But there we have it: these secret homosexuals are in the majority, powerful and influential and, in terms of the most 'rigid' among them, very noisy in their homophobic utterances. We will come across this archbishop several times again in the course of this book, the first in a long series of priests who described the reality of which I was already aware, but which many people will see as a fiction. Let it be clear that for me a priest or a cardinal should not be ashamed about being homosexual; I even think it should be one possible social status among others. Unlike those Vaticanologists, who denounce individual 'excesses' but in such a way as to conceal the 'system', I am less concerned with exposing these affairs than with revealing the very banal double life of most of the dignitaries of the Church. È Bianca! He knows his 'parish'. For a long time, as we will see, young Italians who discovered that they were homosexual, or who had doubts about their inclinations, chose the priesthood. The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary adorns the 2020 Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square (photo: Edward Pentin / National Catholic Register) Edward Pentin Blogs December 15, 2020 Those conservatives, those traditionalists, those 'dubias', are in many cases the famous 'rigid people leading a double life' of whom Francis speaks so often. I've often had a sense during my investigation that I've gone back in time and found myself in the 1930s or 1950s, years that I haven't known myself, with the dual mentality of the chosen people and the cursed people, which led one of the priests that I met often to say: 'Welcome to Sodoma! Do I need to say that Francis knows the people he addresses in this way without naming them: cardinals, papal masters of ceremonies, former secretaries of state, deputies, minor assistants or chamberlains? Let's just say: they represent the great majority. The New York Times bestselling account of corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of the Vatican. The world turned upside down, in some respects! For what it's… How many are there? How? This pattern explains the war against Francis. Many Catholics now have a sense of this lie without yet having been able to read the revelations in this book. Anthony Egan SJ shares the power that he believes such a book could have for the Catholic Church today, scandal plagued as it is. His phrase should be placed as an epigram at the start of this book: 'Behind rigidity something always lies hidden; in many cases, a double life.'. In the recently released book, In the Closet of the Vatican, the homosexual, atheist author claims the prevalence of gay liaisons in the Vatican means that clerical celibacy is a failure and a fraud.Here’s why that’s nonsense. His assistants, his closest collaborators, his masters of ceremony and masters of liturgy, his theologians and his cardinals, where gays are also in the majority, know that in the Vatican homosexuality includes a lot of the called and a lot of the chosen. So I had to spend a long time investigating and living immersed in the Church. Learn more here, Copyright © The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company | 115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111 | 1-800-444-8910, IN THE CLOSET OF THE VATICAN: POWER, HOMOSEXUALITY, HYPOCRISY, 576 pages; Published by Bloomsbury Continuum, Detail from the Sistine Chapel frescoes (Wikimedia Commons/Jörg Bittner Unna), Pope Francis gives his annual pre-Christmas speech to officials of the Roman Curia and cardinals present in Rome Dec. 21, 2018, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. ', as the Poet says, are practising. Cart; English. They are less so today because the resignation of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis's desire for reform have freed people's tongues. Comments on Distinctly Catholic by Michael Sean Winters at National Catholic Reporter. Some of them were worried about what I was going to reveal. So I had to spend a long time investigating and living immersed in the Church. Contributions are tax-deductible in the United States. So this book criticizes not the Church overall, but a very particular 'genre' within the gay community; it tells the story of the majority of those in the College of Cardinals and the Vatican. Have the pope and his liberal theologians realized that priestly celibacy was a failure? Social networks, more courage on the part of the press, and countless ecclesiastical sex scandals have made it possible, and necessary, to reveal this secret today. – but of understanding their secret and collective way of life. So it is not a matter of judging these homosexuals, even the closeted ones – I like them! How Will Joe Biden Build a Common Future? Enter your email address to receive free newsletters from NCR. Why? My project isn't about 'naming and shaming', the American practice of making names public in order to expose them. È Bianca! A fairy tale. Did they guess that the battle launched against gays by the Vatican of John Paul II and Benedict XVI was a war that was lost in advance? I'm like St Thomas: I need to check to believe. Humpty Dumpty in the Vatican . Do as I say, not as I do! Join us if you love lots and lots of free news The details, certainly, but also the great laws – and there are, as we will see, 14 general rules in this book. How Will Joe Biden Build a Common Future? Francis has often denounced this duplicity in his morning homilies from Santa Marta. War between gays, in short. Without this key for understanding, the recent history of the Vatican and the Roman Church remains opaque. That is one of the mysteries of this book and my reason for writing it. Since arriving in Rome he has known that he is dealing with an organisation that is quite extraordinary in its way, and that isn't restricted, as people believed for a long time, to a few lost sheep. web 20181221T1121-23109-CNS-POPE-CURIA.jpg, Capitol riot mirrors insurrections outside US, say sisters with international duties, Danish proposal on translating sermons gets pushback from bishops, Historians: Capitol Hill breach damaged U.S. politics, EarthBeat Weekly: Racial inequality colors response to environmental protests, Some Canadian provinces close churches to contain pandemic, Following attempted coup, Biden administration must prioritize anti-racism work, Catholic Extension receives $1.5 million grant for Puerto Rico recovery work, Amid travel break, pope cheers Lisbon youth jamboree plans, Amid cover-up allegations, German prelate steps down from lay organization, Latino communities have enriched the church, pope says, Bishops approve pandemic-influenced budget for 2021, West Virginia high court deals setback in state's Catholic church suit, Editorial: Stop judging, and welcome LGBT Catholics 'in good faith', Pope updates Vatican financial authority following scandals, San Diego gay church worker resigns after months of harassment, Report: Pope Francis meets with, hugs transgender man. If you wish, you may print a form for submitting your donation. However, Francis today is the object of a violent campaign, precisely because of his supposed liberalism on questions of sexual morality, by conservative cardinals who are very homophobic – and, most of them, secretly homosexual. Learn more here, Copyright © The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company | 115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111 | 1-800-444-8910, IN THE CLOSET OF THE VATICAN: POWER, HOMOSEXUALITY, HYPOCRISY, 576 pages; Published by Bloomsbury Continuum, Detail from the Sistine Chapel frescoes (Wikimedia Commons/Jörg Bittner Unna), Pope Francis gives his annual pre-Christmas speech to officials of the Roman Curia and cardinals present in Rome Dec. 21, 2018, in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. ', The reason for this, among the older cardinals, should be sought in the past: their stormy youths and roguish years before gay liberation explain their double lives and their homophobia in the old style. Fifty years after Stonewall, the gay revolution in the United States, the Vatican is the last bastion still to be liberated! And we might assume that this pope probably doesn't have the tendencies or inclination attributed to four of his recent predecessors. They also know that sexual desire, and homosexual desire first and foremost, is one of the main engines and wellsprings of Vatican life. 'The carnival is over,' the pope is reported to have said to his master of ceremonies at the very moment when he was elected. The lack of vocations has multiple causes, but the homosexual revolution is paradoxically one of the main forces behind it. Not the exceptions but the system and the model, what American sociologists call 'the pattern'. Those conservatives, those traditionalists, those 'dubias', are in many cases the famous 'rigid people leading a double life' of whom Francis speaks so often. 'How much filth there is in the Church,' said Cardinal Ratzinger, who also discovered the extent of the 'closet' through a secret report by three cardinals, the content of which was described to me and that was one of the major reasons for his resignation. Francis has often repeated his criticisms of the 'hidden and often dissolute lives'; the ones who 'put make-up on their souls and live off make-up'; the 'lie' erected into a system that does 'a lot of harm, hypocrisy does a lot of harm: it's a way of life'. ', as the Poet says, are practising. Since then, the Argentinian has overturned the little games of connivance and the homosexual fraternity that developed clandestinely after Paul VI, were amplified under John Paul II, before becoming ungovernable under Benedict XVI, leading eventually to his downfall. There have been carefully chosen words about homosexuality: 'Who am I to judge?' By failing to recognize the broadly homosexual dimension, we deprive ourselves of one of the keys to a greater understanding of most of the facts that have stained the history of the Vatican for decades: the secret motivations that led Paul VI to confirm the prohibition on artificial contraception, the rejection of condoms and the strict obligation of celibacy on the priesthood; the war against 'liberation theology'; the scandals of the Vatican Bank in the time of the famous Archbishop Marcinkus (he too was a homosexual); the decision to forbid condoms as a way of battling AIDS, even when the pandemic would lead to more than thirty-five million deaths; the VatiLeaks I and II affairs; the recurrent and often unfathomable misogyny of many cardinals and bishops; the resignation of Benedict XVI; the current rebellion against Pope Francis … Every time, homosexuality plays a central part that many people can only guess at, and the truth of which has never really been told. The details, certainly, but also the great laws – and there are, as we will see, 14 general rules in this book. That's why he spends so much time denouncing fake devotees, whited sepulchres and hypocrites. With his calm ego and relaxed attitude towards sexuality, Francis is an anomaly. The book, to be released Feb. 21, will be much talked about. The gay dimension doesn't explain everything, of course, but it is key for anyone wishing to understand the Vatican and its moral postures. Here is the pope: threatened and attacked on all sides and generally criticized, Francis is said to be 'among the wolves'. It's not quite true: he's among the queens. Excerpted from In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, by Frédéric Martel (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019). Since arriving in Rome he has known that he is dealing with an organisation that is quite extraordinary in its way, and that isn't restricted, as people believed for a long time, to a few lost sheep. He's of the parish,' he stressed in a low voice, talking to me about the morals of a famous Vatican cardinal, a former 'minister' of John Paul II, who both of us knew well. He isn't part of the parish! Rumours? In the Closet of the Vatican is a reminder that the experience of gay priests may differ from place to place. r/nofeenews: Paywall-free news. Among them, alleged homosexuals, who were present in the Vatican every day, introduced me to their world of initiates. Oct. 6, 2018: Pope Francis orders a "thorough study of the entire documentation" present in the Vatican's archives regarding McCarrick's career. Rumours? 'He's of the parish,' the priest whispers conspiratorially in my ear. In most cases it isn't simply a general inclination, of a certain fluidity, homophilia or 'tendencies', as people said at the time, nor even repressed or sublimated sexuality, all equally prevalent in the Church of Rome. What detours I am taking to say such simple things – things which, so shocking yesterday, are so banal today! All interviews were conducted under my real name, and my interlocutors had only to do a quick search on Google, Wikipedia, Facebook or Twitter to discover the details of my biography as a writer and reporter. This report is said to reveal not so much the existence of a 'gay lobby', as was said, as the omnipresence of homosexuals in the Vatican, blackmail and harassment built into the system. The Vatican has one of the biggest gay communities in the world, and I doubt whether, even in San Francisco's Castro, the emblematic gay quarter, though more mixed today, there are quite as many gays! (CNS/Vatican Media), Michelangelo's 16th-century frescoes in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican (CNS/Paul Haring). Because the 'culture of secrecy', which was necessary to maintain silence about the huge presence of homosexuality inside the Church, has made it possible to hide sexual abuse, and for predators to benefit from this system of protection within the institution – even though paedophilia is not the subject of this book. Send your thoughts and reactions to Letters to the Editor. Open secrets? He earned his B.A. The subject is: the intimate society of priests, their fragility, and the suffering bound up with forced celibacy, which has become a system. Let's just say: they represent the great majority. But that isn't my subject. I've often had a sense during my investigation that I've gone back in time and found myself in the 1930s or 1950s, years that I haven't known myself, with the dual mentality of the chosen people and the cursed people, which led one of the priests that I met often to say: 'Welcome to Sodoma!'. Here is the pope: threatened and attacked on all sides and generally criticized, Francis is said to be 'among the wolves'. Not the exceptions but the system and the model, what American sociologists call 'the pattern'. Pope Francis “is today by far the most popular religious leader on the planet, and one of the most popular leaders of any sort,” he said. During the four years of that investigation, I never concealed my identity as a writer, a journalist or a researcher when approaching cardinals and priests, who sometimes proved to be unapproachable. How Will Joe Biden Build a Common Future? The gay dimension doesn't explain everything, of course, but it is key for anyone wishing to understand the Vatican and its moral postures. Others disclosed secrets to me, first in a whisper, then shortly afterwards, in a loud voice: actual scandals. He is an American journalist with a knowledge of five languages and a seasoned Vatican analyst. 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