Vatican official insists he's not gay

Yahoo! News ^ | Oct 14, 2007 | NICOLE WINFIELD

[Alex Murphy]

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican official suspended after being caught on hidden camera making advances to a young man says he is not gay and was only pretending to be gay as part of his work.

In an interview published Sunday, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico told La Repubblica daily he frequented online gay chat rooms and met with gay men as part of his work as a psychoanalyst. He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about "those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity."

Vatican teaching holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with compassion and dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

The Vatican said Saturday it was suspending Stenico after he was secretly filmed making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful during a television program on gay priests broadcast Oct. 1 on La7, a private Italian television network.

While Stenico's face was blurred in the footage, church officials recognized his Vatican office in the background and suspended him pending a church investigation.

There have long been allegations that there are gays in the Roman Catholic priesthood, but the Stenico case is unusual because he is a relatively high-ranking Vatican official. He heads an office in the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy — the main office overseeing all the world's priests.

The case comes at a particularly sensitive time, just two years after the Vatican issued tough new guidelines effectively barring gays from the priesthood — seen in large part as a response to complaints about a "gay subculture" in U.S. seminaries.

The guidelines say the church cannot admit men to the priesthood who practice homosexuality, or have "deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture." However, the document said that if the gay tendencies were just a "transitory problem," the men can be ordained deacons if they successfully overcome those tendencies for three years.

In the Repubblica interview, Stenico said he had never been gay and was heterosexual, but remained faithful to his vow of celibacy. He said he expected to be fully exonerated after a review.

"It's all false; it was a trap. I was a victim of my own attempts to contribute to cleaning up the church with my psychoanalyst work," La Repubblica quoted Stenico as saying.

Stenico said he had met with the young man and pretended to talk about homosexuality "to better understand this mysterious and faraway world which, by the fault of a few people — among them some priests — is doing so much harm to the church," La Repubblica quoted him as saying.

Italy's Sky TG24 said Stenico had written a letter to his superiors with a similar defense.

Calls placed to Stenico's home and office went unanswered Sunday.

In 2006, the Vatican denied Italian newspaper reports that an official in the office of the Secretary of State had been involved in a fight with police after he was stopped in a neighborhood frequented by transvestites and male prostitutes.

In 2002, a former official in the papal household, Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, resigned as archbishop of the Polish city of Poznan over accusations that he had made sexual advances toward young clerics. He denied the accusations.

[Alex Murphy]

This undated image released Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007 by Petrus http://www.papanews.it web site shows a prelate identified by the online paper as Mons. Tommaso Stenico. The Vatican said Saturday it has suspended a monsignor from a senior post at the Holy See after an Italian TV program, with a hidden camera, recorded him making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful. Contacted by telephone at his home by The Associated Press, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico confirmed that he had been suspended from his post at the congregation. 'Don't condemn me,'' Stenico said. 'The interview was done fraudulently,'' he added, referring to the hidden camera that was used by Italian TV network La7's program 'Exit.''(AP Photo/Petrus http://www.papanews.it web site, ho)

[doc1019]

I feel pretty, oh so pretty

I feel pretty and witty and bright

[MaxMax]

Que southpark episode.

[hole_n_one]

There have long been allegations that there are gays in the Roman Catholic priesthood,

If by "allegations" Winfield means documented, substantiated and incontrovertibly based in fact, then yeah, there have been allegations.

[doc1019]

LOL!

[doc1019]

As a matter of fact, your comment deserves another … LOL! Will be wiping the coffee off my keyboard for days.

[Obie Wan]

I’m not gay, I’m just happy !!!

[hole_n_one]

Like Rush always says, there has to be an element of truth for any joke to be funny.

In this instance, there isn't simply a tinge of truth, it's reeking of it.

[ConservativeMind]

Why can’t priests err on the side of heterosexuality more often?

How can 2% of the population make up 80% of the sexual problems in the Catholic church? Protestants at least fall on the more normal side of sexual proclivities.

[Unam Sanctam]

If the Catholic Church is so misguided, as you seem to think since you are always posting articles purposely to put the Catholic Church in a bad light, why not just ignore it and focus on your own Protestant Calvinist faith? It seems a lack of charity on your part, or do you not believe in religious toleration? And I suppose that all Calvinist Protestants are complete pillars of rectitude and never have any problems? Frankly, looking at the collapse of mainstream Protestantism (much of which, e.g. Congregationalists and Presbyterians, used to be Calvinist) into left-wing radicalism, I don’t think the Protestants in general have much to crow about these days. That said, I don’t see a lot of posts by Catholics purposely putting Protestants in bad light on Free Republic the way you do to Catholics. I suppose you are a believer in “Ecrasez l’infame”, the Whore of Babylon and all that. Frankly, you are fighting Reformation era fights that are not very relevant in the current day, given the tremendous power of radical secularism and how it is targeting all traditional Christianity, of whatever stripe. I would think it would be time for a little strategic ceasefire between traditional Protestant and Catholic believers in order to fight the forces of irreligion abroad in the land.

[Darkwolf377]

only pretending to be gay as part of his work.

I gotta admit, that's a puzzler...

[43north]

I would suggest that this guy get together with Larry Craig and they can not be gay together...

[driftdiver]

“Why can’t priests err on the side of heterosexuality more often?”

Because someone threw the key away to the Nuns chastity belt.

[driftdiver]

“And I suppose that all Calvinist Protestants are complete pillars of rectitude and never have any problems?”

Nope they are human too. In Protestant churches its winding down into two basic categories. Those that are moving left after allowing liberals to take over their leadership and as a result being abandoned by God loving people. There are still God loving people in those churches who refuse to admit where their church is going. These include PCUSA, Methodist, Episcopals, and of course those “there’s too much God in church” Unitarians.

The other is Bible based church like much of the Southern Baptists.

“I would think it would be time for a little strategic ceasefire between traditional Protestant and Catholic believers in order to fight the forces of irreligion abroad in the land.”

Good point

[11th Commandment]

I'm Not GAY!!! Not that there is anything wrong with that...

[VidMihi]

It is somewhat disturbing how often posts here attack the messenger or bring in totally unrelated references such as those to Protestant Calvinists in this thread.

That the Catholic priesthood is seen as a gay profession, that the number of heterosexual seminarians and priests who left the seminary and active ministry because of the dominant gay culture is very large, that research shows that a significant number (not all) of gay priests are sexually active and that a large number(not all) of heterosexual priests have girl friends or are secretly married and we find out only when the story hits the news which lately is becoming almost a weekly occurrence ...all of this is very discouraging to the good priests trying to build the Church with little support from their bishops many of whom (not all) are control freaks ......

... All this is ignored, denied, and those who dare to report it, not with the intent of attacking the Church but to bring to light a serious problem in hopes that an honest solution might be found .... they, the messengers, are attacked. Why? It seems to me that those who fail to be honest about real problems are as guilty as those who cause them.

[FourtySeven]

The Vatican said Saturday it was suspending Stenico after he was secretly filmed making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful during a television program on gay priests broadcast Oct. 1 on La7, a private Italian television network.

The last part disturbs me. If true, it's good he was suspended. Please pray for him everyone.

If the last part in bold is not true, (even though this is already a hostile thread against the Church) if anyone out there has any explaination as to it, I would most appreciate it, as I'm sure many others would.

Note, for those with reading comprehension difficulties, the reason the first part doesn't necessarily disturb me is because Mons. explained that was part of a plan on his part to help the gays in the chat room and elsewhere. Now, of course, if there is no explaination for the portion in bold, the previous portion would be disturbing as well, since then he's most likely lying about the previous portion's motives.

Let's remember though, he's been suspended; so much for any "coverup allegations" although they will probably surface as I write this if not sooner.

< puts flame suit on anyway since many are ready to bash without fully examining the facts >

[ichabod1]

There have long been allegations that there are gays in the Roman Catholic priesthood

Texas Has A Whorehouse In It!

[dfwgator]

The Vatican version of “Larry Craig.”

[ichabod1]

He’s not gay, he just has a wide stance.