UPDATE: According the website Acipresa, CLAR has retracted their record of Pope Francis addressing the 'Gay Lobby':
The Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR) last night issued a statement noting that the statement "cannot attribute to the Pope with absolute certainty" the statements referring to the existence of a gay lobby in the Vatican.
Pope Francis acknowledged the existence of a 'gay lobby' in the Roman Curia for the first time last week and suggested that he was considering taking action on it.
The Pontiff made the statement on a 'gay lobby' in the Vatican during an audience granted to CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women - Confederación Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Religiosos y Religiosas) on June 6, 2013, the Catholic blog Rorate Caeli reported.
Excerpts of that meeting were reported in Spanish on the Chilean Catholic website Reflexion y Liberation:
"Y, sí… es difícil. En la curia hay gente santa, de verdad, hay gente santa. Pero también hay una corriente de corrupción, también la hay, es verdad… Se habla del “lobby gay”, y es verdad, está ahí… hay que ver qué podemos hacer…"
(translation)
"Yes, it is difficult. In the curia there are holy people, truly holy people. But there is also a current of corruption, also there is, it is true... they speak of a 'Gay Lobby' and that is true, it is there.. we will have to see what we can do..."
He did not specify what kind of action he might take.
Last February, The Irish Times reported that there was a secret report commissioned in the aftermath of the Vatican leak scandal that informed the Pope that lobbies within the Holy See were breaking the sixth and seventh commandments: "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not commit adultery".
"The "stealing" referring to money laundering scandals that hit the Vatican Bank, while the sexual offenses alluded to the gay lobby's influence, the Irish Times explained.
The gay lobby's power, was speculated to have influenced then-Pope Benedict XVI decision to retire.
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Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello
FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2012 file photo newly-appointed cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, of Italy, is congratulated by a faithful after being elevated in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. Pope Francis marked his first month as pope on Saturday, April 13, 2013 by naming nine high-ranking prelates from around the globe to a permanent advisory group to help him run the Catholic Church and study a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy, a bombshell announcement that indicates he intends a major shift in how the papacy should function. The members of the panel include Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican city state administration, a key position that runs the actual functioning of the Vatican, including its profit-making museums. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)
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