Gay Catholic priests looking to meet up for friendship and more now have a place to do it online.

Venerabilis, an unofficial gay dating site targeted for priests and the people who love them, is allegedly based in Vatican City.

The Catholic Church in Croatia is corruptly coercing people to sign a petition against same-sex marriage, Gay Star News can exclusively reveal.

Over 710,000 people have signed the petition – over one fifth of the population of the Eastern European country – demanding the government change the constitution to say marriage is defined as between a man and a woman.

But gay rights activists have accused the Catholic Church of immorally manipulating the public into signing their names to oppose same-sex marriage and also of encouraging violence.

Pope Francis has admitted to the existence of a ‘gay lobby’ in the Vatican.

According to sources cited by religious media today (11 June), the leader of the Catholic Church has said there is a ‘current of corruption’ in the Vatican’s administrative the Curia.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Dominica, Bishop Gabriel Malzaire, has said gay sex should be made legal.

But he has also likened it to ‘adultery, fornication, orgies, calumny, deep-seated hatred’ saying it can lead to ‘spiritual death’.

Despite this he wants to see an end to ‘all forms of violence’ against LGBT people in the island nation which still criminalizes gay male sex with 10 years jail. Lesbian sex can earn five years prison.

Amazon.com has dropped from its website a book that reveals alleged gay sex cover-ups in the Catholic Church.

Priesthood in Crisis, written by Father Matthew Despard of St John Ogilvie church in High Blantyre, Lanarkshire, accuses the Catholic Church in Scotland of concealing a ‘powerful gay mafia’ of priests who engage in sexual acts with other men.

Friends of the disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien say he’s been ordered by the Vatican into exile and ditch his plans for retirement in Scotland.

The Herald commented that: ‘It is the clearest indication yet of the Vatican's unwillingness to let the matter drift’ of the Cardinal’s sexual assault on male priests when he run seminaries in the 1980s and during a drinks party in Rome.

A Catholic priest in São Paulo state, Brazil was excommunicated after resigning from his duties to protest against the church's anti-gay stance.

‘Father Roberto Francisco Daniel can no longer celebrate the divine rite because he has been excommunicated,’ read a statement from the Bauru diocese in Sao Paulo state.

The Vatican will not take any further action against Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who has admitted to ‘sexual misconduct’ with four priests.

After the former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh stepped down in February, there is no active investigation by the Catholic Church.

Senior figures in the Vatican do not believe a formal investigation is warranted as O’Brien has already admitted and apologized for his behavior, according to the Scotland on Sunday.

Last March, O’Brien admitted the claims and apologized.

The head of the Catholic church in New Zealand has responded to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the country last week.

Archbishop John Dew of Wellington said:

'We find it bizarre that what has been discarded is an understanding of marriage that has its origin in human nature and is common to every culture.'

The Archbishop added 'we know many New Zealanders stand with us in this', Catholic News Agency reports.

The Irish Bishops Conference (IBC) issued a stern warning to Ireland’s government not to legalize gay marriage or else the Catholic Church will no longer work with the state in solemnizing marriages.

In addition the IBC said that by legalizing marriage equality it would reduce marriage to an ‘arrangement of the sexual relationship of any two people’ endangering the family and society.

The warning was submitted by the IBC to Ireland’s Constitutional Convention, which is considering the issue of gay marriage.

Two students at New York state’s McQuaid Jesuit High School have been given permission to attend a school dance as a couple despite the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality.

School president Father Edward Salmon allowed the pair to attend after they sought his permission to attend the school’s Junior Ball together and other students started an online petition in support of the couple.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien is alleged to have attempted to grope a priest in Rome on the night of a drinks party celebrating him becoming a ‘prince of the Church’ in October 2003.

The party where O’Brien allegedly tried to grope a man was attended by a noteable bishops and dignitaries.

This is the first direct allegation against the Cardinal and sexual misconduct at the heart of the Catholic Church.