Vatican Transvestite Scandal

[bobistheowl]

Did a Cross-Dressing Priest Sex Ring Bring Down Benedict XVI?

Of all the rumors floating around about just why Pope Benedict XVI is hanging up his camauro, one has taken on a life of its own. According to several well-placed vaticanisti—or Vatican experts—in Rome, Benedict is resigning after being handed a secret red-covered dossier that included details about a network of gay priests who work inside the Vatican, but who play in secular Rome. The priests, it seems, are allegedly being blackmailed by a network of male prostitutes who worked at a sauna in Rome’s Quarto Miglio district, a health spa in the city center, and a private residence once entrusted to a prominent archbishop. The evidence reportedly includes compromising photos and videos of the prelates—sometimes caught on film in drag, and, in some cases, caught “in the act.”

Full story: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/did-cross-dressing-priest-sex-ring-bring-down-174300640--politics.html

 

[Stoo]

LOL... Love it. Let's hope it's true!

 

[SchlongConery]

LOL... Love it. Let's hope it's true!

Pope's presiding over generations of priests sodomizing little boys under the protection of God, and yet this Pope gets brought to his knees over grown men playing "Father Dress Up"?

Couldn't happen to a more fitting organization!

 

[PowerDrill]

The whole thing does sound a bit too crazy to not have some kernel of truth to it. It's consistent with a personal theory of mine: Whenever some organization consists entirely of males, it all just goes to absolute shit.

 

[buttercup]

Wankers . .

 

[Aardvark154]

The Vatican has denied this story in language they seldom use.

Are there priests who are gay - of course, is this story true - I doubt it.

 

[great bear]

This gives a entire new meaning to the term "Catholic Lay Person".

 

[bobistheowl]

Benedict XVI has a history of inaction when it comes to clerical misconduct. It wouldn't surprise me if he's quitting just to avoid having to deal with this matter personally. He's too old and frail to grow a pair.

Who they elect in his place will largely determine whether the Vatican wants to sincerely do something about this, or wait for it to become old news. If it's the former, they will elect a lion. If it's the latter, they will elect a sacrificial lamb/ apologist.

 

[Aardvark154]

Benedict XVI has a history of inaction when it comes to clerical misconduct. It wouldn't surprise me if he's quitting just to avoid having to deal with this matter personally.

Even Mea Maxima Culpa doesn't take the line that he doesn't care or attempted to cover things up.

 

[rld]

Benedict XVI has a history of inaction when it comes to clerical misconduct. It wouldn't surprise me if he's quitting just to avoid having to deal with this matter personally. He's too old and frail to grow a pair.

Who they elect in his place will largely determine whether the Vatican wants to sincerely do something about this, or wait for it to become old news. If it's the former, they will elect a lion. If it's the latter, they will elect a sacrificial lamb/ apologist.

I think you totally misunderstand where the Cardinals heads are at these days. The problem with pedo priests has been dropping like a stone since about 1985. It is a historical problem, not one that is going on at the moment. While there is still the need for apologies and outreach to victims, these days your child is far more likely to be molested by a relative or a public school teacher than a priest. So I don't think for a second that issue, which is very sexy and a media darling, is uppermost in the Cardinals minds.

I am hoping though, that we are about to see our first real non-european Pope, with a liberal bent. I would be quite happy with a Canadian actually.

And Benedict has been criticized in I think two cases for not defrocking some priests fast enough. However in both cases this was AFTER the problem had been brought to the civic authorities so while it may have some procedural or symbolic value, it had nothing to do with the safety of children.

 

[bobistheowl]

The Vatican has denied this story in language they seldom use.

Are there priests who are gay - of course, is this story true - I doubt it.

from the article link:

"Benedict is resigning after being handed a secret red-covered dossier...He reportedly closed the dossier and locked it away in the pontifical apartment safe to be handed to his successor to deal with."

 

[bobistheowl]

...And Benedict has been criticized in I think two cases for not defrocking some priests fast enough. However in both cases this was AFTER the problem had been brought to the civic authorities so while it may have some procedural or symbolic value, it had nothing to do with the safety of children.

They were less gracious towards Joe Paterno, when he made similar decisions in a similar situation. They both could have, and should have, done more. They just didn't have to.

 

[rld]

from the article link:

"Benedict is resigning after being handed a secret red-covered dossier...He reportedly closed the dossier and locked it away in the pontifical apartment safe to be handed to his successor to deal with."

Ohhhhhh...scary stuff. If you do your homework you would know that there was a private report done about leaks in the Vatican and confidentiality issues. No serious source suggests it involves a transvestite scandal. I guess red covers are particularly salacious.

 

[rld]

They were less gracious towards Joe Paterno, when he made similar decisions in a similar situation. They both could have, and should have, done more. They just didn't have to.

The Jo Pa situation was very different. Paterno, reported his concerns to his superiors, who failed to pass the information on to the police.

The Benedict situation was one of deciding what kind of administrative punishment should be delivered, AFTER the police had arrested and charged the priests in question.

The difference is pretty obvious I hope.

I would also suggest the opinions in the media around Paterno are significantly more mixed.

The suggestion that Benedict was slow on such matters is also simply not supported by the facts:

According to John L. Allen, Jr., Ratzinger in the following years "acquired a familiarity with the contours of the problem that virtually no other figure in the Catholic Church can claim" and "driven by that encounter with what he would later refer to as 'filth' in the Church, Ratzinger seems to have undergone something of a 'conversion experience' throughout 2003–04. From that point forward, he and his staff seemed driven by a convert's zeal to clean up the mess".[149] In his role as Head of the CDF, he "led important changes made in Church law: the inclusion in canon law of internet offences against children, the extension of child abuse offences to include the sexual abuse of all under 18, the case by case waiving of the statute of limitation and the establishment of a fast-track dismissal from the clerical state for offenders."[150] As the Head of the CDF, Ratzinger developed a reputation for handling these cases. According to Charles J. Scicluna, a former prosecutor handling sexual abuse cases, "Cardinal Ratzinger displayed great wisdom and firmness in handling those cases, also demonstrating great courage in facing some of the most difficult and thorny cases, sine acceptione personarum (without exceptions)".[149][151]

He also instigated a fast track system for defrocking clerics in sex abuse cases.

He showed great courage in going after a priest who was a close friend of JPII.

While his response to sex abuse in the church is surely imperfect, it was actually pretty damned good.

 

[bobistheowl]

I don't know anything about this scandal other than what appears in that article. I used Transvestite in the thread title, because the title bar for the article is "Did a Cross-Dressing Priest Sex Ring Bring Down Benedict XVI?".

My family was Catholic many years ago, (I was last in a Catholic church in 1969). I think we may have been excommunicated because I have three sisters who all visited Henry Morgentaler. I have no vested interest in Catholic politics, only a morbid curiosity. I also enjoy seeing the exposure of hypocrisy among figures of authority.

 

[mandrill]

from the article link:

"Benedict is resigning after being handed a secret red-covered dossier...He reportedly closed the dossier and locked it away in the pontifical apartment safe to be handed to his successor to deal with."

The dossier had nothing to do with transvestitism. It commenced: "Benny, this is God. Luther was right. Yup. For the last 500 years, you guys have been leading the wrong religion."

 

[cye]

I think you totally misunderstand where the Cardinals heads are at these days. The problem with pedo priests has been dropping like a stone since about 1985. It is a historical problem, not one that is going on at the moment. While there is still the need for apologies and outreach to victims, these days your child is far more likely to be molested by a relative or a public school teacher than a priest. So I don't think for a second that issue, which is very sexy and a media darling, is uppermost in the Cardinals minds.

I am hoping though, that we are about to see our first real non-european Pope, with a liberal bent. I would be quite happy with a Canadian actually.

And Benedict has been criticized in I think two cases for not defrocking some priests fast enough. However in both cases this was AFTER the problem had been brought to the civic authorities so while it may have some procedural or symbolic value, it had nothing to do with the safety of children.

So the bar is set at less likely to molest than relatives and school teachers. What a fucked up way to find salvation.

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying. [Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.]

How on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash? ... The acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. It is a way to fight lonliness. Any time I see a person fleeing from reason into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore. [Kurt Vonnegut Jr., address to a Unitarian congregation, Cambridge, Mass., January 27, 1980. quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught]

 

[Art Mann]

Touchdown for Kurt Vonnegut on this one.

 

[rld]

So the bar is set at less likely to molest than relatives and school teachers. What a fucked up way to find salvation.

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying. [Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.]

How on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash? ... The acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. It is a way to fight lonliness. Any time I see a person fleeing from reason into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore. [Kurt Vonnegut Jr., address to a Unitarian congregation, Cambridge, Mass., January 27, 1980. quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught]

For me it has nothing to do with either faith or salvation, that is a theological argument, and as an agnostic I don't engage in those.

What I look out, out of interest's sake, is how institutions work on a practical basis. We all would like there to be no abuse of children anywhere. Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen. Anytime, ever. So we have to look at how well either institutions and individuals deal with preventing abuse, what they do with it when it happens, and what they do to help the victims.

Up until the mid 80's or early 90's the RC church was doing very poorly on those measures. Since then they have turned the ship around. The rates of abuse in the RC church are now lower than other comparable organizations. That is the only real way to set the bar. Other than the dreamed of "no abuse", in the real world we can just compare them to other organizations.

But they you are free to look at how the media or popular culture looks at the issue. Despite the fact that public schools now see a documented higher rate of abuse than the RC church (perhaps 3X higher and involving way more children in absolute numbers), do we see the same public outcry? And if not why not?

Kurt Vonnegut was a bright enough fellow, and if one of the functions a religion provides is to give people community, what is wrong with that? Why is it a negative? Is the life of the lonely monk better than that of the congregant? If I join a camera club, or a soccer supporter's club, or a yoga class for community, is there something wrong with that?

He also uses the false dichotomy of reason vs. religion. While some of our more recent culture warriors (on both sides of the equation) use that approach, both research, reason and most doctrines show it is not true. A recent large study at MIT of all places tells us that most religions in the United States are not suggesting evolution is not taking place (I think the split was 89-11). But the radicals on both sides want to paint a false picture. Some of the great scientific and religious minds of the 20th century have pointed out that there is no real historic conflict between religion and science, (Gould, Einstein, John Paul !!, Benedict, I could go on), but some people gain both personal institutional profit from promoting this phony war.

Feel free to join the phony war and be a pop cultural follower. But if you dig a little deeper I don't think that is what you will find.

 

[rld]

Cardinal Keith O'Brien is Britain's most senior cardinal and known for his outspoken views of homosexuality. He has denied accusations that he had behaved in an imroper way with other priests. He has engaged legal counsel. It gets more and more sordid.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/cardinal-keith-obrien-inappropriate-gay_n_2753175.html

Pretty light weight allegations. It will be interesting to see where it goes.