Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio is alleged to have owned the apartment where the orgy took place

Vatican police broke up a homosexual orgy last month in an apartment belonging to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the department charged with, among other things, tackling clerical sexual abuse.

The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be the secretary of Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts, and a key adviser to the Pope.

Cardinal Coccopalmerio is said to have recommended his aide at one stage for promotion to the rank of bishop, but those career plans are likely to be disrupted by news of the orgy and by a period spent recovering from a drug overdose in a Rome hospital and another in an Italian monastery.

The allegations about the orgy were published a