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VATICAN-GAY Oct-15-2007 (570 words) xxxi
Vatican suspends priest after hidden camera films sexual advances
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican suspended an official from his job and opened an investigation after the priest was secretly filmed making advances to a young man.
The official, Msgr. Tommaso Stenico, insisted that he was not gay. In a statement Oct. 14, he said he was only pretending to be homosexual in order to research a suspected gay campaign against priests.
Msgr. Stenico, 60, is one of three section chiefs at the Congregation for Clergy. He is the host of a catechetical TV program, has written many religious books and has his own Web site.
The scandal erupted in early October when the Italian network La7 broadcast a program on gay priests.
One segment, filmed through a hidden camera, showed an appointment between a Vatican monsignor and a young man, in which the priest leads the young man to his Vatican office and implies that he doesn't think homosexual acts are sinful.
"You're cute. You're totally cute," the priest says, sitting down next to the youth on a couch.
"Thank you. But you're about to commit something with me that is a sin in the eyes of God," the young man replies.
"No, I don't consider it a sin," the priest says.
When the youth questions how the priest can ignore the church's rules on homosexuality, the priest stands up and cuts off the meeting.
"We're not going to do anything because you have too many restrictions," he tells the young man. Then he tells him to leave the building and to be careful not to talk to anyone on the way out.
Before the young man leaves, the priest places his hand on the back of the youth's leg and pronounces an Italian slang phrase that means, roughly, "You're so hot."
Although the voices in the video were altered and the features blurred beyond recognition, Vatican officials recognized the office and confronted Msgr. Stenico.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Oct. 13 that superiors were investigating the episode and that in the meantime Msgr. Stenico was suspended from his job.
Father Lombardi said the Vatican was examining the case with the necessary reserve and respect for the person involved, but also with "decisiveness and severity" because it involved an accusation of conduct "not compatible with priestly service and the mission of the Holy See."
After a series of brief statements to reporters, Msgr. Stenico published a lengthy self-defense on an Italian Catholic Web site where he has posted commentaries in the past.
He said he had long been suspicious of a gay campaign to manipulate priests with homosexual tendencies, so he decided to use his training as a psychologist to investigate, posing as a "thief among thieves" in the homosexual world.
"In this manner I discovered that it is true. There really is a diabolical plan by groups of Satanists who target priests," he said.
Msgr. Stenico said he posed as a homosexual only to gain information and not to engage in homosexual practices.
He also said he was a victim of manipulation, as evidenced by the hidden camera used to film his appointment. He said he thought this might have been done in retaliation for an earlier report he had filed with Rome police against a young man who had offered him sex in exchange for help in getting a job.
END
Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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