Sodoma. Het geheim van het Vaticaan

by Frédéric Martel‏

‘Achter rigiditeit zit altijd iets verborgen, en in veel gevallen is dat een dubbelleven.’ Met die woorden gaf paus Franciscus een geheim prijs dat in het duizelingwekkende Sodoma voor het eerst in zijn geheel wordt onthuld.

God zou de Bijbelse stad Sodom hebben vernietigd vanwege de homoseksualiteit van haar inwoners. Maar vandaag de dag vormt het Vaticaan zelf een van de grootste homoseksuele gemeenschappen ter wereld. Dit lang verzwegen, explosieve gegeven verklaart veel. Het priestercelibaat bijvoorbeeld, het verbod op het gebruik van voorbehoedsmiddelen, de cultuur van geheimhouding rond seksueel misbruik en de vrouwenhaat van de geestelijkheid. Maar ook het aftreden van paus Benedictus XVI heeft ermee te maken, net als de recente aanvallen op paus Franciscus.

Vier jaar lang heeft Frédéric Martel zich ondergedompeld in de wereld van het Vaticaan. Hij heeft onderzoek verricht in meer dan dertig landen en daarbij honderden mensen gesproken, van priesters tot bisschoppen en kardinalen. De meesten wilden hem te woord staan op basis van anonimiteit, al zijn er ook die de moed hadden on the record te praten. Hun verhaal is eensluidend.

Zo toont Sodoma voor het eerst het verborgen gezicht van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk. Een systeem dat vanaf de kleinste seminaries tot de binnenmuren van het Vaticaan is gefundeerd op een dubbelleven: van buiten radicaal homofoob, in werkelijkheid homoseksueel. De schizofrenie van de Kerk is totaal.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, History, Politics, Audiobook, LGBT, Catholic

670 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2019

About the author

Frédéric Martel holds a PhD in social sciences and several graduate degrees in philosophy, political science and law. After being project manager for the French Embassy in Romania (1990–1992) and the French ministry of culture (1992); and being advisor to the former Prime Minister Michel Rocard (1993–1994), he served the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, deputy-Prime minister Martine Aubry, as one of her political senior advisors (1997–2000). From 2001 to 2005 he was cultural attaché for the French embassy in the US. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and New York University (2004–2006). He wrote, or currently writes, for numerous publications (including Magazine Littéraire, L'Express, Dissent, The Nation and Slate) and produces its own radio show, "Soft Power", a weekly live talk show on the entertainment, the medias and "the internets" for the French national public radio station France Culture. He is also editor in chief of the Internet-based cultural magazine nonfiction.fr and a columnist at Slate.

Additionally, he has had high-level academic activities by giving conferences in major American universities (such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley and the MIT), universities in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, China, Japan, India, Egypt (and dozens others countries) and by teaching, from 2005 to 2014, at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po Paris) and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris (also known as HEC Paris). In 2008–2010 he was a researcher for the French Foreign Affairs' Analysis and Forecasting Centre and he founded the research web site of the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel concerning creative industries and medias around the world.

From 2012 to 2013, he was a senior researcher at IRIS, Institut de Relations Internationales & Stratégiques. Since 2014, he is a senior researcher on culture and the internet at ZHdK University in Zurich (Switzerland).

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

50 Shades of Gay

How odd to call it such, but this book is most definitely charming. Its content is intended to be an exposé, yet its style is neither breathless nor incendiary. Rather, like much of French and Italian narrative journalism, it doesn’t seem to reveal secrets so much as remind us what we already vaguely know. It is therefore neither shocking nor titillating but fascinating and enjoyable. The line “50 shades of gay” is typical of its casual wit

Here’s the news: most (not some, not many, but most) senior clerics of the Catholic Church - cardinals, bishops and senior administrators - are homosexual. In fact “The Vatican has one of the biggest gay communities in the world.” In itself, this is not a problem. The problem arises when the dominant homosexual sociology of the Church is denied. The denial provokes a range of disfunction from personal neuroses, to internal blackmail, to hidden political factionalism, to a range of unacknowledged sexual abuses.

It is sex not doctrine or personal ambition that is the touch-paper for most of the explosive issues that the Vatican has been unsuccessful in addressing for decades. With that interpretive key in mind, the inability of the pope, an absolute monarch, to correct the errors he publicly recognizes and condemns, becomes understandable. He is not confronting tensions between liberal and conservatives but between various gay factions. To do what has to be done would require him to reveal the depth and breadth of hypocrisy within the Church. Coming out of the closet may be its only salvation. But in that case, as they used to say in the VietNam war, it may have to be destroyed in order to be saved.

To be clear: it is not lack of sex which is causing difficulties. The prevalence of homosexual activity is taken as normal by those who are “of the parish” as gay priests in Rome refer to themselves. Celibacy isn’t really an issue because it is mostly ignored. Sexual encounters from the most casual to the most long-term are available in abundance and on demand.

It is the hiddenness of those who are ‘out’ but only within the rather large closet of the Vatican that saps the vigour (as it were) of the entire organisation. That the priesthood is attractive to young gay men as a way to fit into an homophobic society, that they are promoted within the clerical hierarchy because of their sexual availability, that they in turn protect the gay community which has found a refuge (however secret) within the Church, are all plausible, if not obvious, assertions once stated. And interestingly, few of the large numbers of senior churchmen interviewed by Martel deny such assertions. These are open secrets.

But the consequences of admitting the truth of these assertions hangs over the gay priesthood like a sharp axe ready to cut them off not just from their livelihoods but also from their roles, their identities, in the world. And it is this looming axe that generates fear, and obstruction, and mutual harm. There is no way in which gay culture can be rooted out of the Church. That culture has probably always been a mainstay of its ritual, its liturgical splendour, and its gravitas. To excise it would be as great a disaster as to keep it hidden. Hence the pope’s problem: moderating undeclared internecine gay warfare.

I find Martel’s narrative to be highly explanatory. It makes sense of so many things - like the pope’s internal political impotence - which otherwise remain mysterious. Surprisingly, the book also generates sympathy for both the Church and its leaders. Pope Francis is clearly torn between feelings of fraternal care for individuals and fears for the institutional stability of the Church. Opting to reveal the truth of the situation may well be the most Christian act he could make but an act which many would regard as betrayal of his duty. As Martel says: “Francis is said to be ‘among the wolves’. It’s not quite true: he’s among the queens.” Good luck Francis.

A Portfolio of Leading Vatican Queens

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, opponent of Pope Francis, currently without portfolio; prefers feminine personal pronouns. Quite a look. One wonders for whom he dresses and who dresses him as well as who makes his dresses. The upward-glancing pious eyes are an inimitable touch all his own however. A master patron 0f the couturier’s art.



Cardinal Keith O’Brien, leader of the Scottish Catholic Church; campaigner against homosexuality, himself gay. Stunning in scarlet.



Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Vatican diplomat to the US; homophobic homosexual paedophile. Simple elegance just never goes out of fashion



Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Commission on the Family; frequent frequenter of homosexual prostitutes on several continents. It’s the tasteful choice of eye-catching gold accessories that makes a man stand out from the crowd.



Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Gröer, inveterate paedophile, with his pal the pope. Floral motifs are not for everyone but go for it if you can pull it off. It does help to be in sympathetic company.



Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York City in a simpler time; a voracious sexual predator with a particular penchant for chorus boys. Sometimes a more somber tone is just right for the occasion. Just goes to prove that if you hold onto it long enough, it’ll be back in style.

[Thomas Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, the truth

I'm 75, and Catholic most of my life. I'm also a Gay man who was married for 46 years to my husband Robert. When he died from cancer I was not allowed to speak about our relationship at his Funeral in a Catholic Church. I was Baptized, Confirmed and Educated during 16 years of Schooling in Catholic Schools. When the Church found out that I was Gay I was treated like garbage. Now we find out about the double standard and hateful homophobia in the Catholic Churc by closeted gay me. I am beyond disgusted.

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very surprised by this book. And then I was surprised at being surprised.

I know several young men who went on to the seminary. None of them became priests. About 2 out of 3 are gay and are or have been in relationships with other men. Some of them had passes made at them by older priests at the seminary. I was perfectly aware of all this, and yet as I delved deeper into this book I grew more and more astonished at how widespread homosexuality is amongst Catholic clergy.

Some reviewers have argued that Martel’s tone is unprofessional and overly gossipy. I agree that he sometimes falls into the temptation of adopting a buoyant, colourful tone to underline some point or other. Still, one gets the feeling that these extravagances are often a way to cope with the hypocrisy that abounds in this milieu. The other more serious problem is that Martel seems to fall into weird stereotypes and sometimes baseless speculation. The best example is the chapter on Benedict XVI. Martel hints at the Pope’s homophilia based on little more than rumour, the delicacy of his gestures, and his handsome secretary.

However, these reservations should not serve, as I suspect detractors are wont to do, to discredit the book. In its fundamentals, there are very important questions raised here. With few exceptions, such as the chapter on Benedict, it seems that Martel can back most of his statements with witnesses and knowledge offered by insiders. These are human stories backed by the testimony of other people. When he can, Martel backs it up with documents and written evidence. Still, an index and references should have been provided.

I don’t think anyone can seriously dispute Martel’s primary thesis: that homosexuality is indelibly linked with the Catholic Church, ingrained in the very structure of the Church, from the lowest Parish priest to, well, several Popes. That this isn’t so much a lobby as a simple predominance. Gay priests aren’t fighting for the advancement of their cause; on the contrary. That by itself makes the idea of a lobby quite absurd.

What really makes the book much more than a fishwife’s tale is how Martel explores the often horrible consequences of this widespread homosexuality. He argues that homosexual prelates enact a kind of omertá, a code of silence that pulsates through every corner of the Church's hierarchy. It’s not only a “don’t ask, don’t tell”. It’s more of a “we know you know that we know”. This practice contributes to the habit of secrecy and obfuscation, and is used to hide actual crimes that go from pedophilia to harassment to financial corruption. In other words, homosexual priests don’t denounce others who commit actual crimes because they’re afraid to be outed in the process. This secrecy, furthermore, works on the basis of the exchange of favours. That’s how homosexual priests end up by protecting criminals. One hand washes the other, and in this game they all have something on someone else. Martel perfectly explains the kind of paranoid environment that is installed as a result. The Curia, especially, is a stereotype of a Renaissance scheming Court.

The second part of Martel’s thesis is that the Church is tremendously hypocritical when it comes to gay rights. It is usually the “campest” prelates who are most homophobic. This makes sense from a psychological point of view. You hate what you fear to be, what you really are. But the odd twist is that those priests are often practicing homosexuals. Some of them keep regular lovers disguised as secretaries or a bodyguards. How can they live with themselves? Are they embroiled in a permanent inner conflict like the Catholic writers Martel delights in quoting (mostly Maritain and Mauriac), or is their homophobia an act so no one suspects their preferences?

Martel also offers a convincing explanation as to why priesthood is such an attractive career for young gay men. This interpretation has a solid sociological and historical basis, although it merited further analysis. Most of the priests in this book are over 45. Many come from rural areas. This would explain why they turned to the Church to combat a budding homosexuality. The Church, in return, offered a safe haven for those young men who were afraid to come out and for whom it was impossible to be openly gay.

There is another aspect that I thought should have been more developed. The connection between this male dominated world, where women are largely absent, and misogyny. Martel hints at this often but fails to develop it, which is a pity. It’s a male dominated world and a male dominated book.

Some reviewers have said that the book is too long and repetitive. It might be repetitive, but I do think that Martel covered very important subjects, even when they escaped the scope of the book. His insights on gay prostitution in Rome were tremendously interesting, as is the chapter on dissenters whose rebellion extends not only to sexuality but feminism and abortion.

[Karen Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martel's primary focus here is on the sexual hypocrisy in the Catholic Church; as in, as the church has become more explicitly homophobic in the reigns of JPII and Benedict, simultaneously more of its bishops and archbishops are engaging in surreptitious gay behavior. The book is most moving, and hardest to read, when Martel details the exploitation and damage that this hypocrisy wreaks; the undocumented immigrants working as trafficked sex workers near the Vatican who have full rosters of clerical clients, the priests who die of AIDS while condemning condom distribution as a violation of church teaching, financial improprieties that are connected to the sexual hypocrisy. The book is less persuasive when Martel engages in extended Freudian analysis. I'm irritated by the multiple reviews or commentaries on the book that are choosing to dismiss it because it is based on "gossip" or Martel's testimony of his gaydar; while Martel makes a few glancing references to his own perceptions of someone's behavior, the simple fact is that this book is based on hundreds of interviews, many of them on the record, with Church clergy. Of the many other folks Martel spoke with, one sex worker has an extensive database of his clerical clients, including phone numbers that are accurate, photographs, etc., that has apparently been published in Italy. While Martel clearly made a deliberate choice to write the book in an arch tone (sometimes verging on camp), this doesn't mean that he hasn't done his homework. Between this, the seemingly endless sex abuse scandal, the recently revealed guidelines for priests who father children, it seems like the church is long overdue for a serious moral self-reckoning.

[booklady · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are not many books I regret wasting time and money on as much as I regret this one. But then I didn’t waste nearly so much of my life as Mr. Martel has in writing this unfortunate piece of gossip, scandal, speculation and opinion. According to Mr. Martel, in the Catholic Church, conservative cardinals, bishops and priests—but especially the cardinals and bishops and he likes to name specific men—are closet homosexuals not in touch with their own sexuality; Liberal clergy are either openly homosexual or homophiles, i.e., openly supportive of the gay agenda.

Mr. Martel’s agenda—discernible fairly early on—is that the solution to the clergy sex scandal is for all homosexual clergy to be honest about their sexuality, to come ‘out of the closet’. But as most true Catholics know, when it comes to desires, fulfilling them is impossible. Giving way to our desires, as opposed to disciplining them, only allows them to grow stronger, increase in size and number and become deviant, until eventually they completely control us. There is no satisfying the desires of the human heart except through God alone, a God, Mr. Martel does not recognize or accept.

An interesting observation: Mr. Martel accuses a number of Conservative cardinals and bishops of being misogynists. I’m not sure what he means by that term, but I have always understood it to mean a man who does not like women. Doesn’t male homosexuality contain a bit of misogynism in it? In this book, Mr. Martel doesn't even consider the possibility of men returning to women, for the two sexes—and no, I refuse to call them genders—working together to solve this problem of the whole human race. That the love and involvement of women is desperately needed to solve this and so many other problems in the Catholic Church. God made women for men, for a reason and when women live as fully feminine, loving wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, whether in the home, church, workplace or any where, they will influence men for the better.

[Darryl Greer · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Closet Of The Vatican, is an exposé on life in the Vatican, notably its alleged gay culture and the hypocrisy that stems from its sinful inhabitants teaching others how they should live their lives. So, here we have author and journalist, Frédéric Martel, himself gay, a liberal, élite, atheist, writing about the heart of the Catholic Church. What could possibly go wrong? Despite his profession and an impressive curriculum vitae, the prose is written in sensationalist style, as though the author is writing for a tabloid newspaper. It is almost as though there is an exclamation mark at the end of every sentence. It is also interesting to note that when a particular member of the Vatican’s hierarchy says something that the Church has been teaching for 2000 years, or perhaps says he is against same-sex marriage, that person is described as far right or ultra-conservative. There doesn’t appear to be anyone who is simply conservative or centre-right. Martel has obviously spent a considerable amount of time and effort, spanning some years, to research this 570 page tome, but it is high on innuendo and gossip and low on verifiable facts. But even if it were entirely true, so what? Jesus’ apostles were deeply flawed characters yet He chose them to spread his message, so that out of this motley crew of just a dozen was born a religion today comprising 2.18 billion Christians, approximately half of which identify as Roman Catholic. Nobody should seriously expect clergy to be entirely faultless. They are, after all, in their clerical life standing in Jesus’ sandals, spreading the gospel and administering sacraments. In a less than flattering article for the New York Times by gay journalist, Frank Bruni, headed New exposé on homosexuality in the Vatican is silly, offensive and potentially dangerous, that journalist cites a statement by James Martin, S.J. a bestselling Jesuit author that the book “is bound to shift attention away from child abuse and onto gay priests in general, once again falsely conflating in people’s minds homosexuality and paedophilia.” I couldn’t agree more. A detailed study by another Jesuit, Hans Zollner S.J., found that 95% of priests have never committed abuse, thus celibacy does not lead to abusive behaviours as such. And in an article by Canadian Catholic evangelist, Mark Mallett, drawing on further detailed research carried out on behalf of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, found that between 1950 and 2002, less than 4% of US clergy were accused of sexual abuse; of this, less than 4% of the accused, less than 0.1% of total clergy, after detailed and exhaustive investigations, were found to be guilty. None of these statistics has found its way into In The Closet Of The Vatican. By all means, read this book. It is, after all, well researched following hundreds of interviews, but as you do, try not to get carried away by cleverly written gossip.

[Rafal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ta książka zrobiła na mnie ogromne wrażenie.

Przede wszystkim dlatego, że jest profesjonalna. Autor zadbał o najdrobniejsze szczegóły, by czytelnik miał pewność, że książka została przygotowana rzetelnie. Źródła są zdokumentowane, przytaczane są nazwiska, świadkowie, konkretne wydarzenia i sytuacje; przy każdej autor podkreśla, że rozmowa była nagrywana za zgodą rozmówcy lub, że takiej zgody nie było, ale jest świadek; zaznaczał, gdy rozmówcy chcieli pozostać anonimowi, ale wtedy opisywane fakty potwierdzał w innych źródłach.
Jednym słowem - nie ma się do czego przyczepić. Może tylko do faktu, że czasem autor nie szczędził swoim bohaterom uszczypliwości i dyskretnych drwin.

To jest książka o homoseksualizmie w kościele katolickim. Wg autora to nie jest zjawisko odosobnione, tylko powszechne. Co więcej, wg niego, homoseksualizm na szczytach kościoła jest pośrednio lub bezpośrednio przyczyną wszystkich - znanych od lat - problemów i nadużyć w tej instytucji: afer seksualnych i finansowych.

Co ważne - to nie jest książka antygejowska. Wręcz przeciwnie. Autor sam jest gejem i działaczem gejowskim, a homoseksualne trendy w kościele uzasadnia socjologiczne i traktuje ze zrozumieniem.

Zrozumienia nie ma za to zupełnie dla hipokryzji. I ta książka jest właśnie o tym. Główne czarne charaktery tej książki to hierarchowie kościelni, którzy jedno mówią a drugie robią. Potępiają homoseksualizm a gejów wysyłają do piekła - sami zaś żyją w homoseksualnych związkach i/lub korzystają z usług męskich prostytutek. Z tej hipokryzji wynika cała masa innych problemów a konkluzja jest dość ponura: w Watykanie niemal wszystko obraca się wokół seksu i pieniędzy; wiara jest gdzieś na dalszym planie.

Dla hipokrytów autor jest dość bezlitosny. A także dla celibatu i mizoginii. Dlatego ogromne wrażenie robi ostatni rozdział, w którym autor pisze o miłości. Podaje przykłady związków ludzi związanych z kościołem, którzy wbrew swojej instytucji próbowali otwarcie ułożyć sobie szczęśliwe życie. Płacili za to karierami, ale byli szczęśliwi.

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lies, lies, lies! This book documents what we all know - the Catholic church is nowadays very far from its core values. And what's even worse it engages in anti-LGBT crusades while being rotten at its foundations. This book opened my eyes for some shocking facts I was not aware of and which would not come to my mind spontaneously - e.g., priests are also getting infected with HIV. The last chapter on the demise of Benedict XVI was for me by far the most interesting. But despite the fact that this account is thoroughly researched, it is also largely suffering from the lack of crucial edits - some things are illustrated over and over again with the use of very similar examples. More concise delivery would keep the main message stronger and would also stop my mind from occasional wandering while reading.

[Tonkica · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Četverogodišnje istraživanje, više od 1500 sugovornika među kojima su kardinali, biskupi i monsinjori, apostolski nunciji, inozemni veleposlanici. Svećenici i sjemeništarci, njih više od dvije stotine razgovarali su, kao i ostali najčešće u četiri oka s novinarom. Telefonski razgovori su se snimali i cijela studija je dokumentirana. Nevjerojatan pothvat prekrasno ukoričen na više od 500 stranica donosi šokantne istine koje crkva živi iz dana u dan.

„Ova knjiga nije protiv crkve, nego protiv lobija koji je već dugo u Vatikanu.“ – Autor

Cijeli osvrt pronađite ovdje: https://knjige-u-svom-filmu.webador.c...

[Claudia Hoffmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important Book, Highly Recommended

Frédéric Martel’s investigation of the Vatican was conducted over 4 years in Italy and 30 other countries . He interviewed 1,500 individuals, including 41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignori as well as apostolic nuncios, Swiss Guards, and over 200 Catholic priests. Martel estimates that 80 percent of the priests in the Vatican are homosexual and that 80 of the children abused by priest world wide are adolescent boys between the ages of 11-17. The problem is not the large number of homosexuals in the Vatican, but that there is a powerful segment of them that voice strongly homophobic opinions in order to obscure their own life style. The Catholic church’s opposition to the use of condoms in Africa has resulted in many needless deaths in the Aids epidemic.

The history and politics of the Vatican in recent decades is reviewed as well as the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis is described as realistically acknowledging and accepting gays in the Vatican.

Although I am not Catholic, I think that this is an important book for the general public to read in view of the civil rights now accorded the LGBT community, as well as the need for the Catholic Church to accept contraceptives for family planning and disease protection. The issues of celibacy, married priests, and the role of women in the church are also discussed.

[Terence M [on a brief semi-hiatus] · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audiobook - 22:20 Hours - Narrator: John Banks
Listened to: 08:00 Hours - Balance: 14:20 Hours

I have pulled the plug on this boring book. I simply do not want to know any more about the vast numbers of homosexual members of the Italian or any other nationality, Catholic clergy, whether they be Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Monsignors, Priests, Nuns or whatever. The chapters I listened to tonight, chapters eight and nine, gave me, in overwhelming and unrelenting detail, the relationships and inter-relationships between seemingly hundreds of gay, anti-gay, or gay-empathetic Catholic clergy members in Italy and most of the rest of the world, including my home town.

It is 12:10 am in Melbourne, Australia and I may have something further to say about "In the Closet of the Vatican" when I have given more consideration to the one third of the book that I have heard, but at the moment it's back to bed!

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted this book to be more interesting than it is. Perhaps it is interesting, but the writing is far less than stellar. Honestly, I do not think Martel ever thinks about his readers. He is too fixated on what he sees as his story. As a result, the book comes across as vague and boring. Trying to read it is like suffering a death by a thousand paper cuts. So, what do I mean? Well consider this passage from p. 112 of the book:

“According to one of the authors of the text (Amoris Laetitia), the homosexuals have lost the battle of the Synod, but on the other hand they still managed to include, by way of reprisal, three coded references to homosexuality in this apostolic exhortation: a hidden formula on ‘loving friendship’ (§127); a reference to the joy of the birth of John the Baptist, whom we know to have been painted as effeminate by both Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci, who modeled him on his lover Salai (§65); and finally, the name of a Catholic thinker who eventually acknowledged his homosexuality, Gabriel Marcel (§322) ... A slender victory.”

Okay, the first problem that I have is that I do not like 100 word sentences. I do not like having to wade through a sentence like this and decipher what the author is trying to say. A good editor would have helped a lot. Martel has a bad habit of trying to say things with at least twice the number of words needed.

Second, if you check the references here you might easily conclude that Martel’s case is pretty weak. It is very easy to download Amoris Laetitia in English from the Vatican website. If you do, you can navigate to the cited sections easily. The problem is that once you do that you realize that it is a meaningless citation. There is nothing in the text that will verify the allegations made by the ‘author’ whoever that might be. The text is innocuous. “Coded references to homosexuality” ah, maybe, but no real substantiation is offered.

Third, the business about effeminate paintings of John the Baptist. Well, I just cannot get too excited about that. Paintings, and art in general, are just too open to interpretation. Hmmm, was Salai da Vinci’s lover? Who knows? But, more seriously, who cares? That Salai had an established homosexual relationship with da Vinci may or may not be proven. And, this is another problem with Martel. He seems to treat innuendo as fact.

Somewhere buried in this 500 page mess is a good 200 page book.

Full disclosure, I stopped reading around p. 114. Was worn out from the slog.

[Nishu Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many cardinals and priests who meet beneath the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel - one of the most grandiose scenes of gay culture, peopled with virile bodies-share the same inclinations'. The problem is that if you tell the truth about the 'closet and the special friendships in the Vatican, people won't believe you. They'll say it's made up. Because here reality goes beyond fiction. The Vatican has one of the biggest gay communities in the world, and I doubt whether, even in San Francisco's Castro, the emblematic gay quarter, though more mixed today, there are quite as many gays! The homosexual sociology of Catholicism also helps us to explain another reality: the end of vocations in Europe. For a long time young Italians, who discovered that they were homosexual, chose the priesthood.

[Antonio Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book, based on hundreds of interviews of churchmen, including 41 cardinals and nearly a hundred bishops, monsignors and priests, both diocesan and belonging to religious orders, as well as visits to over thirty countries, often multiple visits to multiple countries. The author, a former Catholic born in France, a product of the country’s superb secular education system, is relentless in his pursuit of the rot at the core of the Catholic Church in this century.

This rot he calls “Sodom”, a Republic of gay men in orders who very often pay their respects to mandatory celibacy not by complying with this rule but by viciously persecuting other gays both in and out of the Church, in and out of the closet. Because all non procreative sexuality is disordered and therefore sinful, consensual sexual relations between adult men and women, or between men, are considered on a par with the sexual pursuit of minors of either sex (although, indeed, about 80% of child victims of priests are male). So, often bishops and priests did not deliberately protect pedophiles because they sympathized with them and did not care about their victims, but because the bishops and priests had their own secrets to hide. This is not to say that there is a gay lobby in the Church, there are a majority of gays overall, and their dominance is absolute the higher one moves in the hierarchy: in the Vatican the author estimates 70%-80% of gays there and in the College of Cardinals. What rather happens is that there are gay networks of power that pervade the Church and these networks fight each other. Some of these networks are headed by powerful men like John Paul II’s Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano, who wrecked Benedict XVI’s papacy (Vatileaks I) and by Benedict’s ham-handed Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone,
who has made life miserable for Francis (as shown in Vatileaks II and Bishop Viganó’s unhinged but mainly reliable open letter).

The book is a remarkable reporting achievement, particularly for such a famously opaque environment where things always happen behind closed doors and the fiction of harmony is nearly always preserved. Virtually anyone who is someone in the Vatican spoke at length with Martel, and many of these people were quite candid. The corruption of cardinals that squander millions in refurbishing their apartments, which they often occupy illegally, is here. Here too are the rumors about bishops and priests patronizing foreign male prostitutes near Rome’s Termini station. There are some I’d heard, about Alfonso cardinal López Trujillo. Martel says that both serial rapist and pedophile Marcial Maciel and cardinal López were especially liked by John Paul II because they channeled funds to the Solidarity union movement in Poland. He dissects the literary preferences of Paul VI and the sartorial preferences of Benedict XVI to show their likely gay affinities, although very likely unconsummated. He says that the factor that led Benedict to resign, piled on top of many other betrayals and frustrations, was learning horrible things about the Church in Cuba prior to his visit there in March 2012): he even says that probably cardinal Ortega of Havana was compromised by Cuban security services, who enticed him to sexual congress with a man and recorded or photographed the encounter. Martel says that sexual misbehavior and abuses are egregious in Cuba because the government allows them in order to control the Church and block its becoming the core of a counterrevolutionary movement. He shows that although the Church has lost most of its power in Europe and Latin America, it still has enough in Africa and Asia where, in alliance with local rulers, it has legitimized the persecution of homosexuals and also permitted many preventable deaths by opposing and discrediting the use of condoms (on this cardinal López Trujillo wrote much). He shows that had the leadership directed to the fight against pederasty even a fraction of the energy it gave to homophobia, many children would have been protected from harm and many criminals would not have been allowed to continue to do harm. He shows multiple instances where sexual perversion was associated with moral compromise (as with Angelo Sodano and Pinochet in Chile) and financial corruption (as with Bishop Marcinkus and the scandals at the Vatican Bank, the IOR). He shows multiple cases of Francis’s vengeful nature and political acumen against his foes. I sure hope these latter rumors are true, for Francis needs to be tough as nails to survive in such a hostile environment. As seen in the very recent summit in the Vatican, which was quite short in concrete measures to stamp out pedophilia from the Church, making changes that stick is very hard in the Vatican.

So what to do? I don’t know if all the things Martel says are true. But the way he piles fact upon fact, interview upon interview, and the great variety of his sources, all suggest that much, perhaps most, is real. The celibate church model is imploding. Having an all-male celibate clergy does seem, in retrospect, an almost certain way to attract men who are not attracted to women. Thus the notion of weeding out gay candidates for the priesthood would be guaranteed to extinguish many or most of the few remaining vocations. The Eastern model of married parish clergy and single monks and bishops is already in the Church and it seems to work well, as it does in the Orthodox Church. There is clearly an ascetic ideal present in the Church: it comes directly from the gospels and was intensified in Paul’s epistles and in the Church father’s works, particularly Augustin. It is true that Christ never referred to homosexuality, but Paul did, many times, and it will be hard to strip these from the dogma. There are multiple condemnations of adultery, divorce and also fornication, particularly the harsh Mt 5:28 which John Paul II extended even to the relationship between married couples. Concerning female priesthood, this has been accepted by the Anglicans (although not all of them) but is contrary to universal Christian and Jewish practices, hence would be very hard to accept for everyone except activists who mostly seem to support it on secular grounds of equality between the sexes. In the end there is no easy way out of this mess. I pray the Holy Ghost will inspire pope Francis’s actions. On his elderly shoulders has fallen the weight of the greatest crisis the Church has faced since the Reformation.

[Owlseyes]

(JN; 21st February 2019)

That picture is from the cover of a Portuguese daily newspaper (JN). It adds the view of a Portuguese bishop, saying: "This is changing". Or, things are about to change?
Maybe things will change
Hope so.

[Sergei · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deeply sad and shocking, it’s an important read for any Catholic. Besides the excellent and exhaustive research - I could have done with a bit less of it - it’s Poorly written, terribly translated, repetitive, disorganized, and somewhat arrogant in a very French way.
Not a great book, but one that will stay with me forever.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how this reads in the original French, but the English translation is atrocious and this weakness colours my review. The writing feels like it was translated by a robot. The early chapters are shapeless, sliding from one insinuation to another. The later chapters actually start to have some form to them, focusing on one theme at a time.

It was a challenge to see past the flaws in the rushed translation and lack of structure to glimpse the merits of this work. I did learn a new euphemistic expression: "of the parish" — which is used to describe priests who are, um, so inclined .... Martel claims the Vatican is majority homosexual — and homophobic.

[Adrijan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zamislite da čitate članak na index.hr od 500 stranica. Samo nema slika. I nema komentara...

[Mona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Straszna się zmęczyłam. 

Nie do końca rozumiem fenomen popularności tej książki. Być może jest to spowodowane kontrowersyjnym tematem powodującym wiele emocji, co przeslania obiektywną ocenę tej "literatury", albo co bardziej prawdopodobne - ja czegoś nie dostrzegam. 

Jeśli chodzi o pozytywny aspekt to autor zebral sporo materiałów i włożył dużo pracy w napisanie tej książki. Niemniej wiarygodność wielu jego źródeł jest co najmniej kontrowersyjna. Nie można go też posadzić o homofobiczne tendencje bo sam jest gejem. Na plus mogę zaliczyć także fakt, że dowiedziałam się trochę o hierarchii kościoła katolickiego, co nigdy wcześniej nie było przedmiotem mojego zainteresowania. 

Odnośnie negatywów to uważam, że książka jest literacko kiepsko napisana i fatalnie przetłumaczona. Tłumacz, który przekłada z francuskiego chyba zapomniał o języku polskim i tłumaczył na jakiś polsko-angielski mix: "outować", "życie loosera", "boyfriendem", "cover-upie" "researcherzy"- to tylko kilka przykładów. 

Author używa niezliczoną ilość powtórzeń i treść tej książki można spokojnie zredukować z 700 do 100 stron bez większego uszczerbku. A gdyby się bardzo chciało, to można streścić w jednym zdaniu: "80% księży w Watykanie to geje". Co kilka stron pojawiają się "obietnice" kolejnych rewelacji w następującej formie: "Czytelnik miałby mi za złe, gdybym zdradził teraz wszystko. Na tym etapie przyznam tylko, że i mnie trudno było uwierzyć w tę niezwykłą opowieść, którą później przytoczę ze wszystkimi detalami". 

Author opiera się często na swoich domyslach i interpretacjach a nie na faktach, jak np. opisując swoje domniemania o potencjalnym homoseksualizmie jakiegoś księdza na podstawie koloru jego parasola czy kolorze sutanny. W tej książce dominuje sensacja i egzaltacja. Chwilami miałam wrażenie, że czytam tabloid. W moim przekonaniu tak nie wygląda dobra literatura faktu. 

Jeśli chodzi o treść, to być może to wrodzony cynizm, bądź "siwy włos" ale osobiście nie zaskoczyło mnie w tej książce nic. Hipokryzja jest stara jak świat. Dotyczy każdej religii. Aby jakakolwiek religia istniała musi mieć środki finansowania od wierzących i darczyńców, więc aby wymusić konieczne zmiany wystarczy ograniczyć lub odciąć finansowanie. Dopóki darczyńcy będą finansowo wspierać status quo, nie oczekuję żadnych większych zmian. 

Jeśli chodzi o nastoletnich homoseksualnych chłopców wstępujących do seminarium, trudno sobie wyobrazić bardziej logiczny wybór kariery zawodowej. I ktokolwiek znający choć trochę podstawy fizjologii i biologii nie będzie oczekiwał, że Ci chłopcy nigdy "nie zgrzeszą". Z naturą jest bardzo trudno walczyć, choć wyjątki oczywiście się zdarzają. Ale to są wyjątki potwierdzające regułę. 

Rzadko czytam francuską literaturę faktu ale ta książka mnie do niej nie zachęciła.

[Peter Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Closest of the Vatican is an extraordinary look behind the scenes of the Vatican, where Martel discovers that homosexuality, particular at the top, is the norm. Not officially, of course - outwardly, the church condemns homosexual practice even as many of its leaders, including some popes, were gay.

The author, Frédéric Martel‏, is himself an openly gay man, and as such he has no problem with homosexuality. What is far more of a concern for him is the hypocrisy that the Vatican has bred. What is particularly interesting that Martel's critique is not just about a hatred of hypocrisy, or the effect that such stances have on the wider gay community, although those things do come into it.

No, what Martel is really concerned about - and this is the extraordinary part of the book for me - is the way that the hypocritical repression of homosexuality feeds directly into the Catholic church's collaboration with extreme right-wing causes. Nowhere is this clearer than in the church's interventions in South America, where it routinely collaborated with authoritarian governments and actively suppressed the left-wing popular trend of liberation theology.

The self-hating homosexual, Martel shows, constitutes a negative force that goes beyond simply repressing their sexuality. It has led not only to the pedophile scandals that have rocked the church, which the hierarchy has failed to address properly precisely because of the risk it presents to their own homosexuality, but also because it requires a performance of reactionary politics that sacrifices the larger community to the self-hating individual. People will lie and persecute to protect themselves, even when it means oppressing others who share their sexual orientation or who are part of the flock they are sworn to care for.

With a book like this one there is always a danger of falling into Schadenfraude. Martel, though, is a thoughtful and compassionate writer who presents the nuances of the situation with skill and care. I am not a Catholic, nor even a Christian, but this book presents a more general insight into the harm that suppression of one's identity can have on a society.

[Sean Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Fr James Martin’s review on this text is the wisest. While the writing is pleasing and enjoyable, the gossipy-tone is unnecessary and off-putting. To be sure, there is a great issue within the Church. If, as Fr Jim says, a tenth of this is true-and most likely is, it is a terrible shame. However, the impact of this book could be far greater without things like calling Benedict “our little queenie” or making observances without any hint of proof. This could have been a truly earth shattering book, but the author’s lack of professionalism in places damaged its potential effect.

[DomiCzytaPL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutnie wartościowa książka, bazująca na wnikliwym śledztwie dziennikarskim, setkach rozmów z księżmi, biskupami i arcybiskupami, a także męskimi prostytutkami, czy dziennikarzami, prezentująca 13 zasad Sodomy, którymi Watykan i kościół katolicki stoi.

Mnogość faktów, setki nazwisk, konglomerat przewin najwyższych dostojników kościelnych i tych postawiony niżej w teokratycznej strukturze watykańskiego i światowego kościoła.

Lektura obowiązkowa, aby nie zamykać oczu i nie przykładać ręki do zżerającej od wieków instytucje kościelne i ludzi kościoła hipokryzji.

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

książka bardzo potrzebna i jestem pod wrażeniem ogromu pracy, jaką Martel w nią włożył.
mój jedyny zarzut dotyczy formy książki, która miała mocny vibe prozatorski — preferuję bardziej „suchą” literaturę faktu.

[William Nist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've has always assumed thoughtful people kind of knew that the Roman Catholic clergy was full of homosexuals. This work details that phenomenon at the highest levels of the church. Based on hundred of prelatial interviews, the author probes the ironic agenda of this gay higher clergy--hatred of gay people and opposition to their rights! It is the FEAR OF DISCOVERY that pushes these men into the deep (and not so deep) closet, and that fear turns them into very defensive public homophobes.

It struck me while reading this, that keeping the clergy a SAFE PLACE for gay men, is a necessary precondition to vocations. The clergy has been one of the only safe places for gays, and to admit that gay people can have a normal married life and are NOT disordered personalities, would deplete the ranks of the priesthood ( and it certainly has, as gay rights have risen across the Catholic world)!

Another interesting aspect of this book pertains to the abdication of Benedict 16. I will let you read about it, but the Cuban church seems to be the straw that broke the camal's back.

Martel suggest 14 "rules of the closet" that more or less explicates the behavior of the hierarchy in addressing moral sexual theology and private Vatican life.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read book for any Catholic or ex-Catholic about the tragedy befalling their religion. As Mr Martel says, the issue isn't gay priests. In fact it's great that some part of society enabled gay people to feel safe. It's the hypocrisy that he rails against.

I find it fascinating that the people who are giving this book 1 star seem to be homophobic or unable to deal with the reality that Mr Martel's book has exposed.

I confess that I didn't read every detail because there is just so much information in the book but whether it was the story of the gay prostitutes or the Mexican abuser or the straight Swiss Guards or the sad story of Pope Benedict's resignation, all of it was engrossing and informative.

The most moving part of the story is the final appendix.

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this a well-researched book that will be referenced for years or a tabloid expose of homosexuality in the Catholic Church? Sadly, I think the later. There's a lot of explanation marks, lazily repeated statements, constant amazement that homosexuals may exist in the Church hierarchy, plenty of dinner dates and lots about the conservatives versus liberal politics of the old guard and the new Pope. Some of his points are interesting, there is no doubt there is much truth in his research but the style adopted just grated with me. And why was there no index?

[Noella · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF.

Dit boek gaat over de homosexualiteit bij geestelijken, meer bepaald in het Vaticaan. Er komt ook veel politiek bij kijken. En kindermisbruik blijkt sterk verweven met homosexualiteit in de Kerk, volgens het onderzoek van de schrijver.
In feite is het wel verbluffend hoeveel de auteur aan het licht heeft gebracht, en een aanzienlijk deel gaat ook over de homosexuele geestelijken In Zuid-Amerika en Mexico.
Wat ik vermoeiend vond om te lezen, zijn de vele Italiaanse, Spaanse en anderstalige namen van al deze priesters, bisschoppen, kardinalen en nuntiussen, zodat het op de duur moeilijk werd om ze een beetje uit elkaar te houden.
Ik heb gelezen tot blz. 300, en toen had ik het wel gehad...

[Álvaro Curia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,4

Trata-se de uma investigação exemplar sobre os meandros da vida dos habitantes de um país, o Vaticano, que partilham a obrigatoriedade de uma fé comum que acarreta determinados pressupostos, como o celibato. A investigação de Martel é digna de uma tese de doutoramento, com confrontação de fontes, avaliação de material prévio, entrevistas, hipóteses de trabalho e conclusões, que atestam o rigor e o compromisso do autor com a fidelidade da obra e da sua investigação. Ao longo do livro passei por sentimentos de choque, repulsa, pena, comiseração, esperança, mas também a ideia de que talvez o pior, no que se refere à hipocrisia e aos abusos por parte de homens da Igreja, já tenha passado. Isto, contudo, só o tempo o dirá. Surpreendeu-me a consistência da investigação e só não me cativaram as 600 e muitas páginas, que quase nos fazem, erradamente, desistir de uma das abordagens mais sinceras e atuais ao misterioso mundo da Santa Sé, dos seus corredores, armários, despensas e carros de vidro fumado.

[Mary M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this was like being trapped in a maze: an infinite number of corridors, all leading to a dead end. Who is, was, might be gay? You keep hitting an unknown. But there are several points, all repeated frequently: those who preach the loudest against being gay are most likely leading double lives and are gay themselves. The whole book could have been edited down by cutting these same statements.
Also, if any book cried out for an index, this does! Yet there is no index.
There are valid points to be made here and clearly a lot of effort went into this project. The end shows how Benedict was so overwhelmed by corruption that he was driven to resign. Yet not enough is said about the vast difference between homosexuality and pedophilia, which is totally different and the real reason for the scandals of today.
This book appears to have been pushed through production too quickly and needs a re-think.

[João Sá Nogueira Rodrigues · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este livro surpreendeu-me!Estava à espera de um livro que não passaria de umas "bisbilhotices" engraçadas sobre homossexuais no Vaticano e afinal é uma excelente investigação levada a cabo durante quatro anos! Quanto à escrita...leve mas concisa e com partes realmente divertidas (acho que nunca me vou esquecer das "malucas" ou da "velha vingativa"!!!)!Um enorme ponto a favor: sendo o escritor ateu (como o próprio refere) era fácil usar este tema para atacar a religião,mas isso nunca é feito!Na verdade a religião nunca é sequer beliscada e apenas é exposta a vida que alguns religiosos levam.Por fim, a verdade é que acaba por mostrar um ponto de vista da nossa História recente, percorrendo quatro papados essencialmente!Gostei... Gostei muito!