The Vatican minced no words as it lashed out at Media, which it suspects of dancing to the tunes of their Jewish backers, as they implicate the Catholic Church in sex scandals and financial wrong doings.

The Vatican has criticised the media, as it suspects their age old enemies, the Jewish lobby for publishing what it calls “slanderous” reports since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, due to take effect on February 28.

In an editorial on the Vatican radio website, spokesman Federico Lombardi said that some in the media (read Media with Jewish backers or stakeholders)  had been trying to profit from the changing situation at the top of the Roman Catholic Church.

Lombardi’s statements came after an unconfirmed report in Italian newspaper La Repubblica suggested that, before resigning, the Pope was presented with a dossier detailing a network of homosexual priests.

The Vatican lashed out at the news media Saturday, addressing for the first time reports that Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was linked to an emerging scandal involving gay priests and high-priced blackmail.

Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, who didn’t speak in specific terms about the scandal, said, “It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave … that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions.”

The original story, which first appeared in the Rome newspaper La Repubblica on Thursday, alleges that Benedict’s resignation is linked to the discovery of a network of gay priests in the Vatican who were being blackmailed by people outside the Holy See. The story claims the pope’s decision to step down dates to Dec. 17, after he first saw a nearly 300-page dossier compiled by three cardinals that has been dubbed “Vatileaks” by the Italian press.