in six centuries to resign when he did so over health concerns in 2013.

In the memoir, Benedict claims that he struggled against the influence of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican. He alleges that the group was made up of four or five people that sought to sway the Vatican to their agenda, but that he was able to "break up this power group." While the Catholic church opposes homosexuality, Reuters notes that "rights campaigners have long said many gay people work for the Vatican and Church sources have said they suspect that some have banded together to support each other's careers and influence decisions in the bureaucracy."

Benedict also confesses his own "lack of resoluteness in governing" in the memoir, Italy's Corriere della Sera reported, although the former pope maintains he was not pressured to resign. He said that he was "incredulous" when the cardinals picked him to succeed Pope John Paul II and "surprised" when they chose the current Pope Francis to replace him in 2013.

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