From The New York Times:
A singer in an elite Vatican choir and a jailed Italian public works executive who served as a papal usher were let go by the Vatican this week amid allegations that they were involved in what prosecutors believe was an organized network of gay prostitution, Italian news media reported.
Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian who sang in a choir that performs at St. Peter’ Basilica, was dismissed after the center-left daily newspaper La Repubblica reported Wednesday that he had procured men, including seminarians, for Angelo Balducci, a former member of the board of Italy’ public works department who was arrested and jailed last month on corruption charges.
After his arrest, Mr. Balducci was removed from his Vatican post in The Gentlemen of His Holiness, an elite group of ushers who serve at the Apostolic Palace when visiting dignitaries meet the pope, the ANSA news agency reported Thursday, citing Vatican sources.
Well, there’s not much I can really add to this. We have a rabidly homophobic Pope hell-bent on imposing his anti-gay views. Under his leadership there has been an upswing, particularly in America, of political activism in an effort to “purify” the church and keep discrimination against LGBT people legal.
Yet, the Pope’s lovely home is turned in to a red light district by staffers when he presumably is not looking. This is what you can sometimes expect with Vatican sexual values – which are often based on repression, the closet, secrecy, hypocrisy and dishonesty.
It is time Rome reevaluates its stringent rule book and stops living in Medieval times. They should join the modern age by:
1) Allowing openly gay priests
2) Allowing female priests
3) Allowing priests to marry
Until these common-sense changes are made, expect more tawdry headlines and shocking scandals, of all kinds, to flow from the musty chambers of the Vatican.
