When Benedict issued his resignation a few weeks ago, those of us who know about Celestine immediately thought of the 1294 pope, and what happened to him. Like Celestine, I have to believe that Benedict, too, wanted to get out alive. And so, now, we need a pope who loves to clean things up.

Was the pope under the influence of a secretive "gay lobby" within the Vatican itself? That's the claim put forth by Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. On Thursday, the popular paper published an article alleging that Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign this month was partly prompted by a report that accused Vatican officials of being under the influence of several internal lobbies, reportedly including a gay one.