LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“How Gay is the Vatican?” by rba


Listen Later

The catholic church has always had a complicated relationship with homosexuality.

The central claim of Frederic Martel's 2019 book In the Closet of the Vatican is that the majority of the church's leadership in Rome are semi-closeted homosexuals, or more colorfully, "homophiles".

So the omnipresence of homosexuals in the Vatican isn’t just a matter of a few black sheep, or the ‘net that caught the bad fish’, as Josef Ratzinger put it. It isn’t a ‘lobby’ or a dissident movement; neither is it a sect of Freemasonry inside the holy see: it's a system. It isn’t a tiny minority; it's a big majority.

At this point in the conversation, I ask Francesco Lepore to estimate the size of this community, all tendencies included.

‘I think the percentage is very high. I’d put it at around 80 percent.’

During a discussion with a non-Italian archbishop, whom I met [...]

---

Outline:

(02:40) Background

(04:23) Data

(06:40) Analysis

(07:25) Expected versus Actual birth order, with missing birth order

(09:03) Expected versus Actual birth order, without missing birth order

(09:46) Oldest sibling versus youngest sibling

(10:21) Discussion

(13:09) Conclusion

---

First published:

April 6th, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ybwqL9HiXE8XeauPK/how-gay-is-the-vatican

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

LessWrong (30+ Karma)By LessWrong


More shows like LessWrong (30+ Karma)

View all
The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,192 Listeners

Astral Codex Ten Podcast by Jeremiah

Astral Codex Ten Podcast

131 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

7,227 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

564 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,195 Listeners

AI Article Readings by Readings of great articles in AI voices

AI Article Readings

4 Listeners

Doom Debates! by Liron Shapira

Doom Debates!

14 Listeners

LessWrong posts by zvi by zvi

LessWrong posts by zvi

2 Listeners