Weird Crimes of History: Gay Cardinal Sex Orgy

The Vatican and the Catholic Church at the center of it has been at the center of many scandals for the past couple of years. Some of those scandals are so strange, I might talk about them in a Weird Crimes of History post for another day. Today, however, I am going to talk about what is probably the weirdest crime related to Vatican City to happen in recent times: a massive drug-fuelled gay sex party!

On July of 2017, some people living in the Holy See were complaining about a bunch of rowdy neighbors. Said neighbors were slamming doors, cranking up their music loud enough for everybody to hear, and being as annoying as the average college frathouse.

However, these annoying nearby residents weren't just some clamorous college dropouts: they were the people living at Ex Sant’Uffizio Palace, the apartment run by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and, by extension, the Vatican. The Ex Sant’Uffizio Palace is home to dozens of high-ranking Catholic cardinals and when Vatican police arrived, several cardinals and young men were in the middle of an orgy! The orgy was being facilitated by Luigi Capozzi, the secretary for Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, and a “steady stream of young men” he allowed into his apartment for a good time ;). The orgy and gay sex itself wasn't illegal, but the drugs lying around on the premises were enough for Capozzi to face a misdemeanor. Must have been weird for the Pope to find out that one of the most debaucherous, irrevent parties of the past decade was happening right in his backyard...