VATICAN CITY
Telegraph
By Nick Squires, Rome
06 Jan 2014
A former Swiss Guard has claimed that he received sexual advances from cardinals, bishops and other clergy while serving in the elite corps, the Pope’s personal bodyguard.
The ex-soldier claimed that he received 20 to 25 explicit sexual advances, including on one occasion from a cardinal who invited him up to his rooms in the Vatican.
The former Swiss Guard, who insisted on remaining anonymous, made the allegations to a Swiss newspaper, Schweiz am Sonntag, which published them on its front page on Sunday.
The unnamed soldier served in the Swiss Guard during the papacy of John Paul II, which lasted from 1978 until 2005, and it was not clear why he had only now decided to come forward with the claims.
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