Allegedly gay prelate in Vatican scandal was once posted to Trinidad
From Caribbean360
The man appointed to clean up the Vatican bank was transferred to T&T from Uruguay after that country’s nuncio reportedly appealed for his removal.
ROME, Italy, Wednesday July 24, 2013 – Italian weekly news magazine L’Espresso has suggested that Pope Francis has just made the first serious error of his pontificate.
The report, published on the eve of the pope’s departure for the World Youth celebrations currently underway in Brazil, claims that Francis unknowingly appointed an actively gay Vatican monsignor to a senior post in the scandal-riddled Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).
The L’Espresso article claims that 57-year-old Monsignorr Battista Ricca, who last month was nominated as secretary to the commission of cardinals who oversee the affairs of IOR, has a colourful and well-documented gay past.
According to the Irish Times, L’Espresso claims that in 1999 to 2000, when Monsignor Ricca served as pro-nuncio in Uruguay, he had a “ménage à deux” in the Vatican nunciature with his then lover, Swiss army captain Patrick Haari.
It also claims he was involved in a brawl at a gay bar in 2001 and, in the same year, was involved in an embarrassing incident when he got stuck in the elevator in the nunciature and was subsequently discovered by the firefighters who released him to be in the company of “a young man well known to the police”.
Ultimately, the new full-time nuncio to Uruguay, Polish bishop Janusz Bolonek, appealed to Rome for the removal of Monsignor Ricca. He was transferred to the Trinidad and Tobago embassy before being recalled to Rome in 2005.
According to the L’Espresso report, Captain Haari allegedly left a trunk containing his belongings in the Uruguay nunciature. It was later found to contain a gun, condoms and pornographic material.
While a senior Vatican spokesman described the L’Espresso report as “unreliable,” the Irish Times indicated that some commentators wonder if details of Ricca’s past were deliberately omitted by Curia advisers to trip up the reform-minded Pope Francis.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Daily Mail quoted the Italian publication as claiming that Ricca only got the position as IOR prelate after the supposedly powerful “gay lobby” in the Vatican “airbrushed” his CV.
The allegations come a month after Pope Francis acknowledged the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican’s secretive administration for the first time.
Speaking during an audience with Latin American Catholics last month, the Argentine Pontiff said that there was a “current of corruption” in the Roman Curia – the central governing body of the Catholic Church.
He also admitted the existence of a long-rumoured “gay lobby” in the Curia, and hinted that he might take action over the issue.
The Daily Mail report noted that the Vatican is no stranger to gay sex scandals
In 2010, it was reported that one of Pope Benedict’s ceremonial ushers and a member of the Vatican choir were involved in a gay prostitution ring.(Irish Times/Daily Mail)
PHOTO: The man appointed to clean up the Vatican bank was transferred to T&T from Uruguay after that country’s nuncio reportedly appealed for his removal.
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Pope sacks top Slovenian clergy over financial scandal
From Zeenews
Vatican City: Pope Francis on Wednesday sacked Slovenia’s two top Catholic clerics over a financial scandal that has reportedly left one archdiocese with a budget shortfall of EUR 800 million (USD 1.1 billion).
The Vatican said in a statement that the pope had “accepted the resignation” of Archbishop of Ljubljana Anton Stres and the Archbishop of Maribor Marjan Turnsek.
Tiny Slovenia only has two Catholic archdioceses.
Both are leaving under canon law rules for a bishop “who because of illness or some other grave reason has become unsuited for the fulfilment of his office”.
Slovenian media quoted by Italian news agency ANSA reported allegations that risky financial mismanagement by the two archbishops had left the archdiocese of Maribor bankrupt.
Turnsek’s predecessor in Maribor, Franc Kramberger, was forced to resign in 2011 after the scandal over investments made by the Catholic Church in Slovenia first came to light.
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