Business as Usual in the Catholic Church

Yeah?

Can somebody out there fill me in on why the Roman Catholic Church always gets a free pass?

They don’t think so, of course. To them, everybody is out to get them, liberals and atheists (raise your hand, Marc) are spreading lies and filth, and the only thing these alleged victims are looking for is…you got it.

And there is a case to be made for Time magazine making Francis Person of the Year. He is, apparently, taking on the Curia—which makes him a stronger man than I. He may be reforming the Vatican Bank, which needs it. And yes, refusing to live in the palace and driving your old, beat-up car is endearing.

But let’s be very clear—theologically, he’s not budging. And if you’re standing on one leg waiting for any movement on the ordination of women, priestly celibacy, ordination of openly gay priests—well, you’d better have a great sense of balance.

Because it’s clear—it’s business as usual in the Vatican.

Think I’m wrong? Consider the case of Jozef Wesolowski, the papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Ooops, that’s former papal nuncio, since Wesolowski skipped town—err, was recalled by the Vatican—shortly before the allegations of child molesting were aired on Dominican television. Nor was he alone—his pal Alberto Gil was also screwing around, and shot back to his native Poland when the water got a little hot.

How can this be, you are saying in horror. Aren’t these guys supposed to stay put, face the charges? Isn’t the church supposed to be cooperating with the local authorities?

Well, that’s what I thought….

Nor was all of this confined to the Dominican Republic, since Wesolowski was also spending quite a bit of time here in Puerto Rico, investigating our archbishop for allegedly injecting politics into the church (the archbishop favors independence, and doesn’t care who knows it). So Wesolowski spent a good deal of time in the next diocese over—Arecibo—where he reportedly slept with a group of boys. Oh, and one local priest was suspended. Readers, take note. Arecibo is—in some way or another—American soil. If Wesolowski did indeed engage in criminal behavior in Arecibo, he’s subject to Puerto Rico and—by extension—US law.

Or is he? Because he is also part of the Vatican “diplomatic” corps. The Vatican, you see, is a nation as well as a church, and so gets to have diplomats. And they diplomatic immunity, which Wikipedia defines thus:

Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws, although they can still be extradited.

Presumably this means the Wesolowski can screw all the kids in Christendom and get away with it. So for a time—in September of this year—there was a great to-do in the media. And then what happened?

The church is very wise, and moves on its own time. And if you had to bet between the church and a glacier in some imagined race? Put your money on the glacier.

The church is conducting an investigation. Now you can say “whew” and wipe the sweat off your brow. But that also means—quite reasonably—that they cannot comment on the affair. They did, however, get around to appointing a new papal nuncio to—guess where? And he was sworn in or inaugurated or whatever-it-is last month. Oh, and here’s what he the article said:

Santo Domingo - El arzobispo nigeriano Jude Thaddeus Okolo reconoció hoy, tras recibir oficialmente la bienvenida como el nuevo embajador del Vaticano en República Dominicana, que tendrá que hacer un "gran esfuerzo" para enfrentar los "desafíos" que entraña su misión en esta nación.

(Santo Domingo - The Nigerian archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo acknowledged today, after receiving officially the welcome as new ambassador from the Vatican to the Dominican Republic, that he will have to make a “great effort” to take on the “challenges” which are attached to his mission in the nation.)

Guys? Hope you were listening well, because guess what? That’s all you’re gonna get.

My complaint isn’t with the Vatican, which is doing what every organization would do. If the manager of a Walmart in Blowyournose, Idaho, kills stray dogs in the parking lot, The New York Times will write about it, and Bentonville will express its official horror, state that an investigation is being conducted, state that their administrative policy specifically forbids the poisoning of strays, and release a photo of Sam with his hunting dog, Ol’ Roy.

What bugs me is the lack of follow-up. Google “pederastia Arecibo” and you’ll find the most recent news to be from last month, and oh…it’ll be a great chance to bone up on your Polish.

But wait—the story gets more interesting. It now appears that Gil—who had been hiding not very originally in his parents’ house—will be tried in Poland for abusing seven minors. Oh, and the same report has this to say:

Entretanto, denunció que el exrepresentante del Vaticano fue sacado del país con documentación ilegal y habló de una presunta red internacional de pederastia detrás de los acusados Wesolowski y Gil, la cual lleva niños desde la República Dominicana a Polonia.

(Among other things, he [ex-priest Alberto Athié] decried that the ex-representative of the Vatican was removed from the country with illegal documentation and spoke of a presumed international web of pedastry behind the accused Wesolowski and Gil, who took children from the Dominican Republic to Poland.) 

And all of this happened on Francis’s watch, since a Dominican prelate had tipped the pope off in August of this year. So Time? Francis is not the Person of the Year….

…just the Image of the Year.

Vatican Airs

Well, as a gay man who is peculiarly fascinated by the Vatican, of course I had to read it. And I give it to you straight from The New York Times….

Striking a breathtakingly conciliatory approach to a hot-button issue that has divided Catholics, Pope Francis on Monday said that he would not judge priests for their sexual orientation. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said, according to media reports.

“Breathtakingly conciliatory?” Well, maybe. Certainly it’s a step—but presumably the pope is still toeing the line about being gay—that’s no problem. Acting on it? A sin.

Actually, it may be that the real sin is coming out and saying, “yeah, I’m gay and yeah, I have sex with men.” Because we all know—minimally 30% of the priesthood is gay. Find me a gay Catholic who thinks it’s that low, in fact, and I’ll buy you dinner.

So it’s no surprise that the rumor swirling around the Vatican is that the director, Battista Ricca, of the guest house where Francis is hanging out is gay. And apparently gay with a past—when he was with the nunciature of Montevideo, Uruguay in 1999, he was living more or less openly with a Swiss army captain, Patrick Haari. Here’s what one writer had to say:

The intimacy of the relations between Ricca and Haari was so open as to scandalize numerous bishops, priests, and laity of that little South American country, not least the sisters who attended to the nunciature.

Nor was that all. The Telegraph reports that Ricca visited an area frequented by “known homosexuals,” got into a fight, or got jumped—at any rate, he had to call priests to come get him home. His face apparently was bloody or swollen.

Then there was the time he got stuck in the elevator in the middle of the night—now was he alone, but with a younger man. All this, according to the Telegraph, was sufficient to get him shipped off to Trinidad and Tobago in 2004, where he also “butted heads” with the nunciature. So he was sent back to the Vatican, and set to the task of running the Domus Sanctae Marthae—which is where Francis presumably bumped into him.

And now, Francis has appointed Ricca to be the pope’s eyes and ears in the Vatican Bank, or the Institute for the Works of Religion, its formal name. Well, if so—he could start by zeroing in on the interesting case of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who is accused of using his account at the bank to launder money. Here’s Catholic News Agency on the matter:

The investigation concerns transactions Msgr. Scarano made in 2009.

At that time, he took 560,000 euro in cash out of his personal Vatican bank account and carried it into Italy, to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home.

According to the Salerno public prosecutor, Msgr. Scarano asked 56 close friends to accept 10,000 euros in cash in exchange for writing a check of the same amount to deposit the money into an Italian bank account.


Nor is this the monsignor’s first brush with the law. You may remember, he was arrested in late June of this year for plotting to sneak in 26 million bucks in cash into Italy. And Ricca might also put his ears to any rumors regarding the source of Scarano’s wealth. Reports are that he is called “Monsignor 500” for the 500 euro notes that he reportedly carries on him at all times. Oh, and then there’s his penthouse, allegedly filled with fine art.

Well, it seems that Francis may choose to devote himself to the poor—a noble thing, indeed—but why about the spiritual needs of the rich? Scarano seems to concern himself not only with the spiritual but the temporal needs—and in particular the needs of the Agnelli family.

Nor is he alone; here’s what The Telegraph has to say:

According to officials at the Bank of Italy, the Institute for Works of Religion – the Vatican’s own offshore bank – has for years been allowing organized criminals, even terrorists, to launder money with impunity.

Well, all this brought down the director of the bank, Paolo Cipriani, as well as the assistant director, Massimo Tulli.

Well, the pope apparently is a vigorous guy, judging from his recent trip to Brazil. Great—he’s gonna have to be. Because in addition to it all, the UN has asked him to hand over files related to the sex abuse scandals. It seems that the Committee on the Rights of Children (CRC), a UN committee, has deemed this a human rights issue. Here’s what The Guardian says:

The information sought includes cases where priests were transferred to other parishes, "where instructions were given not to report such offences, and at which level of the clergy", and "where children were silenced in order to minimize the risk of public disclosure." The CRC has also asked for "the investigations and legal proceedings conducted under penal canon law against perpetrators of sexual crimes" and "the number of child victims who have been given assistance for recovery, including psychological support and social reintegration and have received financial compensation."

Oh, and did I mention Patrizio Poggio, an ex-priest who has served time for sex crimes, and who has (according to him) evidence that Roman priests had been buying the services of Romanian male prostitutes?

“Pray for me,” the pope says to everybody and his brother.

I begin to see why….