Community | March 05, 2010 | 151 comments

Male prostitution scandal rocks Vatican

source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10853-Portland-Humanist-Examiner~y2010m3d5-Religion-Male-...

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A police investigation into corruption at the Vatican has taken a twist with the discovery of an organised network of male prostitution. So far a senior aide to the Pope and a Vatican chorister have been removed from their posts over allegations of involvement in the homosexual prostitution ring.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10853-Portland-Humanist-Examiner~y2010m3d5-Re...
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151 comments // Male prostitution scandal rocks Vatican

  • dirtyplayer
  • dirtyplayer
    • 0
      dirtyplayer  

    • ABLOISH the whole fuckin church get rid of every fuckin diddler in the vatacan they have ruined many peoples faith in the church time to clean house or maybe end the whole fuckin thing

    • 1 year ago
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  

    • Anyway, returning to the topic, I am glad that finally they are passing the broom on the Vatican, this torture chamber.

      How can someone call the pope holy, and a direct represetative of Christ on earth, if the pope if not a participant on these foul acts, is completely unaware of those disgusting acts, when not paying to cover them?

      Is it not better financially if they just allowed priests to marry?

      And did not Christ said that those who harm a child shoud rather tie their necks to a millstone and throw themselves on deep ocean that to face him?

      Why then protect the perverted priests?

      That religion is apparently all wrong.

    • 2 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  
    • LordLicious:

      returning to what topic? Nothing you wrote had anything to do with the original topic. Did you even bother reading the actual article? This article is not about child molestation or pedo-priests. It's about two (former) secular employees who engaged in consensual sexual activities of a monetary nature. Dammit. what is it with the habit of some folks around here to just post whatever based on a title without ever digging any deeper such reading the damn article?

    • 2 years ago
  • dirtyplayer
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • Not all prostitutes are sex slaves, some are ex pro football cheerleaders, some are ex models, there are plenty of examples of women who choose this profession for the money and freedom it can bring. Sexual slavery is disgusting but a woman who makes a choice to live by and is not encumbered to another is indeed making a life choice free on her own. There are good and bad in every profession..

    • 2 years ago
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  
    • tommic:

      tommic, be sure of one thing: not everything they show on TV is true. :)

      I hardly believe that one free individual would accept to submit to things they do not really like if they are really free, that is an incongruence.

      Trust me, if they are doing this, it is hardly their choice.

      There can be as usual few, very few exceptions, but exceptions shoud not be the rule.

      And you cannot deny that whomever seeks this form for human contact is a person with a healthy sexuality.

      Desperation comes to mind, either from one part or from the other, perhaps from both.

      It is definitely not normal and therefore, not to be recomended.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • LordLicious:

      It doesn't come from TV it come from the walk of life and people I've known since I was a teen. A very good freind of mine worked for the Dallas Cowboys for five years then left and went out on her own. It does happen and some choose the profession willingly. Better start to live life and learn. A great percentage of prositutes are used but there is the exception.

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
    • +1
      ryan8566  
    • tommic:

      tommic,
      unlike your usual intelligent posts, you only referred to females. a buddy of mine, who graduated from Harvard Law School, became a 'male escort', due to the employment situation. he told us ( and proved it) that he was making incredible cash as a date for wealthy women, who wanted exactly that....a date for an event... a male on their wing...
      and possibly/probably sex at the end. he made more money doing this, than he would have as an attorney...and found it difficult to return to the legal profession...financially, and otherwise. again, consenting adults...awesome.

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
  • LordLicious
    • +1
      LordLicious  
    • tommic:

      I am glad you do not deny that these are exceptions. (very very few ones)

      That is a start.

      So in pro of these extremely few exceptions we shoud allow prostitution to happen then?

      And these "friends", do they happen by some odd coincidence, to have an addiction or twenty?

      Anything they would dare to share in public, anything they would not feel ashamed if they shared? :)

      You are not seeing the problem.

    • 2 years ago
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  
    • ryan8566:

      You apparently refuse to see the problem.

      Prostitution is modern slavery.

      In old times some people sold themselves as slaves,

      They might however tell their friends they did this for convenience", too ashamed to admit some problem related to such a harsh decision,

      I do not think they did this out of "convenience", but rather because they had problems they could not solve by simply searching for a job.

      If you understand what I mean.

    • 2 years ago
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  
    • ryan8566:

      It was perhaps their "choice" because they did not have (or could not) take other choices.

      You fail to see the problem with prostitution, because of a few wrotten eggs on our society who are apparently too dumb to see the size of the trouble they are getting into.

      It is like some people do not really think about their acts.

    • 2 years ago
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  
    • ryan8566:

      "...became a 'male escort', due to the employment situation."

      Desperation, times were tought, you are not realising that there was a problem (if not more than one) that forced him to this horrible situation.

      Some people are just too prud to admit when they took a wrong turn in life, that's all.

      And after I saw Bush bragging that he only read one bok while his whole stay in Harvard, academiscism is officially dead for me, as the unemplyment levels in France prove so well today.

      I used to walk at night, not as a client nor a slut of course, and perhaps I saw just a little further than you are doing, when you tell me that it was the fact that he could not get a job that forced him to prostitute himself.

      As a lawyer, I am sure he is wise on the selection of words. I know many lawyers as well.

      I am just basing myself on what you are telling me about your friend, and translating what he could be telling you, or at least what you are telling me that he would be telling you about his "choice" (due to the lack of job opportunities, what makes the option "choice" null and void) .

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
    • 0
      ryan8566  

    • from all the posts (and other new stories) i have read about this, the term
      'prostitution', which i beleive in, which serves an actual social need and purpose,
      is being mis-used here. prostitution is an equal, willing exchange, with each party benefiting, monetarily or otherwise. this story seems to be one of force, which equals rape.

    • 2 years ago
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  
    • ryan8566:

      Prostitution is definitely not an equal willing exchange, with each party benefiting monetarily or otherwise.

      It is rather an individual with a distorted sexuality who feel the need toresort to such "services".

      The human being exploited due mainly for lack of choice, must accept the humiliation, disgust, and regret, for diverse reasons, and none of them as far as I know of, are beneficial in any possible way.

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
  • LordLicious
    • 0
      LordLicious  
    • ryan8566:

      the challenge on the 21 century will be to bury once and for all all the distopic and failed social engineering projects of the 20 century.

      Including prostitution, an evil that has plagued humankind for at least the last 500 years (before this the poor could not really afford it, and something like the middleclass was unexistent)

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
  • corndog67
    • 0
      corndog67  

    • Highest levels of whose authority? Certainly not mine.

      This is typical of religious bullshit. People get real religious when it suits them, the rest of the time they are godless heathens just like the rest of us.

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
  • panichead
    • 0
      panichead  

    • No wait a minute, really. HA ! HA ! HA ! I can't get the vision out of my head of a bunch of choir boys in St. Peters doing some song and dance routine to David Lee Roth's version of "Just A Giggilo" I'm just a giggilo, and everywhere I go, people love the part I'm playin'.......

    • 2 years ago
  • runfar334
  • spindian_shaw
    • +1
      spindian_shaw  

    • its really no wonder if you think like i do: if you take into consideration the average age of most of these priests and consider the time in which THEY reached puberty and realized they liked boys. the 1930's-50's these priests were young men with hardons for guys! they knew they could NEVER be what they knew they were, gay. so what better way to hide it and make everyone proud, become a priest. so here go all these latent gays that do all they can to hide their natual sexual feelings. turning them into something seedy and ugly, often perveted and criminal. something un-homosexual, molest boys. because remember, pedophiles molest kids, homosexuals don't.... im a homosexual, i know. its an environment that in itself created what now exists. sad but true.

      the catholic church angers the shit F@*K out of me when they rfuse to acknowledge that pedophiles molest kids! not homosexuals. the catholic church needs to wake up and see the difference.

      the first step to recover is admitting to the REAL problem. the catholic church

    • 2 years ago
  • deathvoices
  • dirtyplayer
  • deathvoices
  • keanu101
  • dianne23
    • 0
      dianne23  

    • I think of all the persecuting Christians, especially Catholics have inflicted gays, young couples in need of birth control and having sex, unwed mothers, etc. with their bull$hit restrictions on normal human behavior that they deem to be sin is the real sin. They are hippocrits and liars. The big deal is that people believe the nonsense they peddle in the name of God and disown their own children because the church says being Gay is wrong. Being a pedophile is wrong!!... not being gay. God would be mortified to know what is being said in his/her name. God is love & compassion. Everything else springs from our twisted little mortal minds.

    • 2 years ago
  • Jpwhoregan
  • GodsnLiberals
  • Phoenix234
  • randallr01
  • Jaime_Maldonado
  • Jaime_Maldonado
    • 0
      Jaime_Maldonado  

    • so whats the fuss?priest are human also!believe it or not the vicar of christ is
      also human! they are at fault as any one of us,as far as the "ring," if there is such an orginized element from with-in,then the authorities will love the press coverage! but the vatican will silence all,hell they've been in business, how long?

    • 2 years ago
  • toyotabedzrock
  • Saladin
    • +1
      Saladin  

    • "It's raining men, hallelujah it's raining men!"

      Sorry, it was the first thing that came into my head. Anyways, all of this could be avoided if they'd just end the damn celibacy commitment.

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
  • OrbViper
  • nursediesel
    • +1
      nursediesel  

    • Sounds as though those around the Pope think he is Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borsia; father of Lucrezia and Cesare Borgsia. He married his daughter off to several prominent men to further his career while fathering some of her children... yes the Pope had grandchildren with his daughter.....
      All in all, the current Pope may not know of this man's transgressions or only that he was rumored to be enamored of young men......
      There are bad people in every walk of life. But this must be remedied in the Vatican, now! They should go back to vows of poverty and give up all earthly vulgarity! I here the Vatican is so opulant it makes the staunchest Catholic nauseated....from the money that could be doing good for it's parishoners not gouging them for money to get the dead into heaven... I'll stop now...... forgive me, yes, Sister, you can smack me with the ruler now.....Yes, Father, how many Hail Marys?

    • 2 years ago
  • jonther
  • EdJoyProductions
    • +3
      EdJoyProductions  

    • Really? Ya don't say?
      LOL! DUH! Of course there are male prostitutes. Shut up about it, if it keeps them from molesting choir boys, let them have their man whores.

    • 2 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • EdJoyProductions
  • LordLicious
    • +4
      LordLicious  

    • The Vatican shoud assume its gayness once and for all.

      For me they have always been gay, with their fancy dresses, candle ceremonies and such.

    • 2 years ago
  • Sw3rv
    • 0
      Sw3rv  

    • okay so they were choir boys in the vatican probably used to this kind of behavior that the church has been notorious for.....dont act like the reason why these choir boys are into homosexual activities is more than likely a result of being a victim of a high priest or probably even the pope himself...
      SMH

    • 2 years ago
  • ryan8566
  • RoBot_rOcKer
    • 0
      RoBot_rOcKer  

    • this is just the one we figured out about think of how many more the church might have set up that havent been discovered.

      this isnt the first time and it isnt gonna be the last time

    • 2 years ago
  • galwayman
    • +2
      galwayman  

    • So here we have a church run by an ex-nazi,where the priests have been raping boys and girls for centuries,so to curb the rape they went out and got male prostitutes instead?LOL LOL it just keeps on coming all this evil sex in the church of rome! Why don't these phonies just admit it,that they are all perverts and nail anything that moves,instead of all this denial,all this coverup! Wouldn't you like them to say,just once that everyone of them is a phony,perverted piece of worthless crap,who prey upon the week minded to satisfy the need for power,and rape their kids for their sick perverted lifestyle of rape equals power! All paid for by unknown wealth which came from centuries of ripping off people who paid for their perverted ways while they raped their kids! Put these liars,these perverts,out of business! Take the wealth of rome and give it to every human on earth! then burn them at the stake! The catholic chruch,like most organized religion,is evil,and seeks to deny you your freedom,brainwash your thinking,and use you,or your kids as they see fit! It's about power! It's about control!

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
  • jay_ct
  • samoanj
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • Not surpising, but all prostitution should be legal. I am not gay but I do not care about peoples sexual lives as long as they do not abuse children or force sex upon another. Sexual release is an important human need that needs to be adressed, sexual frustration leads to crime. ie; rape or influence used to coherse another to do what they would normally not do.

    • 2 years ago
  • monsieurturtle
    • +1
      monsieurturtle  

    • http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/world/europe/05vatican.html

      Please, please read the New York Times article on the topic posted by Samurai Dave. The fact that the Portland Humanist Examiner is the source for this story warrants a different perspective (as although this article in the Examiner isn't over the top, the PHE in general has a perceptible bias).

      SamuraiDave is right- before ripping into the Vatican and its clergy with the usual gauntlet of cliche "told ya so's" and "why am I not surprised", you may want to really read the article itself.

      I am not Catholic, but it's frustrating to me that people who rip into religion and its proponents with the angle of "ignorance, delusion, etc" will skim a headline and skip over the important details and then feel that the comments section warrants their weighty criticism and comment. It's not the best way to inform yourself, and not the most honest code to operate by.

      As has previously been noted, this particular incident not really comparable to the whole child molestation thing. It's not another strike against the clergy, but is rather a result of the actions of a layman (pun?) who happens to be on the Vatican Choir.

      If one cannot see why it's problematic to place the blame on the pope and the priests here for the actions of someone who took up a singing job in the Vatican (and, I suppose, was good at it), then I guess I really can't help you.

    • 2 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • SamuraiDave
    • +1
      SamuraiDave  
    • Image

    • http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/world/europe/05vatican.html?scp=1&sq=vatic...

      Here is an actual news article sans the biased commentary:

      ROME — A singer in an elite Vatican choir and a jailed Italian public works executive who served as a papal usher were let go by the Vatican this week amid allegations that they were involved in what prosecutors believe was an organized network of gay prostitution, Italian news media reported.

      Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian who sang in a choir that performs at St. Peter’s Basilica, was dismissed after the center-left daily newspaper La Repubblica reported Wednesday that he had procured men, including seminarians, for Angelo Balducci, a former member of the board of Italy’s public works department who was arrested and jailed last month on corruption charges.

      After his arrest, Mr. Balducci was removed from his Vatican post in The Gentlemen of His Holiness, an elite group of ushers who serve at the Apostolic Palace when visiting dignitaries meet the pope, the ANSA news agency reported Thursday, citing Vatican sources.

      The reports emerged as part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in the awarding of public works contracts by Italy’s Civil Protection Agency. Mr. Balducci, a consultant to the Vatican on major construction projects, is one of four people to be jailed in the inquiry, which has dealt a serious blow to the well-respected director of the Civil Protection Agency, Guido Bertolaso.

      In wiretapped phone conversations leaked to the news media, people with business before the agency are heard organizing parties for Mr. Bertolaso, complete with beautiful young women believed to be to his liking. Mr. Bertolaso is under investigation but has not been charged with a crime.

      But nothing quite compares to the reports of a gay prostitution ring that emerged this week. Citing a police document drawing on intercepted phone conversations, La Repubblica reported Wednesday that Mr. Ehiem procured men for Mr. Balducci. In one conversation, the paper quotes Mr. Balducci as asking Mr. Ehiem, “At what time does he have to return to the seminary?”

      Over more than a year of taped conversations, Mr. Ehiem described the physiques of various men to Mr. Balducci. “I have a situation from Naples,” Mr. Ehiem says in one conversation, according to La Repubblica. “I have a situation from Cuba,” he says in another, continuing with “a German who just arrived from Germany,” “two black guys,” “the soccer player” and “the dancer for the RAI” state broadcaster.

      It was not immediately possible to reach Mr. Ehiem’s lawyer. Mr. Ehiem, who the Vatican said was not a member of any religious order, told Panorama magazine that he had met Mr. Balducci through an Italian friend who had worked as an escort, ANSA reported Thursday. Mr. Ehiem accused magistrates of “ruining his life,” it added.

      Mr. Balducci, who is married, has said he is innocent of the corruption charges. His lawyer, Franco Coppi, who successfully defended a former prime minister, Giulio Andreotti, against charges of Mafia dealings, told the news agency that it was “shameful” for newspapers to publish conversations unrelated to the investigation. He added that he and Mr. Balducci had “laughed” when they learned of the sex allegations.

    • 2 years ago
  • eden49
  • SamuraiDave
    • +3
      SamuraiDave  

    • Alright so we have a choir singer and an usher both secular embroiled in a scandal and somehow that equates to the entire Vatican? The earlier scandal of pedo-priests was more apt due to the coverups and the fact that they were actually members of the clergy but this is just mountains out of molehills.

      However this will not stop (and hasn't as seen below) the usual suspects from blazing forth with their "brilliant" comments from their kneejerk response mechanism from seeing the title without having read the actual article.

    • 2 years ago
  • LinXitoW
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • SamuraiDave
  • BRAVATRAVELS
    • 0
      BRAVATRAVELS  
    • SamuraiDave:

      hahahahha It never fails/// lets attack the writer and try to hurt to see if that changes the reality///The funny thing is, if you are such an intellectual how come you are here commenting in the same place that we are, you now Us those so called Pseudo-intellectuals/// what does that makes you/// Perfect!!! perhaps///hahaha

    • 2 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  
    • BRAVATRAVELS:

      damn, I forgot! you're loopy, aren't you? Sorry, for a second I thought I was conversing with someone slightly lucid! Never mind! Carry on! Religion=root of all evil and all that original jazz!

    • 2 years ago
  • CarolineS
  • SamuraiDave
  • SamuraiDave
  • indecisiveh
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  
    • indecisiveh:

      yeah i have a blatant bias against people who apparently don't how to read but doesn't stop them from jumping to conclusions. What makes this place any better than Fox News where they and their viewers do the same? Yeah, damn me for my blatant bias in actually wanting people to put a little more thought into their arguments and comments.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • +1
      tommic  
    • SamuraiDave:

      Its easier to go through life with the assumption that people are stupid until they prove otherwise, an old Irish saying
      You don't get let down, your only surprised with people who can show their intellect

    • 2 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  

    • I just looove this type of articles on current! It attracts the highest quality of response content! (for those a wee bit slow - I'm being sarcastic)

    • 2 years ago
  • indecisiveh
    • 0
      indecisiveh  
    • SamuraiDave:

      First of all:
      Writing Tip No. 138:

      Typing sarcastically does not make for sarcasm on paper. It just makes you look like a conceited DB.

      Second:
      You live in your small world where everyone's intelligence level frustrates you. Poor you. You have to live on planet Earth, with people of varying intellects, physicality, and motivations.

      Something tells me you can't cure stupid by going around calling everyone stupid all day.

      If you have point, make it . You don't have to come and try to tear people down because you feel superior.

    • 2 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  
    • indecisiveh:

      indeci, did you actually bother to read the article and the responses here before you wrote this seemingly rehearsed trite? People need a bit of thrashing here as they supposedly adhere to leftist liberal tendencies which I normally equate with open-mindedness, fairness, tolerance, logicalness; something i often don't see under such posts. I find a distressing amount of hypocrisy that seems the flip-side of Fox News and their similar minded viewers.

      But regardless of your flowery condescending prose, the fact of the matter is this is a mountain out of molehill compared with the issue in germany and similar incidences. However that aside a bigger issue here and part of my continuing gripe is the tendency for people to accept face value dubious news sources and to often forego reading the article itself while posting ill-informed comments just based on the title.

    • 2 years ago
  • lcabic12
  • ryan8566
  • randomly
  • ryan8566
  • eden49
  • DRudeBoy
  • ryan8566
  • DRudeBoy
  • courage
  • LowDog
    • -4
      LowDog  

    • Haha, god my ass. These fags, are against gays, but getting rammed in the ass on the side. Religion is such a scam.

    • 2 years ago
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • LowDog
    • +1
      LowDog  
    • BRAVATRAVELS:

      They are freakier then most of us. The church is nothing more then a tax shelter, for gays and pedophiles. Why work when all you have to do is jib jab about how the earth is 5000 yrs old., and people give you free money, that doesn't get taxed. No work, pay no tax, talk out of your ass all day, fudge pack at night. All in the name of the Lord....more money please :)

    • 2 years ago
  • Armageddon_Now
  • ryan8566
    • +1
      ryan8566  
    • Image

    • i read through the posts and:
      for those who don't trust the source, try http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/
      europe/05vatican

      it points out that the two involved are what the church call 'laymen'...so i understand why they were fired. if they were priests, they would probably
      have been quietly transferred.

    • 2 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
  • BRAVATRAVELS
    • 0
      BRAVATRAVELS  
    • SamuraiDave:

      So basically you are saying that never before the Vatican had to cover up anything and has never blamed the lowest in rank to cover up the higher priest and even the Pope?///ooohhh OK I get it now!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
    • -1
      SamuraiDave  
    • BRAVATRAVELS:

      basically you only get what you want to understand. I didn't basically say that but hey! that's not going to stop you so basically assume whatever you want while I laugh at the pseudo-intellectual conjectures!

    • 2 years ago
  • mjseydel
  • shabdsingh
  • imunbalanced
  • desertcat
  • GodsnLiberals
    • -4
      GodsnLiberals  

    • wait a fucking minute..ahhh did anybody check the credibility of this shit??

      i mean the guy who wrote this article looks like of one of those doped up idiots that beg for change in some street corner..

      come on guys..

    • 2 years ago
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • stevensass
    • -1
      stevensass  

    • Examiner.com (the source of this post) doesn't seem very credible. Look how at the end of that article, the "journalist" gets pretty subjective. and who are his sources?

    • 2 years ago
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • SamuraiDave
  • BRAVATRAVELS
    • 0
      BRAVATRAVELS  
    • SamuraiDave:

      No is never a bad thing/// However, after having such sources like The New York Time and many European News media I think no one should continue questioning the information and trying to change the real news/// It is hard sometimes to accept the true...

    • 2 years ago
  • BRAVATRAVELS
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