Lgbtq Reviews of in the Closet of the Vatican
In The 6th Sense movie a little boy has a cloak-and-dagger: he tin see expressionless people. It is similar with Frédéric Martel, writer of In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy. Except, he can encounter gay people. Everywhere. And it is non a secret. He sees the world through a pink prism, darkly.
It fifty-fifty extends to Chile'due south Pinochet regime.
A gay French author, this is not Martel's first such book. In 1999, there was The Pinkish and the Black, Homosexuals in France since 1968; in 2002, La Longue Marche des Gays; and in 2014, Global Gay: How Gay Culture is Changing the Globe. Although an atheist it seemed inevitable he would focus on the Catholic Church with its virulent condemnations of homosexuality. Those he attributes to the deep cocky-loathing of closeted conservative senior prelates.
The Pinochets "surrounded themselves with a veritable court of Cosmic homosexuals," he says. "No one has ever described it in detail: I accept to practise it here, considering it is at the heart of the subject of this book," he says. And he does. With motive.
Of "the dictator'south gay or gay-friendly entourage . . . All are connected to the churchly nuncio Angelo Sodano." Earlier he tells united states Sodano is "the 'villain' of this book". Sodano is "the eminence noire, non simply grisé in all the black and opacity of the term".
At that place is also some piquant innuendo. Sodano is "a strong personality, fifty-fifty though he appeared very effeminate. He was alpine, very bulky, he looked like a mountain."
Very noir(e).
A powerful conservative, at present 91 and Dean of the Higher of Cardinals in Rome, Sodano was papal nuncio to Chile from 1977 to 1988 and Cardinal Secretary of State from 1991 to 2006.
Among that gay entourage "closely connected" to Sodano in Chile was Fr Fernando Karadima, we are told. Few heard of this priest until concluding twelvemonth when Karadima was exposed as a child abuser after a Vatican investigation.
Martel notes that "the official version is that the Vatican was not informed virtually the Karadima affair until 2010, when Sodano was no longer secretary of country."
He is non put off. "The reasons that led Sodano (as well as Primal Errazuriz, who replaced Sodano as secretary of country in 2006) to protect this paedophile priest remain mysterious."
Just Key Francisco Javier Errazuriz, former Archbishop of Santiago in Chile, was never Vatican secretary of state.
Martel wonders why, in Republic of chile, Sodano "took such pleasure in associating with the homosexual milieu . . . at the very moment when John Paul II was declaring homosexuality to exist an abominable sin and an absolute evil."
He answers, perchance because Sodano was "vulnerable – for example, if he was himself homosexual – and was obliged to compromise with the regime to protect his secret."
Far and abroad the most impressive characteristic of the book is Martel's access to so many senior prelates of the church none of whom, clearly, had the remotest idea what he was planning to write
A looseness with fact is also evident in Martel's reference to the attack by Pope Francis on the Roman Curia in December 2014, "less than a year subsequently his election". Except that Francis was elected in March 2013, all of 21 months beforehand.
More seriously incorrect are Martel's references to a named Irish bishop who, he claims, "was homosexual (as the courts made clear in the trials for scandals in his diocese . . .)"
No Irish bishop has ever been "in trials for scandals in his diocese", or to do with homosexuality.
Martel claims "a immature seminarian" said the Irish bishop "embraced him tightly and kissed him on the forehead". Not then.
The human was not a seminarian. He discussed his vocation with the bishop who embraced him and kissed on the brow, which the young homo felt was "paternal". Subsequently he wondered, and complained. An independent inquiry constitute the bishop's behaviour "was non calumniating".
This approach to fact drags In the Closet of the Vatican down, equally does its length. It could be cutting by a third without loss.
It is interesting on the Fr Marcial Maciel scandal, hilarious on hard-right cardinals in the church and in its account of the alleged wild gay life of noted upholder of family values, the late Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo. Information technology is hugely entertaining in descriptions of the "the gayest pontificate in history", that of Benedict Sixteen. But, how true?
Far and away the most impressive characteristic of the book is Martel'southward admission to so many senior prelates of the church building none of whom, clearly, had the remotest idea what he was planning to write.
Seasoned Vatican observers will be surprised to find John XXIII listed amongst the gays, less so Paul Six, but the late, crude, American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus of Vatican Bank scandal fame?
Many reading this volume volition sympathise with former papal spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi. "All of these accusations of homosexuality are a petty excessive," he tells Martel.
"Of course there are homosexuals [in the church], that's obvious. There are fifty-fifty a few who are more than obvious than the others. Only I refuse to read things that way, and to believe that homosexuality is an explanatory factor," he said.
Indeed.
Patsy McGarry is Religious Affairs Correspondent
Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/in-the-closet-of-the-vatican-review-incredible-detailing-of-homosexuality-in-church-1.3821610
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