Catholic Priests' Gay Nightlife

[3113]

Literally, of course. (I dunno. I kinda think this plot bunny is rather obvious, but maybe it'll inspire a good gay male romance?):

A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out.
Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.

Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year. A preview of the Panorama article sent out by email last night added that video footage from the investigation would be made available. The article describes how the reporter was assisted by a gay 'accomplice' as they 'gate-crashed the wild nights of a number of priests in Rome who live a surprising double-life.'

In it's preview, Panorama added: 'By day they are regular priests, complete with dog collar, but, at night it's off with the cassock as they take their place as perfectly integrated members of the Italian capital's gay scene.'

Full story here.

Actually, the thing I find most interesting is that there's three of them who go together to these nightclubs.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That's what the Vatican gets for forcing dedicated gay clergymen underground. If they just returned to the pre-XIV Century practice of sanctifying same-sex relations there would be no more scandal than there is when Protestant clergy have big families with the spouses they are married to. But no, denial is not just a river in Egypt.

 

[3113]

That's what the Vatican gets for forcing dedicated gay clergymen underground. If they just returned to the pre-XIV Century practice of sanctifying same-sex relations there would be no more scandal than there is when Protestant clergy have big families with the spouses they are married to. But no, denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Well, but it's not like the Vatican has kept there from being an openly gay community and nightlife in Italy--not in this day and age. It seems to be thriving. And if one really wants to be a priest, we presume that one is on board with the whole celibacy requirement.

So I wonder if it's less the Pope that forced these guys underground than their mothers who kept wondering why they weren't dating girls? Becoming priests gave them a plausible excuse?

 

[Kev H]

Oops! More faithful representations of heaven. The secret's out.

Serious though. Either the devil is really winning the upper hand (as prophesied in Revelations, if memory serves), or it's becoming more transparent how bogus the claims of purity/sanctity have always been.

 

[bronzeage]

The whole thing seems kind of mean to me. Being a Priest is a job. One has to show up for work in the morning, carry out your tasks and get paid.

It has to be a shock to wake up one morning and you are in the paper for going to gay clubs.

The magazine cover shows masculine hands with pink fingernail polish, holding a rosary. I can't read the original article ( I assume it's written in Italian), but this caught my eye:

"Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.

Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year.
A preview of the Panorama article sent out by email last night added that video footage from the investigation would be made available."

It sounds like three lowly priests have gotten caught in a power play between the Italian government and the Vatican.

The basic sin of the Priests, beyond the violation of their celibacy vows, would seem to be hypocrisy. That is not actually a crime in any jurisdiction of which I am familiar. The hypocrisy seems to run both ways in this case.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I think it's Berlusconi just miffed because they aren't chasing women the way he's spent his entire life doing. How dare someone not want to imitate him!

 

[Kev H]

The whole thing seems kind of mean to me. Being a Priest is a job. One has to show up for work in the morning, carry out your tasks and get paid.

It has to be a shock to wake up one morning and you are in the paper for going to gay clubs.

[...]

The basic sin of the Priests, beyond the violation of their celibacy vows, would seem to be hypocrisy. That is not actually a crime in any jurisdiction of which I am familiar. The hypocrisy seems to run both ways in this case.

Ah, but you miss the point (or don't understand the Catholic dogma in regards to priests). Priests were thought to be direct decedents of the original twelve apostles (not blood relation, mind you--they weren't that whacked). As such, they claim the only divine intercession abilities (much like the early Hebrew priests back before the Romans got tired of the terrorist actions and rebellions, and razed the only seat of God's presence on earth--oops for that God).

Sometime in the Middle Ages (I don't feel like re-researching the particulars), the most holy pope and council of bishops declared celibacy to be something of a gift-testament to this fact, which dealt in the spiritual aspects of purity (and therefore, supreme power/influence/control). So, if you need to be pure in this sense to be a true priest (and sanctified to do your holy duty to God), guess what? Exactly. Butt fucking and blowing loads with "friends" and raping kids and even having wives are all right off the list!

Sure, these are only a few (hundred) "make-believe" priests who do these kinds of things and therefore have no business "going to work" and calling themselves holy intercessors to the divine. But, doesn't that make their entire ideology of sanctity suspect?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Of course the article mentions gay sex and pedophilia in the same breath. They always do. These men enjoy each other, at least-- not their altar boys.

 

[bronzeage]

Ah, but you miss the point (or don't understand the Catholic dogma in regards to priests). Priests were thought to be direct decedents of the original twelve apostles (not blood relation, mind you--they weren't that whacked). As such, they claim the only divine intercession abilities (much like the early Hebrew priests back before the Romans got tired of the terrorist actions and rebellions, and razed the only seat of God's presence on earth--oops for that God).

Sometime in the Middle Ages (I don't feel like re-researching the particulars), the most holy pope and council of bishops declared celibacy to be something of a gift-testament to this fact, which dealt in the spiritual aspects of purity (and therefore, supreme power/influence/control). So, if you need to be pure in this sense to be a true priest (and sanctified to do your holy duty to God), guess what? Exactly. Butt fucking and blowing loads with "friends" and raping kids and even having wives are all right off the list!

Sure, these are only a few (hundred) "make-believe" priests who do these kinds of things and therefore have no business "going to work" and calling themselves holy intercessors to the divine. But, doesn't that make their entire ideology of sanctity suspect?

I think I get the point. I know enough priests in real life and have read a little about Catholic dogma. There are a lot of priests in many countries who compartmentalize their professional and private lives. It may or may not be more common in Italy, but it is seen everywhere.

The magazine is not interested in Catholic dogma, or helping the church cleanse its ranks of sodomites. This is a political squeeze play and these three men are caught in the middle. It's not much different than the reporters who set up hidden cameras and catch city employees sleeping in their trucks.

The origin of celibacy is an economic issue. As church wealth grew, nepotism and priestly accumulation of wealth became a problem. In previous times, this problem was solved by employing eunuchs. A man with no family and no chance of ever having one was less concerned with building a fortune which would be left behind when he died.

Like any other economic necessity, it's easy to find a spiritual justification, after the fact.

 

[Huckleman2000]

[...]So I wonder if it's less the Pope that forced these guys underground than their mothers who kept wondering why they weren't dating girls? Becoming priests gave them a plausible excuse?

Of course their mothers played a role. I remember mothers talking about their boys, "Peter would make a good altar boy", said with the barest of winks. The priesthood or the theater are where mothers shunted their gay sons, that's just how things were handled then, I guess.

 

[3113]

The whole thing seems kind of mean to me. Being a Priest is a job. One has to show up for work in the morning, carry out your tasks and get paid.

Not get paid, actually. There's that pesky vow of poverty to go along with the chastity.

And no, no crime at all going on. I'm not even sure it's a defrocking offense--as ordaining women and sexually abusing children now are.

 

[dailysextoys]

The whole thing seems kind of mean to me. Being a Priest is a job. One has to show up for work in the morning, carry out your tasks and get paid.

priests get paid? anybody know how much?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

priests get paid? anybody know how much?

No, they don't. Vow of poverty and all that. It's what made monasteries such economic powerhouses during the Middle Ages and led to modern capitalism. You'd have these large estates full of men whose vows required them to work hard but who got no monetary recompense. So whatever they didn't need, they either gave to the poor or sold. What they sold became pure cash profit. So what to do with all that money? Lend it out, of course. This naturally made even more money. Got pretty confusing there, from a theological standpoint.

 

[dailysextoys]

No, they don't. Vow of poverty and all that. It's what made monasteries such economic powerhouses during the Middle Ages and led to modern capitalism. You'd have these large estates full of men whose vows required them to work hard but who got no monetary recompense. So whatever they didn't need, they either gave to the poor or sold. What they sold became pure cash profit. So what to do with all that money? Lend it out, of course. This naturally made even more money. Got pretty confusing there, from a theological standpoint.

BRB starting a religion