Blogger Andrew Sullivan on Wednesday speculated on whether Pope Benedict XVI is secretly gay.
Sullivan, who in 2007 married his partner Aaron Tone in Massachusetts, wrote in a post titled
Two Popes, One Secretary that "something truly weird is going on" in connection with reports that Benedict will continue living in the Vatican with the counsel of one of his most trusted secretaries, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, dubbed "Gorgeous Georg" by the Italian media.
"So Benedict's handsome male companion will continue to live with him, while working for the other Pope during the day," Sullivan wrote on his
The Dish blog. "Are we supposed to think that's, well, a normal arrangement?"
Previously, Sullivan, who identifies as a faithful Catholic, had previously written that it "seems pretty obvious" that "the current Pope is a gay man," adding that Benedict has not "explored his sexuality, or has violated his own strictures on the matter."
Ganswein "clearly in some kind of love with Ratzinger (and vice-versa) will now be working for the new Pope as secretary in the day and spending the nights with the Pope Emeritus. This is not the Vatican. It's Melrose Place," he wrote this week.