"Rule" of Vatican "Closet" Top Catholic Bishops Who Attack Homosexuality Are More Likely to Be Gay, Explosive New Book Claims

By Neal Baker
The Sun
February 14, 2019

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8423262/gay-bishops-in-the-closet-of-the-vatican-book-homosexuality/

SENIOR Catholic bishops who attack homosexuality are MORE likely to be gay, an explosive new book claims.

A 570-page expose titled In The Closet Of The Vatican is set to "reveal secrets" about celibacy and "hypocrisy" at the heart of the Catholic church, publishers say.

An explosive new book claims that senior figures in the Catholic church who are more vocal in attacking homosexuality are more likely to be gay themselves (stock image)

Among its most startling claims is an alleged "rule" about top figures in the church who condemn homosexuality, Catholic news site The Tablet reports.

According to sources close to the book, author Frederic Martel suggests that senior clerics who are more vocal in their criticism of homosexuality are more likely to be gay themselves.

The French journalist and sociologist is said to have spent four years carrying out 1,500 interviews with dozens of clergy and other Vatican sources.

His landmark book - which will send shock-waves through the Catholic church - is due to be published next week.

MALE PROSTITUTES

Many priests maintain discreet long-term relationships - while some live double lives having casual sex with gay partners and using male prostitutes, the book allegedly finds.

Also among the most incendiary claims is the suggestion that up to four in five priests working in the Vatican are gay - although they may not be sexually active.

Bloomsbury, the British publisher, describes In The Closet Of The Vatican as a "startling account of corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of the Vatican."

SHOCKWAVES IN THE CHURCH

The book will be published in eight languages across 20 countries next Wednesday - to coincide with the opening of a Vatican conference on sexual abuse.

Martel, a former adviser to the French government, alleges that Colombian cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo was among the most vociferous defenders of church teaching on homosexuality - while also being gay.

Trujillo - a senior Vatican figure - regularly used male prostitutes, the book claims.

Critics of the book said "it is not always easy to tell when Martel is trafficking in fact, rumour, eyewitness accounts or hearsay," according to the Tablet.

The book does not make links between the allegedly widespread homosexuality among priests and child sex abuse in the church, sources say.

Although In The Closet Of The Vatican does reportedly claim that gay priests felt compelled to keep quiet about reports of abuse to avoid their sexuality being exposed.

Martel is a non-believer and is gay.

Among his interviewees were 41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignors, 45 papal ambassadors or diplomatic officials, 11 Swiss guards and more than 200 priests and seminarians, The Tablet reported.

Frederic Martel says he carried out as many as 1,500 interviews during four years researching and writing his book

As many as four in five Vatican priests could be gay, according to the book

In the Closet of the Vatican claims Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo used male prostitutes while attacking homosexuality, the book claims

Pope Francis is holding a Vatican conference on sexual abuse next week - on the day the book is published