Cleansing the curia

Even the most faithful of Catholics would be pushed to describe Pope Francis as being a particularly discreet pontiff. He is, after all, an Argentinian of Italian heritage, and as splendid as both cultures may be, discretion is not the first quality that comes to mind when one considers them.

It’s difficult to imagine the German Benedict or Polish John Paul II chatting away to a group of priests and nuns and telling them of a “gay lobby” in the Vatican. Not that this was all that Pope Francis allegedly said to the Latin American delegation, but having a certain word — and it’s not “lobby” — in a phrase is certain to mobilize and motivate the media into a frenzy of interest.

Thing is, no serious person with any interest in or knowledge of the Church and of Rome has ever doubted the existence of an influential collective of priests and bureaucrats in the Vatican who have allowed their homosexuality to become the prime factor in their spirit and psyche. We all know priests who have same-sex attractions, but whose celibacy, spirituality, faithfulness and Catholicism dominate their character and oblige all other personal aspects to become largely irrelevant...