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	Italian Priest Arrested for Pedophilia in Archdiocese of Pope's Closest Advisor on Pedophilia By Bridgette P. Lavictoire Lez Get Real May 29, 2011 http://lezgetreal.com/2011/05/italian-priest-arrested-for-pedophilia-in-archdiocese-of-popes-closest-advisor-on-pedophilia/ The Roman Catholic Church has been working very hard to try and deny lesbians and gays their rights in the United States ostensibly on the grounds that they are protecting children. This is not an uncommon line of reasoning with them as they tend to make it sound like a noble effort because, then, they hope people won't pay attention to their own problems. This past week, in Italy, the Catholic Church showed just how dedicated they were to guarding the safety and well being of children as a priest under the direct command of one of the cardinals that Pope Benedict has been working closely with to make reforms to how the Church handles pedophile priests was arrested for pedophilia. Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest, was arrested on 13 May on pedophilia and drug charges. Father Seppia was the parish priest for the village of Sastri Ponente near Genoa. Investigators have said that they tapped mobile-phone conversations between Seppia and a Moroccan drug dealer where Seppia wanted the drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with yougn and vulnerable boys. Seppia is alleged to hae said "I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues." Seppia comes from the Archdiocese of Genoa. The Archbishop of Genoa is Angelo Bagnasco, who is head of the Italian Bishops Conference and he has been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide policy on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse, but many people have criticized the new policy as not being enough. According to Time: Bagnasco said that when he met the Pope this weekend, he "asked for a particular blessing for my archdiocese" in light of the alleged crimes, adding that "like every father toward a son [feels] great pain in seeing a priest who is not faithful to his vocation." Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi praised Bagnasco's handling of the Sastri Ponente case, lauding its "timeliness and competence." On Saturday, May 14, the Cardinal visited the Santo Spirito church, where Seppia was the parish priest. Investigators have stated that Seppia informed a friend, a former seminarian and barman who is also under investigation, that the town's malls were the best place to entice minors, and in tapped phone conversations, the two were heard to curse and swear against God. Seppia is already charged with having attempted to kiss and touch an underage altar boy as well as having exchanged cocaine for sexual intercourse with boys over 18. The priest's defense lawyers are expected to argue that the conversations, which were monitored since 20 October 2010, were simply words and sex games that were played by adults. He says that it was even a game when he claimed to have kissed a fifteen year old altar boy on the lips according to the defense. Genoa's investigating magistrate Annalisa Giacalone is keeping Seppia in custody to avoid a possible relapse or tampering with evidence. On 16 May, during formal questioning, Seppia refused to answer questions. Currently, his defense attorney Paolo Bonanni wants to evaluate all the charges and is reserving the right to respond to public prosecutor Stefano Puppo in short order. Time also reported: Questioned by the investigators, the altar boy reportedly confirmed the attempted kiss. Another male minor who, according to the investigators, was stalked with messages and pressing invitations, will be questioned soon. Psychologists are helping Carabinieri police officers obtain testimony from the alleged victims. "The boys are ashamed to talk and to admit what happened," says one of the investigators. The evidence amounts to at least 50 messages and phone calls. In the tapped phone conversations, the drug dealer contacted the boys and gave their phone numbers to the priest, who paid them with cocaine or 50 euros each time for sexual intercourse. "[The investigators] made us listen to that man saying terrifying things about our children. Things so terrible that I cannot repeat them," a father of one of the boys said. Investigators are currently examining three confiscated computers. Seppia is currently being held in a confinement cell in a Genoa prison, and he has met the jail's priest and psychologist. His lawyer has said "He has read the newspapers, and he is pained by his parishioners' comments." The Roman Catholic Church has been trying to blame a variety of different reasons for why the child sexual abuse scandal has been happening ranging from gay men among the priesthood to the changes in sexual mores that came with the 1960's. By and large, people have not had a problem specifically dealing with the existence of child sexual predators among the priesthood since pedophiles and sexual predators exist in nearly every single profession dealing with children. The problem has always been within the hierarchy's attempts to hide the crimes, and currently there is little evidence that the Roman Catholic Church was actively involved in trying to stop this particular priest from committing his crimes. What has also angered people is the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has been doing a very good job of trying to make the lesbian and gay community their scapegoat for their problems often by pushing anti-gay and anti-marriage legislation across the world. The anger has come because the Vatican has refused to take real steps to clean up its own house rather than work to hurt others because of what their holy writ says.
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