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HOMOSEXUAL

‘I get paedophilia, not gays’: Italian priest

An Italian priest was immediately suspended from his church in the northern city of Trento on Tuesday after defending paedophilia during a live television interview, arguing that “children often seek affection”.

Published: 7 October 2015 09:37 CEST
'I get paedophilia, not gays': Italian priest
Father Gino Flaim was suspended from his parish after defending paedophilia on live television. Screenshot: La7/YouTube

Father Gino Flaim, of the San Giuseppe and Pio X parish, said he “understands paedophilia” but wasn’t so sure about homosexuality.

When asked to explain his comments on the La7 show, L’aria che tira, he said:

“Because I’ve been to lots of schools and I know children. Unfortunately, there are children who seek affection because they don’t get it at home.”

He acknowledged that paedophilia is a sin, but that “like all sins, it has to be accepted”. He believes that homosexuality, on the other hand, is an “illness”.

La Repubblica reported that he was immediately suspended from his church.

His comments followed allegations that the Vatican sends gay priests to a monastery in Trento “to be cured”.

The Venturini monastery in Trento, which also allegedly houses paeodophile priests, drug addicts and alcoholics, treats those “who show inappropriate sexual tendencies”, Mario Bonfante, a former Catholic priest who revealed he was gay in 2012, told La Repubblica on Monday.

Read more: Gay priests sent to Italy monastery 'to be cured'

They also come amid controversy surrounding the Catholic Church and its views on homosexuality.

On Saturday, Polish priest Krzystof Charamsa accused the Vatican of “institutionalized homophobia”.

Father Charamsa made the accusation during a ‘coming out’ speech in Rome on Saturday, a day before the Catholic Church Synod, a gathering of bishops intended to reshape the church’s teaching, got underway.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

At least 3,000 paedophiles active in French church since 1950: report

Thousands of paedophiles have operated inside the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of an independent commission investigating the scandal told AFP, days ahead of the release of its report.

Published: 3 October 2021 09:16 CEST
French archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin leads his last mass,on June 28, 2020. Barbarin was released on appeal on January 30 for his silence on the sexual abuse of a priest, and resigned quickly afterwards.
French archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin leads his last mass,on June 28, 2020. Barbarin was released on appeal on January 30 for his silence on the sexual abuse of a priest, and resigned quickly afterwards. Photo: Jeff Pachoud/AFP

The commission’s research had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other members of the church, said Jean-Marc Sauve, adding that it was “a minimum estimate”.

The commission’s report is due to be released on Tuesday after two and a half years of research based on church, court and police archives, as well as interviews with witnesses.

The report, which Sauve said runs to 2,500 pages, will attempt to quantify both the number of offenders and the number of victims.

It will also look into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the Church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals.

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The independent commission was set up in 2018 by the French Catholic Church in response to a number of scandals that shook the Church in France and worldwide.

Its formation also came after Pope Francis passed a landmark measure obliging those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors.

Made up of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians, its brief was to investigate allegations of child sex abuse by clerics dating back to the 1950s.

When it began its work it called for witness statements and set up a telephone hotline, then reported receiving thousands of messages in the months that followed.

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