By now, the fact that the Pope resigned is old news. But what no one knows for sure yet is why. Rumors, however, are a-flying.

According to an Italian newspaper, Pope Benedict XVI was resigning after he learned of a gay-sex network operated by some of his highest ranking clergy officials.

The Vatican strongly denies this claim, saying his health and age caused him to be the first pope to step down in 600 years.

However, the Vatican has not issued a blanket denial of the claim, either.

Moreover, many popes have died while in service and it is an honorable and normal thing to happen. His health and age certainly seem like a strange excuse coming from a job position that is normally reserved for the elderly.

Scandal in the Catholic Church is certainly not new.

Ever wonder why priests aren’t allowed to get married? It’s argued that there’s a much more practical reason than that they are “married to God.”

The first Pope for the Church was married, and he had a son, who became the next Pope. Pretty soon, it became an issue about how land and power was divided in the pope family, so the Catholic Church made a rule that most of the clergy must be celibate in order to make power division simpler.

It’s become a different issue since then, but a divine inspiration from God was certainly not the reason for the original rule of celibacy.

Unfortunately, Catholics have never had a universally great reputation, especially when it comes to what’s happening in the Vatican. And when we couple that with the first Pope to step down in 600 years for questionable reasons, it seems to say something about the state of our society.

When the religious leaders of one of the most powerful groups in the world’s collective morality is failing us, who are we to look up to? Who are we to trust?

Corruption and the Catholic Church seem to be synonymous at times. In order to build a more moral society, as they so earnestly try to do, they need to start with morality and purity within the Vatican.

It may be bold, but a suggestion that could lead to solving the issues of these gay conclaves that seem to be upsetting the Pope, and other scandals that derive from celibacy, is to return to the rules of the first Pope: members of the clergy are allowed to marry and have children.

According to an article on History News Network, “Protestants early on took exception to celibacy, arguing that it promoted masturbation, homosexuality and illicit fornication. Martin Luther singled out masturbation as one of the gravest offenses likely to be committed by those who were celibate. ‘Nature never lets up,’ Luther warned, ‘we are all driven to the secret sin. To say it crudely but honestly, if it doesn’t go into a woman, it goes into your shirt.’”

As vulgar as it is, Martin Luther, the man who created the Lutheran church, may have a point.

There’s no easy fix for the problems the Vatican faces, and right now there’s no obvious answer why Pope Benedict XVI is resigning, but in the meantime, it’s a healthy dose of realism. Even the people who are supposed to be the most pure, trustworthy and responsible people are, in the end, just people. It’s hard and somewhat naïve to idolize anyone in the year 2013.