Disturbing undercover video shows elderly priest joking about his sexual abuse of deaf boys
MENDOZA, Italy, May 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – An elderly Catholic priest, apparently in an Italian hospital, was caught in an undercover video laughing and joking about his own sexual assault of boys — along with assaults of other priests — at a diocesan home for deaf-mute children.
The 2017 video shows Italian Father Eligio Piccoli recounting unapologetically – almost boastfully – how he abused boys.
“I lost my head and grabbed him from behind,” he said.
With gestures, Piccoli simulated sodomitic acts that priests and other religious allegedly committed with minors. In one instance, Piccoli pointed at the undercover journalist as if to humor him about homosexual rape.
“By touching, it (the male organ) becomes hard, you know? Dammit, come on,” he jokingly told the undercover journalist.
Now an invalid, Piccoli laughed as he recounted the names of several priests and religious who allegedly fondled or raped minors at the Provolo Institute for deaf-mute children in Verona, Italy.
Piccoli is one of several priests and staff of Provolo Institute in Italy, which was operated by members of the Community of Mary religious congregation.
“With those kids,” Piccoli tells the hidden camera while wearing a rosary around his neck, “the only joke I did was to touch one, even though I shouldn’t have done so.”
The video was recorded by a journalist for Fanpage.it, an Italian website.
“It was a young one who came to my room. He was cuddly. While the rest of the children were playing, he wasn’t. It was cold, so I said, ‘Come into my room,’” Piccoli said to the journalist, who claimed to be a former student while asking about accusations of sex abuse by priests.
“At a certain moment,” Piccoli said, “he showed me his male member. Some of what they say is true, but … all of them (the former students) are corrupt. They touch each other; they masturbate.”
In the video, Piccoli said at least 10 priests abused children at the Provolo Institute. When they were found out, he said, they were transferred.
“To one of them they said, ‘Either you go to America or go home,” he said in the video. Piccoli clarified, “Yes, to Argentina, Argentina,” in reference to the transfer of the accused pedophiles.
"It wasn't a sin," Piccoli said in the candid video, adding, "Doing among males was a joke. But to do it with a woman is more serious. If one does it out of necessity, to make a joke, is nothing. It's like having the vice of smoking."
