In 2017, the Vatican police arrested Msgr. Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui for leaking documents. Those documents included references to a Swiss Guard member who testified before a Vatican tribunal that he had been sexually propositioned by a bishop during a Vatican-funded “spiritual retreat.”
Because of this proximity to absolute spiritual power, Swiss Guards have often found themselves at the center of Vatican intrigue—not as perpetrators, but as witnesses, whistleblowers, or, occasionally, tragic victims. gaybelamiscandalinthevatican2theswissguardpart new
Until 1980, the Guard was an all-male, predominantly Swiss-German Catholic force, often recruited from conservative mountain cantons. Secrecy was absolute. Homosexuality, while canonically a “grave disorder,” was an open secret in certain Vatican congregations, but never officially discussed. That silence created a pressure cooker. The modern scandal sequence began not with “Gaybelamis” but with Paolo Gabriele , the Pope’s butler, who leaked papal documents in 2012. While Gabriele’s motives were supposedly “to expose corruption,” the leaked documents hinted at something deeper: a network of clergy, lay administrators, and even guards using their positions for financial gain and sexual favors. In 2017, the Vatican police arrested Msgr
But here is the deeper truth: The Vatican has struggled for 500 years with the tension between its all-male, celibate hierarchy and natural human sexuality. The Swiss Guard—handsome, young, loyal, and sworn to silence—exists as the perfect protagonist for these narratives: part guardian, part captive, part forbidden fruit. Until 1980, the Guard was an all-male, predominantly
The real scandals—Estermann (1998), Vatileaks (2012), the Gloor allegations (2018), the Becciu trial (2023)—all carry the same DNA: power, secrecy, homosexuality, and the Swiss Guard. The keyword “gaybelamiscandalinthevatican2theswissguardpart new” does not lead to an official document. But it leads to a journalistic crime scene. The Vatican has never fully declassified the Estermann case. The 2020 Vatican “Decree on the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults” explicitly added “seminarians and religious novices” (which includes many guards) as protected persons. And whispers continue that a future “Part 3” will involve a current Swiss Guard officer testifying before a European court about coercion inside the Leonine walls.
Pope Francis responded by rewriting Vatican penal law in 2019, explicitly criminalizing “the use of office to solicit sexual acts” and making it a “crime against the dignity of the person” – an unprecedented move. Vatican journalist Edward Pentin, a conservative, has long alleged that a network called “Sotto-Sopra” (Upside Down) – a homosexual network within the Curia – functions like a secret society. According to witnesses, some meetings occur in the Vatican itself, involving priests, lay officials, and occasionally guardsmen who are “discreet.”
Several former guards (speaking anonymously to Kriminalpolizei in 2016) admitted that homosexual encounters between guards are officially prohibited but “tolerated if discreet.” When it involves a guard and a prelate, however, that crosses into blackmail territory. The most recent twist, as of 2026 looking back, was the 2023 Vatican money laundering trial involving Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. During testimony, a Swiss Guard financial auditor revealed that the Guard’s own accounts had been used to transfer 50,000 euros to a Sardinian layman for “security consulting.” That consultant turned out to be a former escort involved in a homosexual blackmail ring in Cagliari.