Luigi Capozzi
Luigi Capozzi (born c. 1968) is an Italian Catholic monsignor and the former secretary to Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio. Capozzi worked at the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. He came to international media attention in July 2017 during the pontificate of Pope Francis, after a sex scandal which revealed that he had been caught engaging in a cocaine-fueled homosexual orgy in the Vatican City. The story was first published by the Italian daily newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, but was soon picked up by the world media. Before the scandal broke, Coccopalmerio had recommended Capozzi be made a bishop.
Background
Capozzi was born in Salerno, Campania, ordained to the priesthood in 1992 and worked within the Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina, Capozzi had been entrusted with a car with Holy See license plates, which allowed him to transport drugs without harassment from the Vatican gendarmerie or the Italian police forces. Edward Pentin writing in the National Catholic Register on 8 July 2017 attested to the veracity of the report by stating that a; "reliable senior member of the curia has told the Register that he has heard from "multiple sources" that the story is true, including from another senior curial figure."
In the period leading up to the scandal, there had been increasing focus on a supposed "homosexual network" operating within the Vatican. Following the Catholic sex abuse scandal the Congregation for Catholic Education had issued instructions in 2005 which denies ordination to men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies." Both Pope Francis and Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga had claimed that there was a "gay lobby" within the Vatican, which Bergoglio was allegedly trying "to purify." Lepore claims to have spoken to Capozzi at the Casa di Cura Pio XI in Rome, where he was then undergoing drug detoxification treatment.<ref name="cm"/> The previous abbot of the monastery, Pietro Vittorelli, had been involved in a similar controversy before his resignation in 2013.<ref name="cm"/>
Background
Capozzi was born in Salerno, Campania, ordained to the priesthood in 1992 and worked within the Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Palestrina, Capozzi had been entrusted with a car with Holy See license plates, which allowed him to transport drugs without harassment from the Vatican gendarmerie or the Italian police forces. Edward Pentin writing in the National Catholic Register on 8 July 2017 attested to the veracity of the report by stating that a; "reliable senior member of the curia has told the Register that he has heard from "multiple sources" that the story is true, including from another senior curial figure."
In the period leading up to the scandal, there had been increasing focus on a supposed "homosexual network" operating within the Vatican. Following the Catholic sex abuse scandal the Congregation for Catholic Education had issued instructions in 2005 which denies ordination to men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies." Both Pope Francis and Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga had claimed that there was a "gay lobby" within the Vatican, which Bergoglio was allegedly trying "to purify." Lepore claims to have spoken to Capozzi at the Casa di Cura Pio XI in Rome, where he was then undergoing drug detoxification treatment.<ref name="cm"/> The previous abbot of the monastery, Pietro Vittorelli, had been involved in a similar controversy before his resignation in 2013.<ref name="cm"/>
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