Accuser: Convicted paedophile priest Don Patrizio Poggi who claims there was a rent boy ring at the Vatican
culled from daily mail
Accuser: Convicted paedophile priest Don Patrizio Poggi  who claims there was a rent boy ring at the Vatican
A convicted paedophile priest has claimed a  rent boy ring operated at the Vatican with clergymen hiring teenagers for sex inside churches.
Don Patrizio Poggi, 46, who served a  five-year sentence for abusing five boys aged 14 to 15, at his parish outside  Rome, has given police a list of nine names.
Four people have been placed under  investigation – including a monsignor who is currently the secretary of an  important bishop, it has been alleged.
Also being investigated is a former Carabinieri policeman suspected of recruiting under-age boys for the alleged  prostitution ring.
The ex-officer apparently snared the  teenagers, mostly eastern European immigrants, outside a gay bar named Twink  near Rome’s Termini train station.
A senior Vatican official has dismissed the  allegations, accusing Poggi of seeking revenge because the church refused to  reinstate him.
Poggi, the former priest at the San  Filippo  Neri church in Rome, said he made the allegations to ‘protect  the Holy Church  and the Christian community.’
The boys were chosen because they were  starving and desperate, he claimed, according to Il Messaggero  newspaper.

Faithful: The crowds in St Peter's Square Vatican City: The disgraced priest has named nine clergymen he alleges were involved in the prostitution ringFaithful: The crowds in St Peter’s Square Vatican City:  The disgraced priest has named nine clergymen he alleges were involved in the  prostitution ring
The former policeman allegedly selected the  victims as he sat in his Fiat Panda – marked ‘Emergency Blood’ to avoid parking  fines.
He was helped by a friend who ran a modelling  agency, luring underage boys through ‘false work offers for modelling and acting  roles’, Poggi said.
Scandal: Pope Francis has admitted there is a 'gay lobby' inside the Vatican
Scandal: Pope Francis has admitted there is a ‘gay lobby’ inside the Vatican
The agent also looked for victims at gay  discos, saunas and gyms across Rome. An accountant was also said to be  involved.
The boys were paid €150-€500 (£130-£425) to  perform sex acts in church premises across the capital.
Poggi also accused the former Carabinieri of  selling consecrated hosts for satanic rites.
When he met the authorities, Poggi reportedly  presented documentary and  photographic evidence in the company of two senior  Vatican clergymen who vouched for his credibility.
One of the clergymen was Monsignor Luca  Lorusso, an adviser to the Papal  Nuncio to Italy, who is himself a confidante  of Pope Francis.
Poggi’s list of names included two senior  church officials and a religion lecturer.
Cardinal Agostino Vallini, head of the  Catholic Vicariate of Rome, accused Poggi of making false claims out of a desire  for vengeance and personal  resentment.
Vallini said:  ‘The cardinal expresses his  full confidence in the magistracy and  declares himself full convinced that this  slander will be demolished,  demonstrating Poggi’s claims to be  untrue
‘God will hold everyone accountable for their  deeds.’
The controversy comes just weeks after Pope  Francis confirmed the existence of a ‘gay lobby’ in the Vatican to a visiting  Latin American church group.
The apparent network inside the supposedly  celibate and staunchly anti-homosexual Church is one reason why Pope Francis is  working on a thorough house-cleaning of the Roman curia.