Vatican Scandal, Bishop Resigns and Gay Mafia?
Citing emails, minutes of meetings, recorded private conversations, and memos, a new book paints a picture of a Vatican bureaucracy entrenched in a culture of mismanagement, waste, and secrecy. (Franco Origlia / Getty Images)
Pope Francis has made a top priority the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy known as the Curia, a hive of intrigue and gossip, and appointed a commission of eight experts in 2013 to gather information and make recommendations after an earlier expose helped drive his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to a historic resignation.
The leaks in the new books are seen as part of a bitter internal struggle between the reformers and the old guard. This week, the Vatican questioned two former members of the commission in an investigation into stolen documents.
Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a high-ranking Vatican official affiliated with the Opus Dei movement, was arrested and sits in a Vatican jail cell. Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations executive, was released, and was quoted by Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Stampa Tuesday as saying she had nothing to do with the leaks, and that she had tried to prevent Vallejo Balda from revealing Vatican secrets.
A new book by Gianluigi Nuzzi, a journalist whose revelations have driven the scandal, makes some startling allegations, including the charge that Vatican “postulators” — the officials who promote sainthood causes — bring in hundreds of thousands of euros in donations for their causes, but are subject to no oversight as to how the money is spent.
In his book “Merchants in the Temple,” obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press two days ahead of publication, Nuzzi estimates the average price tag for a beatification cause at around 500,000 euros ($550,000), saying some have gone as high as 750,000. Causes of saintly candidates who don’t inspire rich donors, meanwhile, can languish.
The elderly priest eventually came home to find his possessions in boxes. He died a short time later, the book says.
Francis, who lives in a hotel room, summarily demoted Sciacca and forced him to move out.
A second book by Emiliano Fittipaldi, a reporter for the L’Espresso newsmagazine, details financial wrongdoing at the Vatican, citing reports by independent auditors.
“Avarice,” also due out Thursday and obtained early by AP, claims a foundation set up to support a children’s hospital paid 200,000 euros toward the renovation of the apartment of the Vatican’s No. 2 at the time, Tarciso Bertone. Bertone came under fire last year over the apartment, described in the book as a “mega-penthouse,” which didn’t sit well with Francis’ vision of a “poor church.”
Bertone has said he paid for the renovation out of his own pocket.
Fittipaldi also said nearly 400,000 euros donated in 2013 by churches worldwide to help the poor wound up in an off-the-books Vatican account.
The Vatican described the books as “fruit of a grave betrayal of the trust given by the pope, and, as far as the authors go, of an operation to take advantage of a gravely illicit act of handing over confidential documentation.”
“Publications of this nature do not help in any way to establish clarity and truth, but rather generate confusion and partial and tendentious conclusions,” the Vatican said in a statement.
The books, and this week’s arrest, mark a new phase in the “Vatileaks” scandal. The saga began in 2012 with an earlier Nuzzi expose, peaked with the conviction of Benedict’s butler on charges he supplied Nuzzi with stolen documents, and ended a year later when a clearly exhausted Benedict resigned, unable to carry on.
Nuzzi’s new book is written from the perspective of the reform commission, whose archives were supposed to remain top-secret, and focuses on the resistance it encountered in getting information out of Vatican departments that have long enjoyed near-complete autonomy in budgeting, hiring and spending.
“Holy Father … There is a complete absence of transparency in the bookkeeping both of the Holy See and the Governorate,” five international auditors wrote Francis in June 2013, according to Nuzzi’s book. “Costs are out of control.”
The book says one of the commission’s priorities was getting a handle on the Vatican’s vast real estate holdings. Nuzzi cites a commission report that found that the value of the real estate was some 2.7 billion euros, seven times higher than the amount entered on the balance sheets.
Rents were sometimes 30 to 100 percent below market, the commission found, including apartments given free to cardinals and bureaucrats as part of their compensation or retirement packages.
The book says that if market rates were applied, employees’ homes would generate rental income of 19.4 million euros rather than 6.2 million euros, while other “institutional” buildings that today generate no income would bring in 30.4 million euros.
Francis has repeatedly and publicly warned the Roman Curia against engaging in “intrigue, gossip, cliques, favoritism, and partiality” and acting more like a royal court than an institution of service. Last Christmas, he delivered an infamous dressing down of his closest collaborators, citing the “15 ailments of the Curia” that included living “hypocritical” double lives and suffering from “spiritual Alzheimer’s.”
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/11/03/vatican-leaks-scandal-grows-book-exposes-resistance-and-waste/
Argentine bishop who clashed with pope resigns amid financial scandal
Bishop Oscar Sarlinga of the Diocese of Zárate-Campana announced his resignation Sunday as he celebrated what he described as his “last Mass with the diocesan community.”
“Together with the Vatican instances, we have chosen this day” to make the announcement, Sarlinga said, adding that he had requested from Pope Francis “a special time to pray.”
He emphasized his “closeness and dialogue” with Francis.
Sarlinga’s resignation caps what had been described as a “fraternal mission,” meaning an administrative takeover of his diocese, ordered by Francis in January 2014 and led by the pontiff’s successor in Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Poli.
It’s widely believed in Argentina that Sarlinga was named to the diocese just outside Buenos Aires in 2006 against the wishes of the future pope. Reports from the time claim then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio requested a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI to express his objections to the appointment without his input.
One such case came in 2011, when Bergoglio criticized Sarlinga for spending more than $1 million for an apartment to be used by an organization he patronizes on the Avenida del Libertador, a high-end street in Buenos Aires.
Four years later, Sarlinga faces allegations that he has misappropriated funds and mistreated his clergy, among other issues.
Local newspapers report claims against Sarlinga made by priests and laity in Zárate-Campana include “fraudulent management of educational institutions,” “money laundering” in the local seminary, and “diverting subsides for soup kitchens granted by the [public] Ministry of Social Development.”
Vatican confirmation of Sarlinga’s decision to step down came two days after he made the announcement in Argentina. A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff had accepted his resignation in accordance to article 401, section two of the Code of Canon Law.
Although the Vatican gave no reason for accepting the resignation, as is normal practice, the Church law reference suggests something unusual was in play.
There are two reasons a bishop might resign, according to Church law. One is age, since all are required at age 75 to offer their resignations to the pope, who then decides when to accept them.
The other is “ill health or other grave cause,” for which a bishop may be “earnestly requested to present his resignation from office.”
(That was the reason cited, for instance, when the Vatican accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, the lone American bishop ever to be found guilty of a criminal charge for failure to report an accusation of child abuse.)
Sarlinga will be replaced by Bishop Pedro María Laxague.
Sarlinga’s resignation comes as the Vatican is facing its own round of financial embarrassment with the imminent publication of two books based on secret internal documents.
On Monday, the Vatican announced that two people, a Spanish cleric and an Italian laywoman, both former members of a study commission on Vatican finances, had been interrogated for allegedly leaking those documents. The priest was later arrested.
Those books are “Avarice: The Papers that Reveal Wealth, Scandals and Secrets in the Church of Francis” by Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi, and “Via Crucis,” by Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist at the heart of the Vatileaks affair under Benedict XVI three years ago.
Is the ‘gay mafia’ behind the Synod on the Family?
By a priest who cares about the Church
November 3, 2015 (CatholicVoice) -- Is a homosexual agenda unduly influencing the outcome of the Synod on the family? It’s a question that needs to be raised because snippets gleaned from the Vatican in recent years seem to point in this direction. But before we explore this in more detail we need to underline the following points:
Our faith demands we respect people of same sex attraction. I am repulsed when homophobic terms like 'sodomite' are bandied around internet forums or people’s lives discussed in such a way that it robs them of dignity. There are many people of same sex attraction in the church whose lives and faith are worthy of admiration.
We should recognise that the presence of homosexual priests affects the church in different ways. Some are true celibates who, despite having an inclination towards same sex attraction, honour their ordination vows. Though its painful to admit, other homosexual priests are sexually active, and therefore flout church teaching, but they nevertheless uphold the moral standards of wider society. Within this group of sexually active homosexual priests will be those who are secretly partnered and monogamous as well as those who are more promiscuous. And finally there are deviants. Those who don't limit their sexual behavior to consenting adults but who hit on the young and vulnerable. The first group of celibate homosexual priests are no problem to the church, the next group are un-repentent sinners causing scandal but not a menace to society. The third group are clearly abusive and dangerous.
Impact of homosexual priests on the Church
Having made this distinction, between differing ways in which homosexual clergy deal with their sexuality, we may ask how the issue may impact on church decisions. But let us be clear. The purpose of this article is to shine a light on a possible agenda not to point fingers at any individual. Being favourable to a cause is not evidence that anybody is themselves part of it.
The Catholic Church has struggled to navigate the modern world in the wake of the sexual revolution and Vatican II. It is no secret that vocations, in particular, have been hit to the point of there being a dire shortage of priests in the West. And what tended to happen is that during the 1970's and 1980's the priesthood became an attractive option for gay men. And because the church was desperately short of vocations it was willing to turn a blind eye, so long as scandal was avoided. Thus a disproportionate number of gay men entered the church and settled into its ecclesial structures during the latter half of the 20th Century.
Most were young men raised in devout Catholic families at a time when homosexuality was taboo. By taking holy orders they not only ducked awkward questions from relatives and friends but also found a spiritual outlet for their confusion and, in some cases, guilt and self loathing. Seminary proved a happy home for such as these because they no longer battled alone but came into contact with like minded people. A deep fraternity built up between them and forged what would become an entire, secret subculture within the clerical ranks of the Catholic Church.
Some of these gay men were able to overcome their sexual urges and became truly celibate. But others found that they lacked the requisite self control. How could they remain within the church? The answer was to keep sexual activity amongst themselves to ensure that scandal was largely avoided. Coded language and certain looks were all it took for those interested in sexual activity to identify themselves to each other at clergy meetings and conventions. As regards the goal of protecting the church from public scandal the approach worked. The lay faithful remained ignorant as to the sexual lives of these men who were themselves content to remain closeted. Sure one or two occasionally left the priesthood to join the ‘gay scene’ but by and large things ticked over.
The Sex Abuse Crisis and the Homosexual Subculture
Problems arose only when the wicked amongst them did not keep to the unspoken rules. They began seducing the lay faithful and, in the worse instances, forced themselves onto young boys. We finally arrive at the crimes of the infamous sex abuse crisis. Independent studies show that the crimes of sex abuse were not so much paedophilic but homosexual in nature. Over 90% of the cases were instances of gay men hitting on post pubescent boys.
Naturally other gay priests, being decent men, were horrified at this behavior. But fear stemming from their own hidden lives prevented them from taking action. Priests who were themselves part of the gay subculture, or at least aware of it and accepting of it, found themselves open to blackmail and accusations of a certain degree of hypocrisy. The scandalous consequence was that priests, who should have been defrocked, were instead moved to another parish. What we now know in retrospect was that the gay network of priests looked after its own, even its most deplorable members, for fear of widespread exposure and scandal.
Clerical Careers and the Homosexual Subculture
Meanwhile the better behaved homosexual priests were growing older and gaining preferment. How hard it must have been for them to watch the world change its own attitude to homosexuality whilst they remained (and still remain) closeted. These men found themselves unable to join the party. This impossible tension between public face and private life came to light when the Cardinal Archbishop of Scotland caused scandal. Though he proved a strong defender of Church teaching in the public square it transpired he had also been hitting on seminarians when tipsy.
When you consider the impossibility of these men’s situation you begin to see why very close bonds formed between them. It is hardly surprising that nepotism may have crept in. The homosexual subculture became not only a social space but also a recruitment body. Not least for reasons of self preservation. And the higher these tortured souls rose in the church, the greater the fear of exposure must be. Thus it was that a ‘Gay Mafia’ sprang up and homosexual clerics found and created for themselves influential friends in high places.
The Vatican and the Gay Mafia
That is how one might image a homosexual subculture was formed. Now to the piecing together snippets of evidence from the Vatican.
In 2005 Pope Benedict asked the faithful to pray for him that he may not flee for “fear of the wolves". He also spoke of a “powerful gay lobby” at work in the highest levels of the Vatican. Pope Francis has referred to it too, so we know it exists. Furthermore, Pope Benedict’s instinct, in the wake of the abuse crisis, was to insist that men of “deep seated homosexual tendency” should be barred from the priesthood. A suggestion that he understood the true nature of the sex abuse crimes was not, in fact, pedophilic but homosexual.
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Pope Benedict’s conclusion, unsurprisingly, was unpopular with the secular press who still refuse to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence about the homosexual nature of the abuses And so Pope Benedict was pilloried for categorically upholding the Church’s doctrine on homosexuality. It is likely that Pope Benedict’s actions galvanized the powerful “Gay Mafia” to act against him. Clearly the secular world and its media, in the wake of the rainbow revolution, was in their pocket.
The St Gallen Group and the Gay Mafia
Now in 2015, Cardinal Danneels of Belgium, accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests, has publically announced his role in the covert "St. Gallen Group", which he refers to as a “mafia group”! This is a cabal who plotted behind the scenes, not only to trick Benedict into abdication, but also to put Francis on the throne. Could they be the wolves to whom Benedict referred? And what is their relationship, if any, to this shadowy Gay Mafia? Whether implicated or not, and this writer has no evidence either way, the St Gallen group members are certainly clamouring for a volte face in the Church’s doctrine and pastoral care of homosexuals.
And there is also support for such a cause outside of the St. Gallen group. In the West there are Cardinals of a certain generation who support a softening of tone in this regard. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, for example, defended the controversial “Soho Gay Masses” at some cost to himself and is on public record demanding more generous language as regards homosexuality. Whether such men are part of any lobby or subculture themselves cannot be known. But what we do see is that they certainly support the cause in general.
The Gay Mafia and the Synod on the Family
Regarding the shadowy St. Gallen Mafia, questions are now being raised about Pope Francis’s relationship with this group, and its influence on the Synod. Cardinal Danneels has publicly admitted that Pope Francis was their favoured candidate at the 2005 and 2013 Conclaves. Is Pope Francis "their man", as they themselves claim. This appears at least a feasible possibility given how many of the St Gallen cardinals were sprung out of retirement and have been given a voice by the Holy Father at the two Synods on the Family . This begs a further question: why are these Synods on the family saying little new or of value to actual families but obsessing about homosexuality? Could it be the influence of the Gay Lobby? This scenario needs to be considered by any watching the Synod with interest.
Are we in fact witnessing the demands of a clerical homosexual subculture being imposed on the Catholic Church at large? Is the demand for a softening of language and rules to placate those, who like the recently self-outed Fr. Charasma, have one foot in the Church and another in the gay scene? Is the Gay Mafia now influencing the doctrine and pastoral principles of the Church instead of bishops and priests faithful to the Gospel and Magisterium of the church? If so, we face a very grave crisis indeed. It is entirely possible.
The difficulty for homosexual clerics seeking to overturn the doctrine and pastoral practice of the Church, of course, is that such a campaign is so clearly at odds with the Tradition of the church in all ages and the crystal clear message of Scripture. This is why we are witnessing the division of the Synod into opposing camps. The Gay Mafia may wield great power at present in the high counsels of the Church but there are still brave cardinals, bishops and priests resisting them, most notably in Africa and Asia. Thus the fight for the soul of the church is on. The Gay Mafia want a change of teaching at best but will settle, one suspects, for a shift of pastoral practice under the guise of a rather dishonest understanding of mercy. The true defenders of the faith are having none of it for they see clearly that a move to betray our Lord’s Gospel is underway.
If this article has put the jigsaw together properly we must surmise that the sex abuse crisis is not over for the Church. The secular and Catholic media’s failure to report it accurately, and an over focus on paedophilia not homosexuality meant that sexually active gay men hiding behind dog collars remain free to betray their vows as priests. Having avoided exposure so far they have grown in confidence to the point they may even have called this Synod in the first place, not to speak of family life but to fight for their cause. What is chilling as we watch the second Synod unfold is that high ranking voices in the Vatican are confirming that the question of Holy Communion for divorced and re-married is a smoke-screen and that the homosexuality is the Synod’s true agenda.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/is-the-gay-mafia-behind-the-synod-on-the-family