Why pope benedict resigned

So why did he act in a way that was sure to embarrass a man he was clearly close to? At a certain point he couldn't take it any more," says his lawyer Cristiana Arru, clutching her rosary beads, in only her second ever public interview. He says he saw lies being told. He thought that the Pope was being kept in the dark regarding key events. Gabriele was found guilty of "aggravated theft" and spent three months in custody before being pardoned by the Pope. But that was not the end of it. The Church's leader set up an inquiry into the whole affair.

Three Cardinals produced a page report. It was meant to be kept under lock and key, but a leading Italian daily claimed it had been briefed on its contents. The result? More embarrassing leaks, this time with claims of a network of gay priests exerting "inappropriate influence" inside the Vatican. The headaches continued to mount for the German Pope.

In many journalistic endeavours, "follow the money" is good advice for getting to grips with what is really going on, and it applies to the Vatican too. One of the most eyebrow-raising stories we encountered involved an annual Nativity scene in St Peter's Square.

For years, deals were struck in which the Vatican paid several times the market rate. When a whistleblower tried to reform the system, officials in the papal court persuaded a hapless Pope Benedict to promote him to a role 4, miles from Rome.

Similar antics occurred at the Vatican Bank, for years a source of unwelcome headlines for the Catholic Church. Two years ago this week, Benedict's announcement that he was stepping down for health reasons shocked the Catholic Church and much of the world.

It also loosed conspiracy theorists who believe Benedict was forced to resign. On Wednesday, one of the former pope's top lieutenants defended the year-old's choice.

The statement, when read closely, could be meaningful for two reasons. That a surrogate of Benedict is still out protecting the pope emeritus in the press might speak to an inherent defensiveness though a reporter's questions could easily have prompted it. Then, there is the theory of his "forced resignation," which would invalidate the election of Pope Francis.

Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the order of priests known as Legionaries of Christ, was a serial pedophile, favored by Pope John Paul II when Benedict, as Cardinal Ratzinger, was head of the theological orthodoxy department in the Vatican. We are clearly meant to infer that Benedict covered up the crimes of a major clerical abuser, and an outraged Bergoglio berates Benedict for his shocking failure. The facts, however, are dramatically different. In the film, Bergoglio is actively opposed to the idea of becoming pope.

Had Benedict suspected that Bergoglio would be elected, and had he sussed an inkling of his disrupt-or-die agenda, he surely would have canceled his resignation in an instant. So why, in reality, did Benedict resign? The accepted reason is that he was unable to cope with the tsunami of church problems owing to the frailties of his advanced age. But is this entirely plausible?

Many popes, including John Paul II, have carried on in poorer health. Perhaps there was something else? For years, no pope has ever known the name of his successor, or the fate of his own legacy, because all of them without exception have left the scene by dying. True or false, for me it was the most dramatic moment of the movie. In the movie Benedict declares that he will quit the scene, albeit that the finale sees them watching football on the sofa together.

In reality Benedict has remained a palpable presence within the Vatican assisted by Archbishop Georg Ganswein, who has gone so far as to proclaim that this is a twin-pope pontificate. Looking for more?