A teen was accused of abuse inside Vatican City. Powerful church figures helped him become a priest.

Washington Post ^ | July 12, 2021 | Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli

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A teen was accused of abuse inside Vatican City.
Powerful church figures helped him become a priest.

VATICAN CITY — The warnings started coming eight years ago, sent to some of the most powerful figures in the Roman Catholic Church, alerting them to a potential sex abuse crime that stood out from other church cases.

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The profile of the alleged abuser, by itself, was unusual: not a priest, but rather a teenage altar boy, who was said to have coerced a peer to engage in various sex acts night after night over six years. And then there was the purported location: inside the Vatican’s own walls, at a youth seminary for the 15 or so altar boys who served the pope.

“Right now a boy is there who should no longer be there,” read an anonymous letter sent to Pope Francis and several cardinals in 2013, informing the just-elected pontiff of an alleged offender “20 meters away from where you sleep.”

The alleged abuser had even participated in the pontiff’s first Mass in the Sistine Chapel.

For a church trying to better contend with abuse and coverup across its empire, the warnings about Gabriele Martinelli were a direct institutional test. The events described in the anonymous letter, as well as in accounts from the alleged victim and a witness, were said to have taken place right under the church’s nose. By 2013, the complaints about Martinelli had been communicated to the pope and a who’s who of cardinals and bishops. The next year, the Vatican’s third-ranking official wrote a letter that referred to the accusations and asserted that the pope “knows the case well.”.

And yet, in 2017, Martinelli was ordained a priest.

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One high-level church official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to summarize internal church thinking, said the Vatican had believed Martinelli “could not be accused of sex abuse” because he was just 221 days older than the fellow altar boy. People familiar with the case say this assumption was reflected in the church’s response to warnings and caused authorities to overlook a key factor in the relationship between Martinelli and the alleged victim: Martinelli had the power.

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Ping

[Pollard]

Wonder where he learned that behavior from?

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Gabriele Martinelli holds a missal for Pope Francis during the new pontiff’s first Mass in the Sistine Chapel in March 2013. (Vatican Media)

[Vermont Lt]

Just reading the headline, I would suggest he passed the “quick test” for being a priest.

[humblegunner]

Later he grew up and started posting cryptic stuff on 8Chan.

The legend of Qanon.

[Bloodandgravy]

Oh, he must have been popular.

[grey_whiskers]

Wonder where he learned that behavior from?

Why isn't Hunter Biden a Cardinal? Is it because he just does women?

[miserare]

Sounds like Marcio Maciel and his Legionnaries.

He was one of the sickest, most prolific pederasts at the Vatican.

[AlaskaErik]

He’s got a bright future ahead of him in the church.

[AlaskaErik]

He was one of the sickest, most prolific pederasts pedophiles at the Vatican.

Fixed it for you.

[Salvation]

Another Catholic-bashing post from the WashingPost? Not worth reading?

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Not worth reading?