The former Swiss guardsman, who was a member of the Pope’s personal guard service, gave a frank interview to the Basel newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag, revealing amazing and scandalous facts. So, the guardsman said that he had repeatedly watched and became a victim of sexual harassment by Vatican personnel.
A former pontiff's bodyguard claims that sexual harassment in the Vatican is a common thing. The guardsman told the newspaper reporters that during his work in the papal state, he was at least 20 times the object of harassment of both ordinary priests and bishops and even cardinals.
The former Swiss guardsman decided to back up his words with facts and told the "Schweiz am Sonntag" story that happened to him on one of the working days. He recalled how one deep clergyman phoned him one night and invited him to go to his private chambers, which were inside the Vatican. When the guardsman returned to his room, he saw a bottle of excellent whiskey there, to which was attached a bishop's visiting card and an invitation to dinner.
The security officer immediately reported everything that was happening to the Pope’s personal security commander, to which he received an unintelligible answer. Soon the case was hushed up, and the guardsman was directly told that everyone and everyone were aware of what was happening in the papal state, and in particular about the abnormal sexual preferences of the clergy. In an interview with the Basel edition, the former security guard summed up, saying that the Vatican is a real paradise for people with a non-traditional orientation.
Schweiz am Sonntag contacted the press secretary of the Swiss Guards of the Pope in order to clarify how right their interviewee was. However, Urs Moser simply declined to comment, saying only that his unit did not deal with gossip about gays, their task was the religious and military training of the guards.
This is not the first scandal connected with the Vatican and its clergy of non-traditional orientation. Increasingly, the media focus is on the papal state, where rumor has it that things are going out of the ordinary. When the predecessor of Pope Francis Benedict announced his intention to retire in the winter of 2013, many claimed that the decision of the pontiff was not dictated by his venerable age, but by a report given to the pope by a special commission.
Then many publications wrote that the top-secret report contained information on the non-traditional orientation of many clergy, including senior officials of the Vatican.
The document, the existence of which the official Vatican did not refute, said that some dignitaries could not control "their passions" and succumbed to "external influence." As the tabloids wrote in January last year, the report cited facts that showed that bishops and even cardinals met with young people in beauty salons, in private villas, as well as in rented apartments.
