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	Male Prostitution Scandal Adds to Gathering Clouds over the Vatican By Philip Willan Herald Sun March 7, 2010 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/male-prostitution-scandal-adds-to-gathering-clouds-over-the-vatican-1.1011608?localLinksEnabled=false VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI received a delegation of Italy's civil protection volunteers in the Vatican yesterday. But the gathering, to celebrate a year's reconstruction efforts in earthquake-stricken L'Aquila, took place under a cloud. The head of the civil protection agency, Guido Bertolaso, is under investigation for alleged corruption in the reconstruction projects. And telephone taps used by investigators last week brought the whiff of scandal uncomfortably close to the Vatican. On Thursday the Vatican announced the dismissal of Angelo Balducci, 61, a powerful civil servant responsible for overseeing public construction projects, from his ceremonial role as a gentleman-in-waiting to the Pope. Balducci is in prison for his alleged role in the scandal. But last week it emerged that police recording his phone calls for evidence of a corrupt exchange of favours had also stumbled on evidence of a homosexual prostitution ring organised by a Nigerian who sings in a Vatican choir. The intercepted conversations show Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, 40, procuring male prostitutes for Balducci. Some of these appear to have been ­seminarians, who had to return to their religious houses before an evening curfew. In an interview on Friday in the weekly magazine Panorama, Ehiem said he had been introduced to ­Balducci 10 years ago by a male escort. "He asked me if I could help him to find other men for him. He told me he was married and it had to be kept very secret," Ehiem told the magazine. "Sometimes he even asked for two meetings a day." The Vatican condemns homosexual acts as "intrinsically disordered". Ehiem has now lost his job in the choir, which normally sings in St Peter's Basilica when the Pope is not present. The publication of his conversations with Balducci has renewed controversy about the use of telephone taps in Italy. Balducci's lawyer, Franco Coppi, said: "It's a disgrace that things are published that have nothing to do with the inquiry." And Maurizio Belpietro, editor of the right-wing daily Libero, wrote: "Perhaps there's an urgent need to make him talk, to break his resistance in prison, and perhaps someone thought that destroying his reputation … might serve the purpose. If this is justice, then I prefer to defend Balducci." The Vatican was already looking increasingly embattled as allegations emerged of sexual abuse of children who were members of a German choir, during a period that it was run by the Pope's brother, Georg Ratzinger. Gerhard Muller, the bishop of Regensburg, acknowledged on Friday that his office was investigating allegations of sexual abuse among the "Little Singers" of Regensburg Cathedral between 1958 and 1973. The famous children's choir, whose origins date back more than 1000 years, was directed by Georg ­Ratzinger from 1964 to 1993. In an interview with German radio, Monsignor Ratzinger declined to comment on the allegations, saying only: "I am not aware of any case of sexual abuse." A Vatican spokesman said the Holy See was "taking the paedophile scandal in Germany very seriously". There had been more bad news earlier in the week from Mexico, where fresh allegations of abuse by Marcial Maciel, the discredited founder of the Legionaries of Christ, were made public. In a radio interview on Wednesday, Blanca Estela Lara claimed to have been Mr Maciel's long-term mistress. She said they had had two sons, who were in turn sexually abused by their father. Maciel, who died in 2008, was found guilty by the church of abusing seminarians and forced to give up leadership of his order. The Legionaries of Christ espouse a particularly severe interpretation of Catholic doctrine. Balducci was reportedly a member. On top of Balducci's alleged indiscretions, the telephone taps have proved a source of other embarrassment for the Vatican. Conversations also revealed the apparent role in the reconstruction scandal of the bursar of an order of missionary priests, who was frequently approached for large sums of cash when the group needed to grease the wheels of bureaucracy. Father Evaldo Biasini earned the sobriquet of "Father ATM" in the Italian press. In one conversation, Father Biasini – who handled the finances of the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus – tells the construction magnate Diego Anemone he has ¤50,000 (about ?45,000) ready for him in cash. He had previously warned Mr ­Anemone he needed the money as he was supposed to be taking it to Africa. "Alright Father Evaldo … you're an angel," Mr ­Anemone said. The cash was part of a system of personal favours that Mr Anemone allegedly employed to ingratiate himself with administrators, magistrates and police officers. "If he decides to talk, a large slice of the Rome establishment could find itself in serious trouble," a magistrate told La Repubblica newspaper.
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