A male escort who sent the Vatican a list of 40 ‘gay’ priests has revealed how some paid hundreds of pounds for sex and sent each other penis pictures on WhatsApp.
Francesco Mangiacapra produced a 1,200-page dossier identifying the priests and seminarians in Italy saying he wanted to end the hypocrisy of ‘preaching hatred towards gays’.
He has described how one priest exposed himself in front of a bell and sent him a naked WhatsApp picture asking whether he liked his penis.
The archdiocese of Naples says it has sent the Vatican a 1,200-page dossier compiled by a male escort identifying 40 actively gay priests and seminarians in Italy. File picture shows St Peter’s Square in the Vatican city
He said priests often used Telegram to create chat groups and find escorts in their areas.
Some paid ‘hundreds of euro’ for sexual services and sent images of their penises to each other describing where and how they wanted to have sex, he claimed.
Mangiacapra, who says he is now giving up prostitution to end the ‘indignity of selling my body’, told Catania Today that his decision to send the dossier was ‘not a gesture that goes against the Catholic Church’.
‘We are talking about sins, not crimes. I only want this out so that these people will stop preaching hatred towards gays.
‘I did it for the health of the church. We are talking about bad apples which, in my opinion, should be reduced to the lay state not to be punished but to have the opportunity to come into contact and reconcile with their own homosexuality.
‘As a person who enjoys sexual freedom, I do not condemn the homosexuality of the priests: Homosexuality is not a crime, what is condemned is the incoherence of these priests.’
The archdiocese of Naples says it has forwarded the dossier to the Vatican. In a statement on the diocesan website, Archbishop of Naples Cardinal Cresenzio Sepe said none of the identified priests worked in the city.
But he said he decided to pass on the file because ‘there remains the gravity of the cases for which those who have erred must pay the price, and be helped to repent for the harm done.’
None of the 34 priests or six seminarians was accused of having sex with minors, Mangiacapra was quoted as saying in the diocesan statement.
It’s the latest sex scandal to convulse the Italian church and the Vatican.
Last month, a Vatican judge pleaded guilty in a Rome tribunal to having child porn on his computer after police were brought in when he allegedly tried to fondle an 18-year-old man.
Monsignor Pietro Amenta was a judge on the Roman Rota, the Holy See tribunal that hears marriage annulment cases, as well as a consulter to various Vatican congregations.
He resigned after the plea deal, the Vatican said.