Pope Paul decries homosexual charge

VATICAN CITY (A) Pope Paul VI declared yesterday that printed accusations that he is a homosexual are "horrible and slanderous insinuations."

The charges were made by French author Roger Peyrefitte, a self-proclaimed homosexual, in a 3,000-word article printed by the Italian weekly magazine “Tempo."

Without mentioning Peyrefitte by name, Pope Paul said in a brief address to a crowd of 20,000 in St. Peter's Square:

"We know that our cardinal vicar and the Italian bishops' conference have urged you to pray for our humble person, who has been made the target of scorn and horrible and slanderous insinuations by a certain press lacking dutiful regard for honesty and truth.

"We thank you all for these demonstrations of faithful piety and moral sensibility," the pontiff, 78, added as the crowd applauded and cheered him.

The cardinal vicar, of Rome, Ugo Cardinal Poletti and the Italian bishops' conference had appealed to Italian Catholics to join in prayers in a "day of consolation" for the Pope yesterday. Special prayers were said for

the Pope in all Italian Roman Catholic churches and parish priests delivered sermons to defend the Pope against Peyrefitte's allegations.

Police have seized "Tempo" in Florence on orders from a state attorney, and suit has been filed against the magazine editor on grounds he abused the honor of the Pope as the head of a foreign state, a crime in Italy.

Under the 1929 concordat between Italy and the Holy See, the Pope and Roman Catholicism are granted special protection against libel and calumny.

In his article, originally written for a French sex magazine, Peyrefitte wrote: "I said in my last book with all due respect to a Pope, especially a living one, that he was a homosexual. It's well known that Paul had as a boyfriend a movie actor whose name I am not going to mention but whom I recall very well."

In the early 1950s, Peyrefitte's book, "Saint Peter's Keys," was seized by police in Italian bookshops on grounds it abused religion. In 1958 Peyrefitte was

expelled from Italy following a written attack against Pope Pius XII.

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Associated Press

Pope Paul VI addresses a crowd in St. Peter's Square.