Sex, blackmail, corruption, and gay abuse claims.

All this as Pope Benedict the 16th enters his final days in power.

A top United Kingdom cardinal has resigned, accused of inappropriate behavior toward four young men in the 1980's.

The Vatican was already in damage-control after leaked reports stating that a network of gay priests were blackmailed by a group of male prostitutes.

Italian media saying it's no coincidence the report surfaced on the same day the Pope announced his resignation.

Ben Wedeman, CNN Senior International Correspondent, is following the story from Rome.

It was his last angelus prayer Pope Benedict the 16th stressed, again, that he is not abandoning the church.

To the tens of thousands who listed in St. Peters Square, and had come to voice their support, it was a sentimental farwell.

To investigative newspaper jounalist Concita Di Gregorio, who has been delving into alleged wrongdoing at the Vatican for the last six months, Pope Benedic'ts words carried much more significance.

This does not mean to abandon, it means to fight, she says.

Last Sunday, he said we are fighting against the temptations of power.

Temptations that may have proven too strong for some.

Di Gregorio is one of two journalists who have reported as this headline in her paper says, "Sex And Blackmailed Careers Are Behind Benedict XVI'S resignation.

Sordid tales of Vatican consorting with male prostitutes.

At stake, Di Gregorio contendsm is the very integrity of the church.

A church governed, she says, by a network of officials, some of whom are compromised by their homosexual activities.

Compromised perhaps to senior levels, says Ignazio Ingrao, a writer for the news weekly, Panorama.

How high does it go, cardinals?

"Fino ai cardinali. Yes, cardinals," says Ingrao.

He says he believes Pope Benedict's attempts at reform were stymied every step of the way.

In these eight years the Pope has repeatedly made calls to stop the divisions, he says, to end the power struggles in the curia and to have more transparency, but these calls were not heeded.

The latest claims flatly denided denied by the Vatican, are based on interviews with senior Vatican officials the journalsist did not identify and dozens of other unnamed sources.

Having struggled with controversy since the beginning of his pontificare, the two Italian journalists conclude Benedict lost faith in tose who were supposed to support him.

He decided, by himself, says Di Gregorio, to resign because he no longer trusted the men around him.

Benedict says he's njot abandoning the church.

But according to these accounts, the church may have abandoned him.