It was reported by Towleroad on March 11 that the Catholic Church purchased the largest gay bath house in all of Europe. The Europa Multiclub is part of a $31.2 million share of an apartment block in Rome whose 2008 sale to the Vatican was recently uncovered. Advertisements for the club indicate it caters to homosexual men and include stripping priests.
76-year-old Cardinal Ivan Dias, known as the “prince of the church,” had already owned a 12 room apartment on the first floor of the same building prior to the Vatican's purchase. Dias is head of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples, and considered one of the church’s more social conservative members. Interestingly enough his apartment door sits just feet from the gay sauna’s entrance.
The Independent reported that 18 other Catholic priests also have apartments in the luxurious palazzo.
All of this comes hot on the heels of the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI. It has been rumored that the Pope broke historical precedent and retired after being made aware of the existence of a secret gay cabal among the Catholic Church’s Cardinals. Benedict XVI had made the fight against gay rights the focus of his papacy.
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