VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
Former member of the Swiss Guard says he was regularly asked for sex by ‘gay lobby’ of bishops, cardinals and priests while serving at the Vatican
By TOM GARDNER
PUBLISHED: 05:28 EST, 6 January 2014
A former Swiss Guard has claimed he was regularly asked for sex by a ‘gay lobby’ of high-ranking clergy in the Vatican.
Cardinals, bishops, priests and other officials in the Vatican had regularly attempted to engage the unnamed man, who was responsible for the Pope’s security, in illicit rendezvous, according to new claims.
The former guard said he received up to 20 ‘unambiguous requests’ from members of the clergy and was asked for sex by a dignitary close to Pope John Paul II, a Swiss weekly newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag reported.
In the latest sex scandal to engulf the Catholic church, the security guard said a senior official fondled him. He also claimed a bishop left a bottle of whisky on his bed with a visiting card placed next to it.
During another incident a priest had invited him to dinner saying that the guard would be served after for dessert.
He also claimed that he reported the harassment to officials in the Vatican who offered him no support and attacked the Church’s ‘hypocrisy’ of opposing sex outside of marriage and supporting the excommunication of divorcees.
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