PADUA-- It comes to light that orgies held in a Padova parish were attended by numerous priests as don Contin scandal takes a sordid turn

 The allegations regarding the promiscuity of don Andrea Contin, the priest at Saint Lazzaro, took a new turn on Wednesday when it was alleged that he was joined at his orgies by other priests. These allegations come from the same source, a woman of Romanian origin, who in the past had drawn attention to don Contin but now has put on record that he was joined by other men of the cloth during his illicit meetings.

 It now comes to light that this scandal does not merely concern the vice of one man who had forgotten his vow of chastity and potentially opens the possibility of a much wider web of conspirators. The interest for investigators lies in the fact that these women may have been coerced into meeting with don Contin by the priest’s associates who the women in question reportedly heard telling another woman, “you know you can make a lot of money this way (referring to prostitution)?”

 Since the story first broke before Christmas, a search warrant of don Contin’s parish lead to the finding of a locked room containing erotic objects, pornographic movies and bindings. Since the first woman came forward six more have done so and it has emerged that Don Contin always travelled in female company. He would also use erotic websites to find meetings of men who are willing to exchange partners. The matter has been entrusted to a cyber expert who is undertaking an investigation of the priest’s previous communications. If the police discover that these meetings were organised for profit the priests could potentially be arrested for enabling prostitution.

 Whilst this has been going on the Curia had been investigating don Contin internally before this information came to light for the police. Per Italian law the Vatican can keep secret matters of internal investigation even if the acts would be considered criminal. In the meantime, don Contin has appointed a new man in his legal team, Gianni Morrone, showing a clear change in defence tactics. TL