ROME
The Australian
PHILIP WILLAN
The Times
July 5, 2017
Vatican police broke up a homosexual orgy last month in an apartment belonging to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the department charged with, among other things, tackling clerical sexual abuse.
The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be the secretary of cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts and a key adviser to the Pope.
Cardinal Coccopalmerio is said to have recommended his aide for promotion to bishop, but those plans are likely to be disrupted by news of the orgy and by a period spent recovering from a drug overdose in a Rome hospital and another in an Italian monastery.
The allegations about the orgy were published by the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.
The incident is symptomatic of a difficult period for the Pope. Four years into his papacy his reforms should be at full throttle; instead, the Catholic Church appears racked by conflict and scandal.
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