Prelate of Vatican bank reportedly ready to resign over ‘gay lobby’ scandal

The Prelate of the Vatican bank, Monsignor Battista Ricca, who is facing claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour, has offered to resign, according to an Italian news agency.

I Media, which specialises in covering the Vatican, say Monsignor Ricca offered his resignation to Pope Francis on Saturday, but it remains unknown if it’s been accepted.

Pope Francis, who appointed Monsignor Ricca to reform the Vatican bank in June, is currently on a tour of Brazil.

Earlier this month Italian journalist Sandro Magister, from the magazine L’Espresso, claimed Monsignor Ricca provided accommodation and a job for a male companion while he was assigned as a Vatican diplomat in Uruguay between 1999 and 2001.

According to Mr Magister, when Monsignor Ricca arrived he arranged for a male friend and captain in the Swiss army to live with him in the embassy, it is said that the “intimacy” of their relationship created a scandal.

Mr Magister also claimed Monsignor Ricca brought a “young man” back to the embassy and ended up getting trapped in a lift with him overnight.

The journalist stated that although the incidents were well known, they were deliberately omitted from Monsignor Ricca’s Vatican file, so that Pope Francis learned of the allegations only after appointing him to his position at the Vatican bank last month.

Mr Magister suggested this was done under the basis of their being a “gay lobby” to protect Monsignor Ricca.

In response, a Vatican spokesman dismissed the allegations as “not credible”.

Many Catholic commentators are saying Monsignor Ricca’s position is “untenable”.

The Vatican has not commented on the I Media report.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/07/23/prelate-of-vatican-bank-reportedly-ready-to-resign-over-gay-lobby-scandal/

    ..Got trapped in a lift with him overnight!...You just have to laugh at the hypocrisy of the Catholic business really these revelations are such a hoot!

He must have pushed the emergency button accidently on purpose!  

Loving some of the comments in the gay press...

I find this article very funny…poor old Francis…gays to my left and gays to my right…I wonder if he goes to bed every night with a shocking migraine.

On the bright side for Francis…at least this scandal involved men and not boys.

And I thought it was the Swiss Guard not army.

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Godric Godricson 4 HOURS AGO REPORT Thumb up 9Thumb down
“Monsignor Ricca brought a “young man” back to the embassy and ended up getting trapped in a lift with him overnight”

Sounds like Father Ted in the lingerie department? Another thought….how convenient to be trapped in a lift with a young man?

    

In a significant development Pope Francis has said that gay people should not be judged or marginalised and should be integrated into society.

Speaking to reporters on Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican following his trip to Brazil, the global Catholic leader said: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

However, he also referred to the Catholic Church’s universal Catechism, which states that while being gay is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalised because of this, but that they must be integrated into society,” he said.

Pope Francis has often used emotive language in order to state his opposition towards equality – and today’s comments are striking.

Three years ago as cardinal he warned that efforts to legalise equal marriage in Argentina would “confuse and deceive the children of God.”

In June, he warned the French against following “fashionable ideas” in relation to the country’s equal marriage law.

Onboard his flight back to Rome, the 76-year-old was also quizzed by journalists about allegations of indiscretion regarding the Prelate of the Vatican bank, Monsignor Battista Ricca.

Monsignor Ricca is facing claims of inappropriate sexual behaviour and reportedly offered to resign.

Pope Francis said he had investigated the claims and found nothing to back up the allegations.

According to the National Catholic Reporter, he said: “I did what canon law requires, which is to conduct a preliminary investigation. We didn’t find anything to confirm the things he was accused of, there was nothing … I’d like to add that many times we seem to seek out the sins of somebody’s youth and publish them. We’re not talking about crimes, which are something else.

“The abuse of minors, for instance, is a crime. But one can sin and then convert, and the Lord both forgives and forgets. We don’t have the right to refuse to forget … it’s dangerous. The theology of sin is important. St Peter committed one of the greatest sins, denying Christ, and yet they made him pope! Think about that.”

Turning to the issue of women priests, he said the Church had spoken and had said “no”, but the role of women should not be restricted.

“We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more,” he said.

Pope Francis joked about claims of a “gay lobby” operating at the heart of the Vatican by saying: “There’s a lot of talk about the gay lobby, but I’ve never seen it on the Vatican ID card!”

“When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby. If they accept the Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them? They shouldn’t be marginalised. The tendency [of homosexuality] is not the problem … they’re our brothers.”

“The problem is not having this orientation,” he said. “We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.”

In June, a Latin American Catholic Church group apologised for the “confusion” caused by the publication of members’ accounts of a meeting with Pope Francis where he was quoted as referring to a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican’s secretive administration, the Curia.

The Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR) stressed the Pope’s comments had not been recorded but were what CLAR members remembered of his answers to their questions.

Pope Francis was asked about the panel of cardinals he has set up to help him reform the Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administrative body.

He was quoted as replying: “…it is difficult. In the Curia, there are also holy people, really, there are holy people. But there also is a stream of corruption, there is that as well, it is true… The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there… We need to see what we can do…”

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/07/29/pope-francis-i-wont-judge-gay-priests-and-gay-people-should-not-be-marginalised/

   .....The plot thickens!

Have they found this young man that was trapped with the holy man in the lift yet...I would like to hear his testimony!

The Vatican has confirmed Pope Francis will be part of a select celebrity judging panel whose onerous and unenviable task will be to pick this years Mr.GayUK
The ticket-only event will be held on 26th September at Submission Impossible, Leeds premiere gay nightclub. Conveniently located near a bus stop at the back of The White Rose shopping centre, just off J28 of the M62 - the nightclub says every one is welcome - gay or straight.
Pope Francis....or ‘Poppers’ as he is affectionately known in gay circles.... will join cast members from some of TVs most popular soaps, including Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Newsnight as they work their way through over 100 hopefuls all vying to be crowned Mr.GayUK.
This years contest will be hosted by Barnsley reserve goalkeeper Reg Butterworth, the first openly gay third choice goalkeeper in the Football League.
The Pope said he is looking forward to working with the six finalists.

(Hold on....I think we know where this is heading. Let’s call a halt to it shall we, before it gets mucky)

PF : What about the guy from Cleethorpes.....second from the left?
PB : Have I missed the biscuits?




   

Classic! :D 

Adrian Messenger wrote:Classic! :D 

 I used to get angry but i think that now all peoples see the Catholic church as a comedy circus tbf!