Frédéric Martel sets the cat among the pigeons at the Vatican

Martel is a French journalist trained in sociology, openly gay and an unbeliever who has spent the last four years travelling the globe interviewing, with the help of researchers, 41 cardinals, 52 bishops, 45 apostolic nuncios, 11 Swiss guards and over 200 priests. While there are now many books, documents and commissions that have revealed the extent of sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church, his book "In the Closet of the Vatican" is the first in-depth account of the intricacies of homosexual practice among priests. Further, it confirms most of the accusations made by Carlo Maria Vigano in 2019.

Martel covers the use of male prostitution in Rome, the lavish apartments of the cardinals and their cults of personality, the role of the church in Columbia with the removal of those associated with liberation theology. He gives a full description of the sexual abuse that occurred in the organisation, The Legions of Christ, under the notorious Marcial Maciel, who was allowed to die of old age in the Vatican with no convictions for a multitude of known sexual offences. There are detailed descriptions of the lives of cardinals in the upper circles of the Vatican.

The book runs to 555 pages and does not include footnotes or index. Instead, a 74,000 word document, that is still a work in progress, is available at sidoma.fr.

The difficulty in researching the lives of Vatican prelates is that they cover private vice with public piety. The prelates who are most homophobic in public are the ones who live double lives of homosexual practice while gay-friendly prelates are usually heterosexual. Martel reveals that during the papacy of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the hierarchy of the Vatican was dominated by closeted homosexuals. This has occurred because, paradoxically, young homosexuals see the priesthood as the solution to them finding a life that is respected and protected from questions of marriage. This is paradoxical because the Catholic Church regards homosexual acts as grave depravity and as "intrinsically disordered".

Martel formulates rules of the Vatican closet. The first rule is:

For a long time, the priesthood was an ideal escape-route for young homosexuals. Homosexuality is one of the keys to their vocation. ( p8)

This explains why there exists a disproportionately high number of homosexuals among the ordained than in ordinary life. We might ask why homosexual men would be attracted to the most homophobic institution on earth?

One of the priests Martel interviews explains:

The seminary was a temporary solution. I wanted to see if homosexuality was a lasting thing for me. Afterwards, the seminary became a compromise solution. My parents want to believe that I'm not a homosexual; they like the fact that I'm in a seminary. And in a way it lets me live according to my tastes. It isn't easy, but it's better that way. If you have any doubts about your sexuality, if you don't want people around you to know that you are gay, if you don't want to hurt your mother: then you go to the seminary. (p414)

Thus, the rule of priestly celibacy sets a trap for those who are not in need of a wife but do need a respectable position in society. There is also the hope that the holy life will heal the thorn in their side, that is, their inclination towards the same sex. Alas, this is not the case for many who may begin with chastity but eventually progress, in the favourable environs of the Vatican, to full sexual practice with male prostitutes, boys in the parish or fellow clergy. The agony is that they find themselves trapped in an institution that goes into frenzies against homosexuality and homosexual acts and they are forced into leading a double life with all that entails.

As Pope Francis stated, "Behind rigidity, there is always something hidden, in many cases a double life." They are rigid because they are afraid that if gay marriage or homosexual acts were normalised, then their safe house would be exposed for what it is - hypocrisy.

Martel observes that as society, in general, became more open to gays and gay marriage, much to the distress of Benedict XVI, vocations of the priesthood fell off a cliff. The driving force of many vocations simply evaporated, at least in the West. Gays found that as they were more accepted in society, there was less needed to hide in the priesthood.

Martel's second rule of the Vatican closet states:

Homosexuality spreads the closer one gets to the holy of holies; there are more and more homosexuals as one rises through the Catholic hierarchy. In the College of Cardinals and at the Vatican, the preferential selection process is set to be perfected, homosexuality becomes the rule, heterosexuality the exception. (p10)

The upper echelons of the Vatican during the papacy of John Paul II and Benedict XVI were inhabited by homosexuals but, despite this, these two papacies were virulently homophobic. The dark side of this virulence was the suppression of the sexual abuse, mostly of boys, by priests. Ratzinger, in particular, as Prefect for the Doctrine of Faith and later as Benedict XVI, helped suppress reports about sexual abuse for a total of thirty years. It is no wonder that when the scandals could not be denied during his papacy, he chose to abdicate. If it was not evident to him, it was evident to many others that the Vatican's hard line on sexuality, homosexuality, birth control, priestly celebacy and its adherence to conservative theology had produced a crisis in the Catholic Church not seen since the Reformation.

The topsy turvy world of the Vatican is summed up in the third rule of the closet:

The more pro-gay a cleric is, the less likely he is to be gay; the more homophobic a cleric is, the more likely he is to be homosexual. (p41)

For example, Pope Francis - who am I to judge? - is gay-friendly and is most probably heterosexual. Benedict XVI opposed gay marriage with all his might and sponsored conversion therapy with the help of the priest/psychoanalyst, Tony Anatrella, who was later exposed as a sexual abuser and suspended. Martel comes to the conclusion that Benedict XVI was most probably a non-practising homosexual and that the sublimation of his sexuality produced his absolute abhorrence of homosexuals even though his secretary of state and many people around him were practising homosexuals. There is an inverted hatred of the self here that makes one wonder. As Martel says, "one could not make it up".

Martel proposes a sixth rule - we will skip a few - of the closet:

Behind the majority of cases of sexual abuse, there are priests and bishops who have protected the aggressors because of their own homosexuality and out of fear that it might be revealed in the event of a scandal. The culture of secrecy that was needed to maintain silence about the high prevalence of homosexuality in the church has allowed sexual abuse to be hidden and predators to act. (p92).

Here we have an institution frozen in fear and incapable of reform from within. Careerism does not help. Many celibate clergy do not have a private life, or if they do, that private life has to be a secret. The lack of family means that work, and often ambition, takes centre stage. A lifetime dedication to the Church may become code for an obsession for advancement.

These are men who mostly have not experienced long term relationships and their maturing effect and thus find themselves captive to their own egos, as is evidenced by Martel's visits to several over-the-top cardinals' residences. Thus, the Vatican is a hotbed of spite and ambition that makes it overbearing in its relations with those who are thought to threaten the conservative order. This often goes along with misogyny that makes the ordination of women unthinkable.

One fundamental reason why sexual abuse by clergy could be covered up for so long is that the Vatican is an independent state and hence its inhabitants have diplomatic immunity. This also applies to extra-territorial properties that house clergy in Rome and that are not actually within the Vatican walls.

Any crimes committed within these territories have to be handled by the Vatican police and its justice system. Neither has the resources nor expertise to investigate wrongdoing. There is also no separation between the Vatican government and its judicial system. It is no wonder that the Vatican is besieged by financial and sexual scandal, there is simply no staff or institution to deal with wrongdoing. Unfortunately, the idea that the Church was outside local legal systems inhibited the reporting of sexual abuse carried out by clergy. The Australian royal commission into institutional sexual abuse has put an end to that, as it has in many other countries.

After many pages of detailed descriptions of priests' double lives, Martel ends his book on a hopeful note. He tells of same-sex relationships lived out in the Vatican between men in plain sight and to the death! Of course, we all know of such men in secular society and how their relationships transcend sex and evolve into loving partnerships. Secular society has led the way for the normalisation of the various kinds of sexual orientation we find in the population.

The Church cannot just mimic secular society because it lives by its theology. Hence any movement must be preceded by a theological revolution. The Church is not lacking in fine theologians, most of whom have been ostracised or removed from teaching positions from where they could aid in this task. Conservative theology is very hard to change because it guards against changes that would threaten those with vested interests. But unless a change is made at this basic level, of how the Church understands the gospel, then nothing can happen.

The only hope for the normalisation of priestly life in the Roman Church is the lifting of the rule of celibacy, the recognition of gay relationships and the ordination of women. I know this is obvious, but it is not obvious to the old men who fear exposure. The theological objections they use to protect their positions have long since been debunked.

I can imagine the Vatican becoming like normal society with the children of priests playing in the gardens. This would be a post-gay society in which sexual orientation is so thoroughly integrated into every day thinking that it is scarcely mentioned or thought about. Surely, that is what is happening in many societies in the West. The Church should be at the forefront of such societal changes rather than being the obstacle it has become.

There have been rumours that Francis has read and approved of the book. We know that Francis has been busy cleaning out the Curia and is fully aware of the problems. It may be, if the book is taken seriously, that it could be the weapon he needs to overcome the inertia he has been battling. The promise is that root and branch reform of the Catholic Church will be the result.

But don't hold your breath!