[Campion]

This is of course the usual garbage you expect from the UK media -- and it's the Guardian, so it's left-wing UK media -- whenever the Catholic Church is concerned.

As it eventually explains, Balducci is an official of the Italian government, not the Vatican. (IOW, he's not a priest, not the Pope's right hand man, doesn't tuck him in at night, etc., etc., etc.)

He holds an honorific title as a "Gentleman of His Holiness," which the article describes as a "ceremonial usher".

I don't think the "Vatican chorister" is a priest, either. He's a singer.

To put it in terms that a British audience would understand, it's as though someone the Queen had knighted was consorting with a minor employee of Buckingham palace to procure homosexual partners.

"Palace, Queen Rocked By Gay Sex Scandal" ... no, somehow I can't see it. Only if the Pope is involved somehow.

[Cardhu]

It is probably all that you say - but what a strange place to contact your own procurer unless he is a well know go-to guy among the cognoscenti for that sort of thing.

[HarleyD]

As it eventually explains, Balducci is an official of the Italian government, not the Vatican. (IOW, he's not a priest, not the Pope's right hand man, doesn't tuck him in at night, etc., etc., etc.)

From the article:

Balducci is also a senior adviser to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the department that oversees the Roman Catholic church's worldwide missionary activities.

Sounds to me that he's more than an Italian government official.

[Iscool]

I don't think the "Vatican chorister" is a priest, either. He's a singer.

A chorister is usually a 'boy' singer...