Vatican ‘gay Lobbyist’ Worked in T&t
By Joel Julien
An official of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican, who was once stationed in Trinidad and Tobago, has been named in a “gay lobby” scandal currently affecting the church. On June 15, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Battista Ricca the Prelate of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank. The Italian news magazine L’Espresso on Friday published an article which linked Ricca to the “gay lobby” and revealed he has been involved in several relationships with men. Ricca, 57, who comes from a diplomatic career, operated at the nunciature of Trinidad and Tobago for three years. Pope Francis’s papacy began on March 13. On June 6 he admitted the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican’s secretive administration, the Roman Curia. “In the Curia, there are truly some saints, but there is also a current of corruption... There is talk of a ‘gay lobby’ and it’s true, it exists,” Francis was quoted as saying to an audience with CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women). The article in L’Espresso stated that the “black hole in Ricca’s personal history is the period he spent in Uruguay, in Montevideo”, where he served until 2001. Ricca was then transferred to the nunciature in Trinidad and Tobago after his time in Uruguay. He stayed here until 2004. Ricca’s “black hole” began in 1999 when he arrived in Uruguay after previously serving at the diplomatic missions of Congo, Algeria, Colombia and finally Switzerland. While in Bern, Switzerland, Ricca began a relationship with a captain of the Swiss army named Patrick Haari. Ricca and Haari moved to Uruguay together. Ricca “assigned Haari a residence in nunciature with a regular position and salary”. The two shared an openly gay relationship. “The intimacy of the relations between Ricca and Haari was so open as to scandalise numerous bishops, priests and laity of that South American country, not last the sisters who attended to the nunciature,” the L’Espresso article stated. In 2000 when Janusz Bolonek of Poland became nuncio in Montevideo he found the “menage intolerable immediately”. In 2001 Ricca was beaten up, having gone to “a meeting place for homosexuals” in Montevideo, as he had “on other occasions”. He had to call other priests to help him back to the nunciature. After being found in a stuck elevator in August 2001 with a young man, Bolonek asked that Ricca be sent away. “Ricca, dragging his heels, was transferred to the nunciature of Trinidad and Tobago, where he remained until 2004. There as well he butted heads with the nuncio. Finally to be called to the Vatican and removed from diplomatic service on the ground,” the L’Espresso article stated. Haari was not transferred to this country with Ricca and was eventually fired from the Uruguay nunciature. Following his dismissal, Haari demanded some luggage be sent to the Vatican as diplomatic baggage to Ricca’s address. Inside the luggage was found a pistol as well as “an enormous quantity of condoms and pornographic material”. Ricca was integrated into the Vatican diplomatic personnel. His appointment as Prelate of the Vatican Bank is “the crowning of his second career”, the L’Espresso article stated. Vatican spokesman Padre Federico Lombardi has since dismissed the claims against Ricca’s private life. “What has been claimed about Monsignor Ricca is not credible,” Lombardi is reported as saying in response to the L’Espresso article. Archbishop Nicola Girasoli, the Apostolic Nuncio to this region, yesterday confirmed that Ricca had worked in Trinidad and Tobago for several years. Girasoli said while the article named Trinidad and Tobago, the allegations against Ricca had nothing to do with his tenure here. “The Vatican has answered officially to the article (published in the L’Espresso). In the article it mentions that he (Ricca) was here. Yes, he left Trinidad the beginning of 2005,” Girasoli added. “As you know it (the allegations against Ricca) has nothing to do with his presence here and the Vatican has already answered to the article and I have nothing more to add,” he said. Girasoli was appointed this region’s Apostolic Nuncio last year when he replaced Archbishop Thomas E Gullickson. Archbishop Joseph Harris is out of the country attending World Youth Day in Brazil, which begins today in Rio. Harris is due to return in August. World Youth Day is also being attended by Pope Francis. Daily activities have been scheduled and Pope Francis will hold a mass for the youth on Sunday. Over 320,000 people have registered for the event. Contact: joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com
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