John XII was 18 when he was elected pope. Others were elected while they were relatively young and perhaps more attractive.
As to gay popes, well... if you go about picking-up street kids, showering them with gifts and titles, and sleeping in the same bed with them, you're either gay or Michael Jackson.
Julius III (1550-1555) also aroused much scandal by creating as his first Cardinal Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte, a youth of seventeen whom he had picked up on the streets of Parma. Julius met the boy two years previously and named him to the post of cathedral provost. The Venetian ambassador reported that Innocenzo shared the pope's bedroom and bed. -
Wikipedia
There are rumours Benedict XVI is gay. He seems to have favorites in his 55 year old ex-secretary Josef Clemens and his current secretary, the newly 50 George Gaenswein, both of whom are rather handsome. Gaenswein seems to be...
unusually favored, now living in the apartment immediately above the pope's. The US press doesn't dare report this but the Italian press speculates openly. Benedict does set off gaydars in red Prada loafers and Gucci sunglasses, but perhaps he's just a
GQ pope.
Gaenswein
Clemens
Deckers recalls travelling to Rome to meet Gänswein. "He's a good guy. He's very eloquent and can be very charming. But he came right up to me and said: 'Oh, you don't like us.' He referred to himself and Ratzinger as 'us', as if the two of them were an institution."-
The Guardian
OR a couple.
Gänswein's critics even accuse him of turning the Pope into a fashion victim. This summer, Ratzinger and his secretary went on holiday to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, as well as to the Italian Alps at Valle D'Aosta. While both men were hiking in the hills, the Pope appeared in public wearing a Nike hat, designer Serengeti sunglasses and a Cartier watch. "This is Gänswein's style. It's his handwriting," one religious affairs writer said. "This is something I don't understand." -ibid.
If you're gay, you'll understand!
:biggrin:
