As the first Vatican summit on child abuse currently takes place in Rome, the author of a book which has already caused controversy over its allegations that 80% of Vatican priests are gay, has now said that sexual abuse cases were “hidden by gay clergy terrified of being outed.”

In a provocative piece of timing, the new book, In The Closet Of The Vatican: Power Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, which was compiled from over 1,500 interviews which took place over four years, was published worldwide on the same date as the summit.

Its author, Frédéric Martel alleges that gay clergy allowed abuses by a “culture of secrecy” – “Bishops may not be abusers themselves. But they protect priests because they are terrified that if there’s a scandal or an investigation or a trial, then their own homosexuality may be revealed.” He alleges there are thousands of cases around the world of bishops protecting child abusing priests. However, the book makes no correlation between homosexuality and abuse.

“In the Closet of the Vatican” author Frederic Martel describes a gay subculture at the Vatican and calls out the hypocrisy of Catholic bishops and cardinals who in public denounce homosexuality but in private lead double lives. https://t.co/ZxuoiYfD39 pic.twitter.com/JFXN5MEVLa

— CityNews 680 (Inactive) (@680NEWS) February 16, 2019

Martel continued: “Everyone is protecting his own little secret. It’s not one big closet – it’s lots of individuals in lots of little closets.”

200 Catholic leaders from across the globe gathered at the summit in the Vatican City to discuss child sexual abuse. Pope Francis told those gathered, “In the face of this scourge of sexual abuse perpetrated by men of the church to the detriment of minors, I thought I would summon you so that all together we may lend an ear and listen to the Holy Spirit … and to the cry of the small ones who are asking for justice.”

The Pope continued: “The holy people of God are looking at us and expect from us not simple condemnations, but concrete and effective measures to put in place. We need to be concrete.”

This comes mere days after two prominent Cardinals linked the church’s history of abuse with homosexuality in a joint statement.