Churches Squabble Over Moscow Monks' Missionary Position

The Vatican yesterday responded to allegations of sexual misbehaviour by Franciscan friars in Moscow by denouncing a "despicable operation" to discredit the Roman Catholic church by accusing it of setting up a brothel in a Moscow flat.

Anti-Catholic elements had set up a brothel in order to tarnish the reputation of the Franciscans, the Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. The Holy See had made a formal protest to the Russian authorities.

The allegations, which have been published in a Moscow newspaper and on two Russian television channels, come at a time of acute tension between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. The Orthodox object to what they see as the active proselytising of the Catholic church on their territory.

"Without their knowledge, the monks found an apartment belonging to them - which had been rented to a private individual who claimed he was going to use it for charitable purposes - had been transformed into a house devoted to the practice of prostitution," Mr Navarro-Valls said.

He said the Russian media had published bogus photographs showing people wearing religious dress engaged in immoral acts. The evident intention, he said, was to damage the reputation of the Catholic community in Russia.

The "charitable" sale of sexual favours from a Franciscan property and the fake photographs of lewd monks would be reminiscent of the dirty tricks mounted by the secret services on all sides during the cold war. The Russian media involved, however, says it is simply an example of investigative reporting.