The Vatican Bank’s newst appointee is at the center of an international gay sex scandal.

Leaders in the Catholic Church have been turning a blind eye to the homosexual misconduct of Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca, claims veteran journalist Sandro Magister.

In a story published in Italian weekly L’Espreso, Magister wrote that Ricca was caught in several ‘compromising situations’ while based in Uruguay from 1999 to 2004, one of which included his getting beaten up at ‘a meeting place for homosexuals’.

Last month on 15 June, Ricca was was appointed secretary to the Vatican bank The Institute for Religious Works.

Ricca is also accused of maintaining a relationship and providing employment and housing to a male partner in Uruguay. Magister claims Ricca’s ‘intimacy’ with Swiss army captain Patrick Haari was ‘so open as to scandalize numerous bishops, priests, and laity’ that moved for the priest to be relocated.

After Uruguay, Ricca was appointed to the Vatican in 2004, where he was in charge of appointing residences to clerics visiting Rome. ‘This allowed him to weave an intricate network of relationships with the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy all over the world,’ Magister wrote.

While Pope Francis himself hand picked Ricca for the role of bank prelate, the pontiff allegedly was not aware of the ‘compromising situations’ Ricca is being accused of. Pope Francis reportedly responded with ‘sadness over having been kept in the dark with regard to such grave matters, and the intention to remedy the appointment he had made’.

Though ‘some episodes from Ricca’s past were previously unknown’ to Pope Francis, the pontiff has said he is deciding what to do with Ricca now.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has denied Magister’s report, calling it ‘not credible’.

Magister told the Catholic News Agency that his article was ‘verified word for word’ and ‘constituted on primary sources, including documentation’.

This is the latest scandal is a slew of ‘gay lobby’ controversies. Last month, Pope Francis admitted to a ‘current of corruption’ in the Vatican’s administrative the Curia that include the discovery of a gay priests’ dating forum.