Most of the higher-ups in the Roman Catholic Church are gay, making the Vatican one of the world’s largest homosexual communities, according to a gay French author.

In what can only be described as stating the obvious, author Frederic Martel accuses Catholic bishops of rabid hypocrisy. He also says it’s all linked to the current crisis in the Catholic Church.

In the explosive book, “In the Closet of the Vatican,” author Frederic Martel describes a gay subculture at the Vatican and calls out the hypocrisy of Catholic bishops and cardinals who in public denounce homosexuality but in private lead double lives.

What’s especially notable is the level of access the writer achieved. He’s not just lobbing accusations at the Church. He has the kind of insight that suggests a much higher level of credibility than if it had been written by a casual Vatican observer.

Aside from the subject matter, the book is astonishing for the access Martel had to the inner sanctum of the Holy See. Martel writes that he spent four years researching it in 30 countries, including weeks at a time living inside the Vatican walls. He says the doors were opened by a key Vatican gatekeeper and friend of Pope Francis who was the subject of the pontiff’s famous remark about gay priests, “Who am I to judge?” In an interview Friday in a Paris hotel, Martel said he didn’t tell his subjects he was writing about homosexuality in the Vatican. But he said it should have been obvious to them since he is a gay man who was researching the inner world of the Vatican and has written about homosexuality before. He said it was easier for him, as a gay foreigner, to gain the trust of those inside the Vatican than it would have been for an Italian journalist or Vatican expert. “If you’re heterosexual it’s even harder. You don’t have the codes,” he told The Associated Press. “If you’re a woman, even more so.”

Overall, Martel claims to have conducted almost 1,500 in-person interviews with nearly 150 higher-ups within the Roman Catholic Church. He says he also had the help of “80 researchers, translators, fixers and local journalists” in addition to a team of lawyers.

What we don’t know is w3hat percentage of Vatican officials are gay, or how many of the allegedly gay priests have acted on their sexual orientation (which would be a sin, according to Catholic doctrine). The Vatican hasn’t yet issued a statement in response to the book — or a denial — but if there’s truth to the book’s main claims, then it’s something we should all take into account the next time the Church lobbies against same-sex rights.

(Image via Shutterstock)

