On February 21, the world will see the publication of a 570-page book entitled In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy. In it, gay French journalist Frédéric Martel claims that 80 percent of Vatican priests are gay (though not all are sexually active). But is he correct?
For his book, Martel reportedly interviewed “41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignors, 45 papal ambassadors or diplomatic officials, 11 Swiss guards and more than 200 priests and seminarians.”
According to sources familiar with the book and its claims, “Some gay priests accept their sexual orientation and a number maintain discreet long term relationships, others live more extreme double lives through casual encounters and the use of male prostitutes, while others are in denial about their sexuality.”
Martel says the more a Vatican official publicly rails against homosexuality, the more likely they are to be gay.
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One critic of the book has said, “It is not always easy to tell when Martel is trafficking in fact, rumor, eyewitness accounts or hearsay.” Others have criticized Martel for releasing the book at the start of the Pope’s summit on the church’s child sex abuse scandals, further conflating homosexuality and child sex abuse.
Related: ‘Top’ church official says gay sex within the Vatican has ‘never been worse’
But Martel isn’t the first person to allege the widespread homosexuality of Vatican priests. In August 2017, former seminarian and Vatican expert Robert Mickens said, “There are a large number … of self-loathing, homophobic homosexuals in the priesthood.”
When Mickens was studying in Rome, he reportedly ran into “all kinds of priests and even seminarians, people who worked at the Vatican” at local gay bars, beaches and bathhouses.
Mickens said:
I know a number of priests who have partners or who have ‘special friends’ from various stages of platonic to full-blown almost husband-and-husband relationships. The church and certainly the Vatican is certainly a homoerotic place. Take a look or walk through the Vatican museums. It’s all genitalia all over the place….
While a 2002 poll by The L.A. Times claimed that 15% of American priests identify as gay, Canadian journalist Anna Maria Tremonti says many gay priests she has spoken with say the percentage is likely much higher, even as high as 70%.
In January 2016, Catholic Cardinal Óscar Maradiaga said that the Vatican had a secret “gay lobby.” The Vatican has also recently been plagued by reports of priests hiring male sex workers, having priest orgies and fooling around with members of the Vatican Swiss Guard.
QueerTruth
Who cares. Queer closeted hypocritical savages.
These gay men have been making life hell on earth for all gay people for centuries.
Organized Religion = Cult. And it always will.
Vince
No where did it say straight priests honor their vow of Chastity any better than gay priests.
djmcgamester
How would they possibly know this sort of thing. It’s not like they’re going to go around tell anyone that they’re gay. Anything else is just hearsay. It may or may not be true but I’m not convinced.
Vince
I think allot of them get into it as an escape. Just like with the ex-gays they’ve been taught from day one that their sexuality made them bad people.
Enforced celibacy is not natural though and eventually creates dysfunction.
Kangol
If the Roman Catholic Church banned gay priests and other members of the clergy it would have almost no members of the clergy left.
Bob LaBlah
Its agreed by most historians that during the Crusades and the Inquisitions the torture techniques used on non-believers to convert them to Christianity had to cause sexual stimulation for those administering the punishments. Young boys and men were tied up on walls in bondage with weighted strings tied around their testicles forcing nearly all to convert (they weren’t exactly stupid and figured it best to live with that lie than go with the most telling sign on being a man). Women had ropes tied around their breasts and pulled from both sides until they converted. And lets not go into the things done to those who were sentenced to the rack. Many of todays dungeon sexual fantasies such as the sling originated with these Crusades and Inquisitions. And just think, all of those sexual fantasies and tortures originated from the belief in a god who allegedly preached out against homosexuality.
Bob LaBlah
The Romans were down right sadistic in their suppression of Christianity. They had this seat called The Iron Chair that they would sit people in and then continue pouring hot coals onto a fire beneath it and roast the person to death. In some cases they would “spare” the person death via the chair after they roasted for a while by taking them off of it after their bottoms were burned to a near crisp. The very people whom they tortured turned right around and used the same techniques to do non-believers with no one questioning the morality/hypocrisy of what the other did. All in the name of religion.
radiooutmike
I remember being 12-14 and thinking about joining the priesthood. I did not. But I thought of it as a way to flee from my sexuality.
ryuichi
????
only 80% ????
mulletkitty
That’s why the book is shocking. I would have guessed it was 99.9%
truckeralex
Venture to say the same 80% of Baptist churches are gay too!
Bob LaBlah
Your comment made me wonder what percentage of the members of the website Mormonboys.com are gay.
bonbon
They should be ashamed for propping up a homophobic institution like the Catholic church (and Christianity as a whole).
piriblue
I mean is this supposed to be some kind of new revelation? Those with eyes wide open knew. There are a whole flock out there that refuses to see the truth in the name of the lord. Can I get an Amen!
Bob
That’s easy. In the 50s and 60s when most of these priests started, you were either married, a priest, or a freak. This was just a nice place to hide.
Invader7
Shocker. Let the priests have a partner /spouse like Methodist /Episcopalian and other religions do. And allow WOMEN priests. And same sex marriage. Oh that’s right ,this is the Church of the Repressed ,Antiquated, Ass Backwards Mentality..The old ,creaky, ossified, LOSING millions of members in the USA and elsewhere .Because of it’s DOUBLE standards and HYPOCRISY and self dealings throughout history !!!