If the abuse allegations aren’t enough, as in the recent case of Jesuit Marko Rupnik, or the coverage of gay ‘clubs’ within the seminaries, such as Benedict XVI Catholic Church: Alleged ‘sex parties’ during Covid lockdown. The story comes from Newcastle, UK, a diocese that saw a canon die by suicide and a bishop resign. Now a Vatican inquiry entrusted to the Bishop of Liverpool, Monsignor Malcolm Patrick McMahon, must verify whether the news of the “celebrations at the cathedral” is true and whether the subsequent events are in any way related.
A difficult moment, therefore, for the Church of Pope Francis, which today once again makes a call for unity: “The solution to divisions is not to oppose anyone, because discord breeds discord. The true remedy begins with asking God for peace, reconciliation and unity,” Bergoglio writes on social media. And in Italy, the Cardinal President of the CEI, Matteo Zuppi, opened the Permanent Council precisely by saying that “only unity allows the community to be creative” and therefore “some discussions, calculations and polarizations” must be avoided. Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, in the Vatican today to present an initiative with the other Christian denominations, minimized: “I’m not worried that there are different opinions in the Catholic Church, that’s quite normal.”
Coming back to the English case, the Vatican has therefore launched an extraordinary inquiry into an alleged “sex party” during lockdown at St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle. This “accident” may have been the reason, at least according to the English press, for Robert Byrne’s resignation as Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle last December. The Archbishop of Liverpool, who is leading the inquiry, has been asked to provide a detailed account of the events leading up to Bishop Byrne’s resignation. But at the moment it is not known if the bishop was at the alleged party or had any knowledge of it.
During the lockdown, Father Michael McCoy, who was the dean at the time and later committed suicide, is said to have asked several worshipers if they would like to attend a “sex party” at a property next to St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle. Some parishioners have reported this to the diocese. The Vatican inquiry would therefore have several objectives: to verify whether the reported events really happened and whether they are related to McCoy’s suicide and Bishop Byrne’s subsequent resignation.