Gay Priest Scandal Rocks Rome

A news magazine accompanied a number of priests to gay clubs and engaged in casual sex. The Daily Mail reports:

A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out.

Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine – owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi – filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.

Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican – which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year.

The diocese of Rome responded that no one is forcing homosexual prelates to remain as priests. It said “we don’t want to hurt them” but their conduct “muddies the reputation of all the others.”

This is awful and it seems that the priests were in on it and they need to be handled immediately as they went out of their way to hurt the Church.

Update: Bloomberg reports:

The Vicar of Rome today called on homosexual clergymen in the Catholic Church to “come out” and leave the priesthood.

The Vicar of Rome, one of the most important positions in the Vatican, was responding to a report today in Panorama Magazine that said Catholic priests were conducting a double life, citing secret video footage.

“No one is forcing them to stay in the priesthood to exploit the benefits,” the Diocese of Rome said in a statement posted on its Web Site. “If they are coherent, they should come out into the open.”