Pope Francis confirmed the existence of a gay lobby in the Roman Curia, which administers the Roman Catholic Church. He promised on Thursday during an audience with the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women to reform the Curia.

"In the Curia, there are truly some saints, but there is also a current of corruption," Huffington Post quoted the pontiff.

He also acknowledged that he could not carry out the reforms himself and tasked the commission he formed to help govern the church, made of eight cardinals, to initiate the reforms.

The powerful gay lobby is speculated to be one of the reasons why then Pope Benedict XVI retired on Feb 28, 2013, which caught the Catholic world by surprise. The pope then said he could no longer perform his function well as shepherd of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics throughout the world.

At about the same time, The Irish Times reported of the existence of a secret report commission by Pope Benedict that provided details of money laundering at the Vatican Bank and sexual offenses which were tolerated by some Vatican officials because of the gay lobby's influence.

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