FRANCE
NewNowNext
by Dan Avery
A French priest who worked to “cure” young seminary students of their homosexuality has been accused of having sexual relations with a number of the men in his care.
Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a consultant with the Vatican on issues of sexuality, routinely counseled novices sent to him by seminaries and monasteries across France. But at least four men claim Anatrella engaged in sexual acts with them during sessions in his office in Paris.
Anatrella reportedly claimed having sex with them would cure the men of their “pseudo-homosexuality.”
“You’re not gay, you just think that you are,” he reportedly told Daniel Lamarca, who was a 23-year-old seminarian when he first went to Anatrella in 1987.
“I know details about Anatrella’s body that could only be known to someone who has seen him naked,” Lamarca told the Dutch paper Nederlands Dagblad.
In 2001 he reported Anatrella to the archbishop of Paris but nothing was done. Five years later, after Lamarca went to the media and more victims surfaced, church officials expressed support for Anatrella and said the accusers were part of a “gay lobby” out to discredit the Church.
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