Vatican insider identifies "prelate of the gay lobby"

Who said there's a well-entrenched gay lobby within the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church -- within the Vatican itself? Pope Francis, that's who! On June 6th the Holy Father told a group of religious from Latin America, "In the curia there is talk of a 'gay lobby.' And it is true, it's there." Unfortunately, the Pope said, he wasn't sure what he could do about it because he was (as yet?) "too disorganized".

Turns out Pope Francis didn't know for sure who amongst the hundreds of Vatican officials and functionaries were closet queens. Lots of fingers were pointed but not with enough certainty that action could be taken. 

Just a few days ago -- according to noted Vaticanista Sandra Magister, writing today in l'Espresso -- the Pope told an Argentinian friend, "It is not easy. Here there are many of the pope's 'bosses' with great seniority of service". Now, Sr Magister says, some of these "bosses" have hatched against [Pope] Bergoglio "the cruelest and most subtle deception since he was elected".

They kept in the dark important information, had the Pope known it before, would have kept him from appointing Monsignor Battista Ricca "prelate” of the Institute for Works of Religion (IoR), the mysterious "Vatican bank" which has for some time been under investigation for money laundering and other forms of (alleged) corruption.

Just one week after appointing the "prelate", Sr Magister tells us, the pope became aware, from multiple sources, of a "black hole" in Msgr Ricca's personal history. Msgr Ricca was sent to the Vatican's diplomatic mission to Uruguay in 1999. He brought with him a captain of the Swiss army [not the Swiss Guard -- the army of Switzerland. Ed.] named Patrick Haari. The two had met while Msgr Ricca was posted to Bern. Such a close relationship developed that Msgr Ricca demanded that his "friend" be given a role and a residence in the nunciature in Montevideo.

According to Sr Magister, "The intimacy of the relations between Ricca and Haari was so open as to scandalize numerous bishops, priests, and laity of the little South American country, not last the sisters who attended to the nunciature." There's much more to the story. For further sordid details, read the English version, "The Prelate of the Gay Lobby".

The real question, of course, is why no-one said anything about Msgr Ricca's "alternative lifestyle" before his appointment to head the IoR. Sr Magister write, "a blanket of public silence has covered until today these past episodes of the monsignor."

He continues, "at the Vatican there are some who actively promoted this cover-up operation. By blocking the investigations from the time of the events until today. By concealing the reports from the nuncio. By keeping Ricca's personal file immaculate. In this way they facilitated a prestigious new career for Ricca."

Sadly, Sr Magister is (for the moment) unable to name names. Cardinal Battista Re is 79. Cardinal Bertone is only 78.

Further reading: "Homosexuality condemned in the Word of God", published right here in WWW just over four years ago.

Innocent question: Speaking of monsignors... whatever became of Msgr Alan McCormack, formerly an official of the Archdiocese of Toronto, who was sued (in the Supreme Court of Ontario, a civil court) by Father Nicholas Gruner, for publishing the lie that Father Gruner is not a priest. Last we heard, Msgr McCormack had been transferred to the Vatican, then back to Canada, where he was Judicial Vicar of the Canadian Appeal Tribunal until his resignation in February of last year. Where he is now is yet another Mystery of the Church.