Is God Trying to Send the Vatican a Message?

I swear that I try not to write about the Roman Catholic Church on a near daily basis, but it seems that there's always some new juicy scandal or situation that underscores the cluelessness and/or hypocrisy of the Church hierarchy. Today's scandal of the day is one such jewel that makes me wonder if God isn't doing his/her/its best to trash the Catholic Church and send the Vatican a message that it needs to change its ways. As the Church continues to be one of the leading persecutors of LGBT individuals and seeks to involve itself in the deprivation of civil legal rights to gays, the clergy sex abuse scandal keeps expanding and seems to know no geographical limits. Now, sexual related scandal has seeped into the very heart of the Vatican with the news that a member of an exclusive "usher" organization and member of an exclusive Vatican choir has been arrested for involvement in a gay prostitution ring. As seems to be the norm, the most extreme homophobes are always the closet cases and/or those who persecute normal, out gays. The Washington Post has the details on this latest bombshell and here are some highlights:

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - One of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers and a member of an elite choir in St Peter's Basilica have been implicated in a gay prostitution ring, in the latest sexual scandal to taint the Vatican.
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Among four people arrested last month in the corruption probe was Angelo Balducci, a engineer who is a board member of Italy's public works department and a construction consultant to the Vatican. Balducci was arrested on corruption charges and the allegations of prostitution emerged only later.
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Balducci is also a member of an elite group called "Gentlemen of His Holiness," ushers who are called to serve in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on major occasions such as when the pope receives heads of state or presides at big events. "Gentlemen of His Holiness" carried the coffin of the late Pope John Paul at his funeral in 2005
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Excerpts of the wiretaps and police documents published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica showed that Ehiem, 40, had been in regular contact with Balducci before Balducci's arrest last month and the subject of their conversation was gay sex.
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Wiretap transcripts published by La Repubblica showed that among the men Ehiem allegedly procured for Balducci were seminarians. In one, Balducci is quoted as asking Ehiem: "At what time does he have to return to the seminary?"
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Apart from being a "Gentleman of His Holiness," Balducci is listed in the Vatican's directory as a consultant to a Vatican department that deals with missions and had close contacts with the Vatican during planning for events for the year 2000, when millions of pilgrims came to Rome for a special Holy Year.

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Let's hope God continues to humiliate Benedict XVI as long as he continues to persecute and denigrate LGBT children of God.

Fishnet stockings, fake breasts, black leather

A number of us bloggers debated via e-mail whether the principal player (no pun intended) this story deserved to have his story further circulated and commented upon. In general, my feeling is that if someone is actively taking and/or supporting anti-gay actions (either via legislation or religious message), they are open game. e.g., Richard Curtis, the recently resigned Washington State GOP cross-dresser or baptist pastors and Catholic priests who demonize gays in the pulpit and then seek out gay sex on the sly. Thus, someone like Catholic High School principal, Paul Schum is less clear cut case.

I ultimately decided to do a post because (1) most Catholic Schools do have religious instruction as part of the course of studies, so it is likely that he enforced educational practices that put forward an anti-gay message, teaching self-loathing to his LGBT students, (2) the Catholic Church in many areas is actively working to deny gays equal civil rights (the bishops in Virginia sent out letters to be read at all parishes urging a vote in favor of the Marriage Amendment last November), and (3) the Catholic Church says we gays are are inherently disordered and must suppress who were are. Perhaps it is partly guilt by association to some, but I felt the hypocrisy factor was sufficient to cover the story. Here are highlights from a story on WHAS 11 News (http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/103107whasjnTopPrincipalcited.1c7543fd2.html):

Fishnet stockings, fake women’s breasts and black leather. That is the way Louisville Metro Police say they found a Catholic school principal. That principal of Bethlehem High School in Bardstown, Kentucky is on personal leave after being cited for loitering for prostitution. The allegations are shocking for those at this small Catholic high school.

Police say when they found Dr. Paul Schum in an alley way in Louisville, he was wearing fishnet stockings, plastic women’s’ breasts and black leather. “Honestly I don’t know it seemed like it’s unbelievable you know, not that it happened, but that it was Paul,” says neighbor Kyle Wooten.

The police report says on Tuesday night the principal was found at 22nd and Stone in Louisville—an area police say is known for drug activity and prostitution. The principal has told those from the Bardstown community this is all a misunderstanding and his name will be cleared.

The Archdiocese of Louisville issued the following statement on Wednesday: "The Archdiocese learned today about the allegation against Dr. Paul Schum, principal of Bethlehem High School. Per our policy, Dr. Schum has requested and is taking personal leave from his position as principal of Bethlehem High School pending the outcome of the investigation. Dr. Schum denies the allegation." Dr. Schum is currently on personal leave from Bethlehem High School pending the outcome of the investigation.

A copy of the arrest citation can be seen here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1101071principal2.html. Maybe he heard about Richard Curtis' outfit and wanted to out do it???