You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough. If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it. The Vatican has been the focus of several controversies including the coming out of a gay priest and the leaking of a controversial letter, while reports have emerged in Rome of drug-popping priests frequenting male prostitutes.
Pope Francis being driven through the crowd in St. Peter's Square for his weekly general audience today. Associated Press Associated Press. Francis may hope that his wide-sweeping apology will shame schemers in the centuries-old institution. The council was overshadowed from the start by the surprise declaration by a Polish priest employed as a senior official at the Vatican that he was a practising homosexual.
Krzystof Charamsa was immediately fired but the coming out added fuel to a fire already raging between conservative and liberal wings of the Church over the divisive issue of its relationship to gay believers. Reports also emerged recently of several priests in a Rome parish accused of using male prostitutes and paying for sex with homeless men in a public park in the Italian capital while high on poppers.
And the Vatican rumour mill went into overdrive in August after a former Polish archbishop who would have been the first high-ranking Catholic Church official to go on trial for paedophilia was found dead. The Vatican ordered a swift post-mortem and said Jozef Wesolowski, who had been charged with sexually abusing minors during his period as ambassador in the Dominican Republic, had died of heart problems.
Since his election in , Francis has apologised on behalf of the Church to sex abuse survivors, for the persecution of protestants in northern Italy, and for complicity in the oppression of Latin Americans during the colonial wars. His predecessor Benedict XVI was famously forced to say sorry to Muslims around the world after a speech in which sparked protests and violence in several countries. We need your help now Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
