Vatican Hit by Gay Sex Scandal Options

[Whitey]

Vatican Hit by Gay Sex Scandal

Dana Kennedy
AOL News

excerpt:

(March 4) -- The Vatican is at the center of a gay sex scandal involving a young chorister who allegedly procured men, including at least one seminarian, for a lay member of one of Pope Benedict's inner circles.

Angelo Balducci, a civil engineer and honorary Vatican usher, was quoted in police wiretaps allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican choir member, about the kind of men he wanted brought to him. Some of the wiretap transcripts were published Wednesday in the Italian daily La Repubblica.

Balducci has been a member since 1995 of "Gentlemen of His Holiness," an exclusive fraternity of ushers within the papal household who serve during state and special occasions. Members of the group bore Pope John Paul II's coffin in 2005.

This latest Vatican embarrassment, coming not long after Irish priests were summoned to Rome to discuss decades of clerical sexual abuse in Ireland, surfaced inadvertently as a result of a probe into corruption involving public works contracts.

Balducci, who sits on the board of Italy's public works council and is a construction consultant to the Vatican, was one of four people arrested in February in connection with the corruption probe. He has not yet been charged in that case, which remains open.

On Wednesday, La Repubblica published excerpts from the wiretaps and other police documents from the probe, which indicated Balducci was in regular contact with Ehiem, a member of the Vatican's Giulia Choir. Police identified him as part "of an organized network ... to abet male prostitution."

Among the men allegedly procured for Balducci, according to the transcripts, were "two black Cuban boys," a former male model from Naples and a rugby player from Rome.

Ehiem told Panorama magazine in an interview set to run Friday that he had been introduced to Balducci 10 years ago. The Guardian quoted Ehiem as saying: "He asked me if I could procure other men for him. He told me he was married and that I had to do it in great secrecy."


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[pict]

Vatican Hit by Gay Sex Scandal

This has nothing to do with the Vatican, this article is merely an anti-Catholic hit piece.

[SWRanger]

(IMG:http://www.novascotiascott.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ian_paisley.jpg)

Reverend Paisley: Haha...told you so !!!!!

[Whitey]

This has nothing to do with the Vatican, this article is merely an anti-Catholic hit piece.

Ok. So Angelo Balducci wasn't an usher for the pope? Or he wasn't arranging for a member of the choir to bring him male prostitutes? Please post your evidence of such. I am sure the pope would want to see it ASAP.

If there is contradicting evidence, then by all means post it so this innocent person may be cleared of the accusation.

[Mooga]

Yeah, this is the real McCoy: an honest-to-goodness Vatican gay sex scandal. Still, we ought to keep things in perspective. Is Signor Balducci the pope? No. A high-ranking member of any Vatican congregation? No. A professed religious? No. He's a male secretary -- practically gay by definition.

On the other hand, it's kind of fun to imagine secret gay dance clubs in the catacombs. Disco Inferno indeed.

This post has been edited by Mooga: Mar 5 2010, 02:24 PM

[MrStain]

Yeah, this is the real McCoy: an honest-to-goodness Vatican gay sex scandal. Still, we ought to keep things in perspective. Is Signor Balducci the pope? No. A high-ranking member of any Vatican congregation? No. A professed religious? No. He's a male secretary -- practically gay by definition.

On the other hand, it's kind of fun to imagine secret gay dance clubs in the catacombs. Disco Inferno indeed.

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/rofl.gif) That is why I love KC and the Sunshine Band. "Do a little dance. Make a little love. Get down tonight!"

[Buckwheat Jones]

Yeah, this is the real McCoy: an honest-to-goodness Vatican gay sex scandal. Still, we ought to keep things in perspective. Is Signor Balducci the pope? No. A high-ranking member of any Vatican congregation? No. A professed religious? No. He's a male secretary -- practically gay by definition.

On the other hand, it's kind of fun to imagine secret gay dance clubs in the catacombs. Disco Inferno indeed.

Now that's funny.

Nothing surprises me anymore. When the whole AIDs thing started up, a very well-liked (I was going to say well-loved, but that turned out to be his undoing) priest in the order I studied with died from this disease. There are just some people who can't˙keep their pants on and turn themselves into over-sized and overstuffed hypocrites. When they do their business, they don't stop to think of the damage they're doing to the rest of us to keep the faith.

[Mooga]

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/rofl.gif) That is why I love KC and the Sunshine Band. "Do a little dance. Make a little love. Get down tonight!"

As I was telling the minister's wife last night, because Latin, the Vatican's official language, is also the lingua franca of medical researchers, nearly all Curia jargon sounds kinky to me. "I saw them with my own eyes, officer! They were performing camerlengo, right in public!" "I wouldn't touch him with yours, Mary. I heard he caught a burning case of A.P. -- apostolic pronotary."

Nothing surprises me anymore. When the whole AIDs thing started up, a very well-liked (I was going to say well-loved, but that turned out to be his undoing) priest in the order I studied with died from this disease. There are just some people who can't˙keep their pants on and turn themselves into over-sized and overstuffed hypocrites. When they do their business, they don't stop to think of the damage they're doing to the rest of us to keep the faith.

When I hear about someone getting AIDS, I can't feel anything but bad for him.

I'm not sure what to think about Balducci. Whether or not he was being unusually indiscreet would depend on the relationship between the Vatican and the Italian tabloids. My sense has always been that they turn a blind eye in return for access, and that running this story marks a change in policy. In any case, he does seem to be awfully picky, ordering up two-meter ragazzi who weigh ninety-seven kilos. Does this guy have an El Greco fetish, or what?

This post has been edited by Mooga: Mar 5 2010, 03:15 PM

[pict]

Ok. So Angelo Balducci wasn't an usher for the pope? Or he wasn't arranging for a member of the choir to bring him male prostitutes? Please post your evidence of such. I am sure the pope would want to see it ASAP.

If there is contradicting evidence, then by all means post it so this innocent person may be cleared of the accusation.

Much as I realize you would agree with the author of the hit-piece as it suits your one of your pet hates, in this case Cristianity and Catholics in particular. The actions of these individuals have nothing at all to do with the Vatican, or the Catholic church itself. I realize you would like it to be but it boils down to one thing, and that is personal responsibility.

You claim to be a conservative, so I'm sure you have heard of "personal responsibility." Unless your personal hatred dismisses "personal responsibility" just because it suits your pet hate.

This post has been edited by pict: Mar 5 2010, 03:56 PM

[r12driver]

I only had to read the headline to figure out who would be posting it.

[Whitey]

Much as I realize you would agree with the author of the hit-piece as it suits your one of your pet hates, in this case Cristianity and Catholics in particular. The actions of these individuals have nothing at all to do with the Vactican, or the Catholic church itself. I realize you would like it to be but it boils down to one thing, and that is personal responsibility.

You claim to be a conservative, so I'm sure you have heard of "personal responsibility." Unless your personal hatred dismisses "personal responsibility" just because it suits your pet hate.

So then you have no contradicting evidence. Thanks for clearing that matter up. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[De Oppresso Libe...]

Vatican Hit by Gay Sex Scandal

Dana Kennedy
AOL News

excerpt:

(March 4) -- The Vatican is at the center of a gay sex scandal involving a young chorister who allegedly procured men, including at least one seminarian, for a lay member of one of Pope Benedict's inner circles.

Angelo Balducci, a civil engineer and honorary Vatican usher, was quoted in police wiretaps allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican choir member, about the kind of men he wanted brought to him. Some of the wiretap transcripts were published Wednesday in the Italian daily La Repubblica.

Balducci has been a member since 1995 of "Gentlemen of His Holiness," an exclusive fraternity of ushers within the papal household who serve during state and special occasions. Members of the group bore Pope John Paul II's coffin in 2005.

This latest Vatican embarrassment, coming not long after Irish priests were summoned to Rome to discuss decades of clerical sexual abuse in Ireland, surfaced inadvertently as a result of a probe into corruption involving public works contracts.

Balducci, who sits on the board of Italy's public works council and is a construction consultant to the Vatican, was one of four people arrested in February in connection with the corruption probe. He has not yet been charged in that case, which remains open.

On Wednesday, La Repubblica published excerpts from the wiretaps and other police documents from the probe, which indicated Balducci was in regular contact with Ehiem, a member of the Vatican's Giulia Choir. Police identified him as part "of an organized network ... to abet male prostitution."

Among the men allegedly procured for Balducci, according to the transcripts, were "two black Cuban boys," a former male model from Naples and a rugby player from Rome.

Ehiem told Panorama magazine in an interview set to run Friday that he had been introduced to Balducci 10 years ago. The Guardian quoted Ehiem as saying: "He asked me if I could procure other men for him. He told me he was married and that I had to do it in great secrecy."


<Full Link>

So?

Is this supposed to incriminate Catholics? Is this supposed to reflect upon Christians?

There are many gay conservatives, does that reflect poorly on conservatives? Does it reflect poorly upon themselves?

There are gay members here at RN that I hold in far higher esteem than many others. So what was the point of this article?

[Buckwheat Jones]

As I was telling the minister's wife last night, because Latin, the Vatican's official language, is also the lingua franca of medical researchers, nearly all Curia jargon sounds kinky to me. "I saw them with my own eyes, officer! They were performing camerlengo, right in public!" "I wouldn't touch him with yours, Mary. I heard he caught a burning case of A.P. -- apostolic pronotary."



When I hear about someone getting AIDS, I can't feel anything but bad for him.

I'm not sure what to think about Balducci. Whether or not he was being unusually indiscreet would depend on the relationship between the Vatican and the Italian tabloids. My sense has always been that they turn a blind eye in return for access, and that running this story marks a change in policy. In any case, he does seem to be awfully picky, ordering up two-meter ragazzi who weigh ninety-seven kilos. Does this guy have an El Greco fetish, or what?

I didn't mean to sound insensitive to the AIDs thing. but I dealt with this particular episode years ago, so I guess maybe the sense of discretion when speaking about it has sort of fallen by the wayside.

[pict]

So then you have no contradicting evidence. Thanks for clearing that matter up. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Why on earth would I want to provide contradictory evidence pertaining to a load of tosh? I realize you want to focus on some alleged dung hole stabbing by a couple of Catholics, and use said dung hole stabbing to attack the entire church.

But in reality, your comments merely prove you are being your usual self, this is why I'm laughing at you, heartily.

I notice too, you do dismiss the "personal responsibility" aspect, I'm really surprised about that, really I am.

Really!

This post has been edited by pict: Mar 5 2010, 03:25 PM

[cirej2000]

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/rofl.gif) S-s--soooooo transparent!

[lyria]

Much as I realize you would agree with the author of the hit-piece as it suits your one of your pet hates, in this case Cristianity and Catholics in particular. The actions of these individuals have nothing at all to do with the Vactican, or the Catholic church itself. I realize you would like it to be but it boils down to one thing, and that is personal responsibility.

You claim to be a conservative, so I'm sure you have heard of "personal responsibility." Unless your personal hatred dismisses "personal responsibility" just because it suits your pet hate.

If those people had equivalent positions in, say, the Department of Energy, the headline would read "Department of Energy hit by Gay Sex Scandal". Of course it would be less of a scandal given that the DoE has no stated position against homosexuality. This does not reflect poorly upon Catholic dogma or leadership per se, but to say that this has nothing to do with the Vatican would be to ignore the fact that they both worked there and that the organization has taken a rather vocal opinion against the same acts their employees are accused of. Yes, it does boil down to personal responsibility. Yes, it wasn't the Pope or a Cardinal or Archbishop who was trolling for tail. But it does, indisputably, involve the Vatican and to say otherwise smacks of incredible blindness towards the Church.

[pict]

If those people had equivalent positions in, say, the Department of Energy, the headline would read "Department of Energy hit by Gay Sex Scandal". Of course it would be less of a scandal given that the DoE has no stated position against homosexuality. This does not reflect poorly upon Catholic dogma or leadership per se, but to say that this has nothing to do with the Vatican would be to ignore the fact that they both worked there and that the organization has taken a rather vocal opinion against the same acts their employees are accused of. Yes, it does boil down to personal responsibility. Yes, it wasn't the Pope or a Cardinal or Archbishop who was trolling for tail. But it does, indisputably, involve the Vatican and to say otherwise smacks of incredible blindness towards the Church.

Well then let's see. If I practiced carnal knowledge with chickens, by your reckoning this should reflect on any organization or company I'm closely tied to.

Sorry, but your opinion is as nonsensical as the pet-hater, but if it makes you happy go for it.

[pict]

Unless of course, Lyria. I was a proud member of the chicken <censored>ing guild, then you'd have a point.

[Mooga]

Unless of course, Lyria. I was a proud member of the chicken <censored>ing guild, then you'd have a point.

Anything to discredit those bloodsucking unions works for me.

[pict]

Anything to discredit those bloodsucking unions works for me.

If it were unions, it would be the <censored>ing leeches guild.