Four in five Vatican priests are gay, new book claims

French journalist’s (Frederic Martel) book is a ‘startling account of corruption and hypocrisy’, publisher says.

Some of the most senior clerics in the Roman Catholic church who have vociferously attacked homosexuality are themselves gay, according to a book to be published next week.

Eighty per cent of priests working at the Vatican are gay, although not necessarily sexually active, it is claimed in the book, In the Closet of the Vatican.