October 15, 2007 | 12:00am
VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican said Saturday it has suspended a monsignor from a senior post at the Holy See after an Italian TV program, with a hidden camera, recorded him making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful.
Vatican teaching holds that homosexual activity is a sin.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that while the case was under investigation the Italian monsignor was suspended from his job.
“I can’t deny the fact,” Lombardi told journalists after Rome daily La Repubblica Saturday wrote that a top official in the Congregation of the Clergy was suspended from his post after Vatican officials recognized his office in the background of the program, which was broadcast on Oct. 1 on La7, a private Italian TV network.
“Higher-ups are evaluating the situation with the necessary reserve and with the obligatory respect for the person involved, even if this person has erred,” Lombardi said.
Vatican officials “had to intervene decisively and with the severity required by conduct not compatible with priestly service and with the mission of the Holy See,” said Lombardi, who did not identify the monsignor by name.
While the Vatican rarely comments on individual sex scandals, this case directly touched the Holy See, apparently prompting the confirmation of the report.
Contacted by telephone at his home by The Associated Press, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico confirmed that he had been suspended from his post at the congregation.
“Don’t condemn me,” Stenico said. “The interview was done fraudulently,” he added, referring to the hidden camera that was used by La7’s program “Exit.”
Stenico said to call back later in the day when he would have more to say, but later calls were not successful in reaching him.
The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Stenico as saying in a brief interview Saturday that he had sent his superiors “a dutiful memo” about the case.
Milan daily Corriere della Sera had previously reported that the young man had contacted La7 and told the TV that he had been in contact with several priests on chat lines popular with homosexuals. Corriere said that La7 then filmed encounters between the man and priests with a hidden camera.
A woman identifying herself as a producer for “Exit” declined to comment about the case, adding only that the program could be viewed on La7’s Web site.
In the program, the faces of those speaking with the young man are obscured and their voices altered so they would not be recognized.
The man La Repubblica identified as the Vatican official can be heard saying that “he didn’t feel he was sinning” by having sex with gay men and asking his visitor if he liked him.
La Repubblica said Vatican officials recognized the office in which one priest was filmed on La7 – and that it was the monsignor’s office.
