A new book claims that Eighty per cent of priests at the Vatican are secretly gay – including some of the Church’s fiercest critics of gay marriage. Author of the book, French journalist Frederic Martel says that some gay priests are not active, but many have secret relationships – or have casual sex, including with male prostitutes.
He claims that the late Colombian cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, a staunch defender of the Church’s conservative views on homosexuality, was secretly gay and used male prostitutes.
Martel based his book on 1,500 interviews with priests and others in the Vatican, conducted over the space of four years. .These included interviews with 41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignors, 45 papal ambassadors or diplomatic officials, 11 Swiss guards and more than 200 priests and seminarians.
The book named ‘In the closet of the Vatican’, written claims homophobic priests are most likely to be gay. According to the publisher, the book is a startling account of corruption and hypocrisy.
Bishops from all over the world have been summoned by the Vatican for a conference on sexual abuse next Wednesday. It is also on Wednesday that the book will be published in eight languages across 20 countries.
A Polish priest was sacked from the Vatican and defrocked after announcing he was gay.
The contents of the controversial book will surely be discussed by senior bishops from world over who will fly to Vatican to discuss sexual abuse in a four-day summit.
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