Sex And Drugs In A Vatican Apartment (Updated July 7, 2017, With Footnote 3)

Quoted below, in part, is from a heavy.com  article entitled Luigi Capozzi: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, dated July 6, 2017, without hyperlinks [1]:

The Vatican is embroiled in another sex scandal.

Sometime last month, Vatican police raided an apartment home belonging to the secretary of Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio and allegedly discovered an ongoing gay orgy that was fueled by drugs, Italian media reports say.

Those same media reports have identified the man in question as Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, the secretary for Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, who serves as the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Capozzi was ordained in 1992 and has worked in numerous roles within the Roman Catholic church ever since. He was about to be appointed a bishop, Italian media reports say.

A related article, also from heavy.com, entitled Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, dated July 5, 2017, is quoted in part below with hyperlink included [2]:

Pope Francis is reportedly “enraged” after Vatican police raided an apartment belonging to the secretary of Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio and discovered a drug-fueled gay orgy.

Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reported on June 28 that police raided the home after neighbors complained that people were “constantly coming and going” from the entrance of the home in the evening.

The apartment home is typically reserved for “superiors, prefects, presidents or secretaries of the Roman Curia,” not “simple Monsignor,” the newspaper reported. The luxury vehicle that was given to the secretary, with a Holy See license plate, was often used as cover to transport the drugs without being stopped by police.

Coccopalmerio’s 50-year-old secretary of duties is named Luigi Capozzi. Reports say that partly because of the raid, Pope Francis “has decided to accelerate the retirement” of the 79-year-old Coccopalmerio, who serves as the president for the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts in addition to many other congregations.

Presumably, these uninhibited priestly indulgences in sex and drugs did not involve children or adulterous acts, otherwise this entry would take on a different tone altogether.  Neither of the two heavy.com  report cited above indicated whether acts of sodomy was involved.  Whether it is between a man and a woman or another man, sodomy is contrary to nature, but whether it is specifically, or impliedly, forbidden by the teachings of Christ and the Ten Commandments is open to debate, or perhaps not. [3]

What is clear, however, is that at least one man, perhaps there were others, who had committed himself to serving Christ by wearing a priestly collar but had nonetheless indulged in drug-enhanced acts of debauchery.  The question then is how do drugs and gay orgies advance the purposes to which these priests, assuming that there were more than just one, had vowed to dedicate their lives?  They do not.

When a man commits his life to Christ, he ought to abide by his commitment.  His priestly collar signifies the existence of a contract between his conscience and his will to dedicate himself fully in serving Christ.  While no man can be perfect, a man does not need to take extra steps to magnify his need for sexual expression, to turn what is an individualized simple biological need into a group sex and drug extravaganza.



[1] http://heavy.com/news/2017/07/luigi-capozzi-gay-orgy-drugs-vatican-coccopalmerio-monsignor/
[2] http://heavy.com/news/2017/07/francesco-coccopalmerio-cardinal-gay-raid-vatican-drugs-capozzi/
[3] Footnote added July 7, 2017:  On July 7, 2017, lifesitenew.com  published an article entitled Archbishop criticizes pro-gay Vatican advisor for book normalizing homosexuality. See https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archbishop-criticizes-pro-gay-vatican-advisor-for-book-normalizing-homosexu  Part of the article is quoted below without hyperlinks:

As newly-appointed Vatican advisor Father James Martin continues his campaign for greater openness to homosexuality in the Catholic Church, a prominent archbishop has now stepped up to correct the Jesuit priest’s misuse of Catholic teaching.

In a column Thursday, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput criticized Father Martin for failing to be clear about the sinfulness of homosexual acts.

Chaput said that while Martin is correct in stating that the Church must have “respect, compassion and sensitivity in dealing with persons with same-sex attraction,” this does not give a license to him or other influential leaders within the Church to suddenly start ignoring Biblical teaching on sexuality.

“What the text regrettably lacks is an engagement with the substance of what divides faithful Christians from those who see no sin in active same-sex relationships,” the archbishop wrote in a column titled A letter to the Romans.

Pointing to St. Paul’s condemnation of homosexual practices, Chaput added: “If the Letter to the Romans is true, then persons in unchaste relationships (whether homosexual or heterosexual) need conversion, not merely affirmation. If the Letter to the Romans is false, then Christian teaching is not only wrong but a wicked lie.  Dealing with this frankly is the only way an honest discussion can be had.”

Fr. Martin in his June 2017 book titled Building a Bridge urges Catholics who identify as “gay” to begin “conversations” with their bishops so as to move the Church in the direction of eventually normalizing homosexuality as part of God’s creation.

The disagreement between the two schools of thought rages on without any resolution in sight while some of those who are supposed to uphold the current position of the Catholic Church that "'under no circumstances can [homosexual acts] be approved' (CCC 2357)" (ibid) are likely continuing to engage in gay sex no matter what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says.  Whoever expects "conversion" of those in "unchaste" relationship can keep expecting, and whoever expects the Catholic Church to decree the practice of homosexual acts to be acceptable can also keep expecting, for no conversion can be successful without steadfast will and no man can bend the will of Mother Nature, and that too, whether homosexuality is biological or not, is another disagreement that does not look like it is ending anytime soon.  See http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-genetic-homosexuality-nature-nurture-20151007-story.html (biological - article published October 8, 2015) and https://concernedwomen.org/images/content/bornorbred.pdf (non-biological - article "last updated in June 2000").

In conclusion, this blogger believes that Archbishop Chaput is on the right side of the disagreement, and even if he erred, he has erred on the side of purity and holiness and nobody who lives a life of purity and holiness lives it contrary to the teachings of Christ.  Any other manner of living requires an abundance of prayers asking for forgiveness, for which an even greater abundance of God's mercy is necessary since there is not enough time in one's life to pray for the forgiveness of all of one's trespasses.