Church in crisis: The Vatican responds

Christiane Amanpour, reporting from Rome, speaks with Assistant Vatican Spokesperson Father Tom Rosica.

Homosexuality and the Catholic Church

Christiane Amanpour speaks with Mark Dowd, an openly gay former Dominican friar.

Veteran journalist on papacy in crisis

Christiane Amanpour, reporting from Rome, speaks veteran Vatican journalist Marco Politi about a papacy in crisis.

Homosexuality is “the ticking time bomb in the Catholic Church,” a former Dominican friar told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.

Mark Dowd, who is himself openly gay, spoke to Amanpour as a blitz of new scandals hit the Catholic Church, just days before Pope Benedict XVI is set to step down from the papacy.

The Vatican announced on Monday that the archbishop of Scotland is resigning, a day after British newspapers published accusations of decades-long sexual misconduct with other priests. An American Cardinal is facing fresh allegations of covering up abuse. And Italian newspapers over the weekend published sordid accounts of homosexuality and blackmail within the Church hierarchy.

That last allegation, of a secret “cabal” of gay priests, has been dubbed the “Vati-leaks” scandal.

“When you have this culture of secrecy and guilt and repression,” Dowd said, “you have conditions which foster the potential for blackmail and for manipulation.”

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