Italian Church tells gay priests: don’t lead ‘double lives’

A magazine article reveals that Italian priests have frequented gay bars in Rome.

THE ITALIAN Roman Catholic church has told gay priests they must not lead ‘double lives’ after a magazine article exposed several priests as being regular visitors to gay bars in Rome.

Journalists from the Silvio Berlusconi-owned Panorama magazine filmed three priests attending gay nightclubs and having casual sex using hidden cameras.

The writer said he was assisted by a gay ‘accomplice’ as he “gate-crashed the wild nights of a number of priests in Rome who live a surprising double-life.”

It continued:

By day they are regular priests, complete with dog collar, but, at night it’s off with the cassock as they take their place as perfectly integrated members of the Italian capital’s gay scene.

One priest it spoke to said 98% of the priests he knew were homosexual.

The Church has issued a statement saying that nobody was forcing gays to remain as priests, and said their conduct “muddies the reputation of all the others”.

It told gay priests they must not lead a “double life”.