The German Jesuit priest Hermann Kugler labelled the Roman Catholic Church the largest transnational gay organisation that he is aware of, and criticised the organisation's continuing hypocrisy when it comes to the matter of homosexuality.
So without further ado, as my weekend entertainment contribution, here's a cool undercover stint Italy's La 7 TV channel has undertaken. They followed a male teenager's travails in gay internet chatrooms. He successfully managed to pick up a whole bunch of Catholic priests, including a character belonging to the Vatican's senior management, some Monsignore Tommaso Stenico. He meets the boy in his office and tries to pick him up. So he asks the teenager whether he likes him etc. Anyway, true to Catholic form he got fired, and true to Catholic form he denies being gay. He claims he only dated the boy to counsel him (hence presumably the question of whether or not the boy finds him attractive...).
If this all wasn't so sad, it probably would be funny. The ethical question, of course, arises, whether it's acceptable to publicly 'out' closeted gay men such as Mr Stenico. I do subscribe to the view that such men become fair game when they publicly engage in homophobia promoting activities. This is something Mr Stenico would routinely do as part of his job in the Roman Catholic Church's senior management structures. So, in a sense, outing a hypocrite is probably a legitimate kind of activity.
