Gynogate: Is the Vatican Lying?

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Nothing sexy here. Move along now.

UPDATE (7:40 PM CST, 27 December): Maureen Mullarkey and The Bear just posted. Ms. Mullarkey titles her post "Scrap the Mea Culpa" and adds a bit of detail about how and why her original piece was pulled by the Federalist. She also makes the point that the fact that the Daily Mail has stuck with the story (and I've seen them correct and update stories many a time) lends some credence to the ESAG's account. The Bear promises more material from Dr. Bader and ESAG. I'm sure Dr. Bader is used to people tittering over his chosen profession, but I now wish I hadn't been quite so jokey about the whole thing. It looks like Dr. Bader has been falsely accused of being a liar--by the Pope's spokesman, of all people. Doesn't even the Vatican take the Ninth Commandment seriously, anymore? Or did that go out the door (perhaps when it was opened) for the Jubilee Year of Mercy?

The original story was that a Catholic university overseen by the Vatican would be hosting a conference of aesthetic gynecologists, headed by Dr. Alexandros Bader, a world-renown expert on the G-spot.

Mahound's Paradise posted on this (Warning: the post was sexually explicit), offering some new information but also reprinting one of the juicer news stories on the conference from the Daily Mail.

The original story was based on claims made in promotional materials from the European Society of Aesthetic Gynecologists (ESAG). Essentially there were three claims:

• The conference would be held in or at Vatican City.
• Social events would include a tour of the Vatican gardens and an audience with the Pope.
• The precise venue was the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum.

My post suggested, based on the contents of the materials themselves, that the first claim was exaggeration--the Institute is near St. Peter's but is not technically on Vatican grounds. Indeed, that it was exaggeration was sort of confirmed by a spokeswoman for the ESAG after the story broke.

However, a few days ago, all of the claims were apparently denied by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Federico Lombardi (English text courtesy of Google Translate):

In some press reports there was talk of a First World Congress organized by the "European Society of Aesthetic Gynecology", which would take place "in the Vatican" in the month of April. 

The material for the program that is in the site intentionally suggests this approach, using the shape of the facade of St. Peter, specifying that participants may attend the general audience and visit the Vatican Gardens, and saying well - in some text - that the conference will take place "in the Vatican." 

In another text on the Site it is said that the conference will take place at the Institute Augustinianum. The Augustinianum denies in the strongest terms. Also not in any way that the organization of such a conference has to do with some Vatican institution or the Holy See.

A few journalists and bloggers who reported the original story then quasi-apologized for their initial enthusiasm, and used the word "hoax." This was done out of admirable motives--in the interests of accuracy even at the expense of looking slightly silly. But I think it is fair to say that they now believe they were too quick to backtrack. One of them--The Bear of St. Corbinian's Bear--decided to do some additional investigation (as we shall see below). 

While it is true that on its official website the ESAG subsequently scrubbed references to "Vatican City", the Vatican related social events and the Institute--the organization now lists the conference as occurring in "Rome"--there are still numerous links to the earlier claims on ESAG's Facebook page, Dr. Bader's Facebook page and some non-ESAG sites related to surgery or medical events.

Note that Lombardi does not deny this and even confirms part of it. But he essentially implies that the ESAG made it all up.

Bear with me as I enter some of it into the record.

This is from the Facebook page of Alma Surgery, announcing the conference and inviting attendees to purchase tickets. Note the claim that ". . . the first 50 registrations (will) attend the audience of Pope Francisco himself" 

This letter from Dr. Bader was removed from the ESAG website, but the ESAG Facebook page still links to it at BlueEvents. Note the reference at the bottom to "the general audience of The Pope" and visits to "the vatican gardens" and "St. Peter's Chapel."

Here is one of the original virtual brochures, describing the venue as "Rome, 20-21 April 2016; Vatican City State, Italy, Rome; Venue Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum". It is still on the ESAG Facebook page.

And this is taken from Dr. Bader's current Facebook page:

So, if it was a hoax, it was a hoax perpetrated by someone inside ESAG--someone who, for example, thought it would be funny to write "Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum" on promotional brochures and forge a letter from Dr. Bader (by, I guess, hacking his Facebook site, among other things) describing that "tour of the vatican gardens" and that "audience."

That possibility is clearly absurd and (as we'll see) has been denied by the ESAG.

A second possibility is that the organizers of the ESAG lied about the Vatican links. There was no contract to use the Institute's conference center and they just made up the bit about the social events. What inscrutable reasons could have motivated them to do this is of course anyone's guess, as if potential attendees--aesthetic gynecologists and associated people--would be more likely to attend a conference on cosmetic surgery if it were held in the conference hall of a Catholic scholarly center dedicated to the study of the Christian Fathers, or as if multi-million dollar surgeons who specialize in "Brazilian Butt-lifting" techniques (from their brochure) would be more likely to come to Rome if they could meet the Pope (though wouldn't some of them demand their money back if they found out that that promise--made by Dr. Bader himself--was a complete fib?).

A third possibility is that the ESAG made arrangements with the proper officials, but due to the embarrassing publicity, the Institute (and whoever is in charge of organizing garden tours and Papal audiences, etc.) cancelled. And now they think it's best to deny everything.

Subsequently, The Bear did the obviously right thing (though it wasn't obvious to me): He actually asked ESAG to comment. Here was the response from Dr. Bader himself:

Dear Mr. [Bear], we had a clear agreement with the Vatican to rent their premises in order to organize the Congress. Recently and in unfair way they regret and escalate the issue just to slip away from their responsibilities. We have evidence and documents to prove this and soon we will come out with an official press release as well as we still keep our rights for all legal actions against all involved parties who defame our Society and me personally. The Congress still will take place on the same dates in a different venue which will be announced soon.

By the way, stay tuned to St. Corbinian's Bear on this:

The Bear has engaged in subsequent communications with Dr. Bader, and expects to report more news soon.

Obviously, either ESAG is lying or the Vatican is. Again, ask yourself why the ESAG of all organizations would make up the Vatican links out of whole cloth and put them in their promotional materials. On the other hand, I suppose it might be claimed that even if the arrangements were initially made, the Vatican is not technically lying now. Saying that the Institute "denies in the strongest terms" that they will host such a conference does not technically contradict the claim that they had initially agreed to do so.

But that would be pharisaical.

Let me offer a charitable hypothesis as to what really happened: The Institute did indeed agree to host the conference and the tour and audience were arranged through the usual channels. Consider that the Institute does host non-religious events--they recently hosted a meeting on climate change--and the Pope has audiences with all sorts of people and groups. The relevant Vatican officials focused on the "surgery" or "surgeons" part, not quite realizing how potentially embarrassing (and non- or even un-Catholic) some of the thing was. Perhaps the ESAG tacitly cooperated here, not going out of its way to emphasize the juicier bits about the conference. (Imagine that they know from experience that they run into resistance whenever they do.) Possibly a few Catholic doctors were mentioned or used as references, etc.

If this hypothesis is true, then to be honest, it doesn't really bother me that the arrangements for the conference were initially made. It was a silly mistake.

It does bother me that they now appear to be lying about it.

But then secrecy and deception are hallmarks of this pontificate, aren't they?

Contrast that with the behavior of those Catholic bloggers who were quick to admit apparent error, even when as one of them put it, it showed them with "egg on their face." That it now appears they weren't in error makes the irony all the richer.

The crisis continues.

WARNING: SEXUALLY EXPLICIT: Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome (For the Study of the History and Theology of the Church Fathers) to Host Sexy Plastic Surgery Conference. Brazilian Butt Lifting, Anyone?

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The Augustinian Patristic Institute, where the sexy conference will be held

The original story is from the Daily Mail but it can be confirmed at the website of The European Society of Aesthetic Gynecology (ESAG). Before anyone jumps to assumptions or conclusions, here are the facts:

• It's a conference of plastic surgeons that do surgery for women in a couple of different places. You know, there and there.
• While some of the procedures are laudable--attempting to correct the effects of genital mutilation--most are either recreationally sex focused--"G-spot amplification"--or cosmetic and exploitive--"anal whitening," "butt lifting," etc.
• The conference isn't sponsored by the Institute or the Vatican. As far as I can tell, the Augustinian Patristic Institute is simply renting out its conference hall.
• News reports, as well as the ESAG website identify the conference as occurring "in the Vatican" or "in Vatican City." This appears to be either sensationalistic (the news sites) or marketing hype (the ESAG website). The Institute is next to or close by Saint Peter's but not in Vatican City.
• Nevertheless, the gynecological conference promises a "general audience with the Pope," a special mass and a tour of he Vatican gardens. Or, as the site puts it:

The social event will take place in the Vatican City, participants will have the chance to visit the entire city of the Vatican and reach places not everybody can. Delegates will have the chance to attend the general audience of Pope Francisco, the Mass and to visit the Vatican gardens.

• "Reach places not everybody else can." Quite.
• The President of the ESAG as well as the keynote guest, speaker and lecturer is Dr. Alexandros Bader (picture below), a "world renown expert in G-spot enhancement."
• ESAG has locations in Athens, Dubai and London and appears to be mainly made up of plastic-surgeon tycoons catering to wealthy European and Middle-East clients.

Why is this man smiling?

Here are some representative topics, lectures and events:

• The mental cost of changing your appearance 
• The connection between Traditional Gynecology and Cosmetic Gynecology, what we should consider and what to avoid 
• Cosmetic Gynecology: The Indian experience 
• G-Spot amplification, mythes (sic) and facts
• FemiLift and sex theraphy. The new frontier
• Laser Vulvar Bleaching
• One stitch Vaginal Tightening (Video demonstration)
• Brazilian Butt lifting, the S shape technique
• Coffee Break

Here are the advertised "studies" of the Augustinian Patristic Institute, where the conference will be held:

• Bachelor of Theology
• License in Theology and Patristic Studies
• Doctorate in Theology and Patristic Studies
• License in Patristic Studies
• Doctorate in Patristic Studies
• Master's Degree in Augustinian Studies
• Master in Joseph Ratzinger: Studies and Spirituality

And here's the lead blurb from the Augustinian Patristic Institute website:

The Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum of Rome, in cultivating the sacred sciences, especially the thought of the Fathers of the Church, Saint Augustine and his legacy, remains faithful to the age - old tradition of the Augustinian Order which, from the time of its foundation by the Apostolic See in the thirteenth century, has always paid particular attention to serious study. The Augustinians cultivated the sacred disciplines with such commitment that, already in the last few decades of the century which saw their birth, they had come to occupy a foremost position at Paris and at other principal European universities.

No comment

So, what are faithful Catholics to make of all this?

• This does not involve an infallible pronouncement from the Pope.
• Thus, there is no official or formal heresy here. Mark Shea can relax.
• Cha-Ching!

Finally, here is the original Daily Mail piece:

Secrets of the G-spot unravelled… by the Vatican: Catholic university overseen by the Church to host conference about the secrets of the female body

• Augustinian Patristic Institute will host meeting of aesthetic gynaecologists 
• The society's president is world renowned surgeon Dr Alexandros Bader 
• He claims to be able to enhance women's G-spots, improve their sex life 
• Conference delegates will also be greeted to audience with Pope Francis

A Catholic university linked to the Vatican will host a conference of gynaecologists who claim to be able to 'amplify' women's G-spots to kickstart their sex lives. 

The Augustinian Patristic Institute, near St Peter's Square in Rome, will host the first meeting of the European Society of Aesthetic Gynaecology in April next year. 

The society is headed up by Dr Alexandros Bader, a world renowned surgeon, who boasts of being able to 'enhance' a woman's G-spot on his website. 

Topics covered at the landmark conference are said to include the lifting, tightening and bleaching of female genitals. 

Delegates will also discuss the amplification of the G-spot and the O-spot, a point behind the surface which experts claim is more sensitive to pleasure than the G-spot. 

The delegates will also be greeted to an audience with Pope Francis and a walk with in the Vatican gardens, the Times reported. 

They will then take part in a 'hands on course' which features operations on '14 live cases'. 

On his website, Dr Bader wrote: 'G-Spot Enhancement is a revolutionary method which is based on magnifying the G-spot up to four times.' 

He claims this is done by injecting the spot with a special collagen filler which increases sensitivity and the 'intensity, duration and frequency of female orgasms'. 

He added: 'G-Spot Enhancement is a simple, non-intrusive and painless procedure, which takes place in our clinics and lasts some 15 minutes.'

When Muslims Sacked Rome

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9th century Saracens*

"The Sacking of Rome Was Not Done By Muslims, Eh?"

In a recent rambling interview on the Papal plane, Pope Francis made a somewhat oblique point about "the sacking of Rome," implying that Rome was not sacked by Muslims but rather by Christians or Christian fundamentalists, "religious people without values" or (seemingly their opposite) people "who believe in the absolute truth." Read that part of the interview to try to puzzle out what he really meant or was trying to say. Good luck.

Actually, of course, Rome has been threatened, occupied, attacked, raided, plundered and sacked numerous times since its founding, by Pagans (Gauls), Barbarians (Huns), quasi-Christian Barbarians (Goths and Vandals), mainstream Catholics (Normans) a mutinous mix of Catholics and some Protestants (the armies of Charles V) and Frenchmen (Napoleon). But as we'll see below, it was also sacked by Muslims. In a future post I will discuss the non-Muslim incidents in more detail. But if there's any general lesson to be learned from all of them, it's certainly not that "fundamentalism" or "religious fundamentalism" is a prime cause of mass violence (including the sacking of cities). Indeed on the above list, it's hard to say which group was "fundamentalist" if any of them were, or even whether that category makes any real historical or analytical sense.

But back to the Muslims, or "Saracens" as they were often called. In 846 a force of perhaps 10,000 of them sailed up the Tiber and sacked Rome. Or perhaps I should say, most historians up to the present have called it a "sack". Recently, some have proposed that it was more of a "raid". Supporting the use of the latter term, it's true that the Saracens did not enter the walled part of the city, probably because they didn't quite have the numbers. On the other hand--supporting the generally accepted designation of "sack"--the raiders plundered and desecrated the tombs of St. Paul and St. Peter, among others, two of the richest and most important religious sites in Christendom. Unfortunately, at that time the Vatican Hill lay just outside the ancient walls.

While the Muslim sack of Rome stunned Christians, it didn't come out of nowhere. In the previous two-hundred years, Muslims had overrun the largely Christian Middle-East, Christian North Africa and Spain, and had made it as far as central France before they were halted at Tours. In the Mediterranean they had taken Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete, and they would soon conquer and begin a two-hundred year occupation of Malta and Sicily. And of course, many other coastal and inland cities in France, Italy, and Greece had been attacked or raided, Rome merely being the most spectacular example. Saracen pirates even set up patrols in Alpine passes, ready to capture and enslave Roman pilgrims.

Above: Charlemagne is crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III at St. Peter's Basilica, Christmas day, A.D. 800.** Sandro Magister writes:

That night, the basilica of St. Peter gleamed with breathtaking brilliance. A few years earlier, Leo III’s predecessor, pope Hadrian I, had covered the entire floor of the sanctuary with plates of silver; he had covered the walls with gold plates and enclosed it all with a balustrade of gold weighing 1,328 pounds. He had remade the sanctuary gates with silver, and had placed on the iconostasis six images also made of silver, representing Christ, Mary, the archangels Gabriel and Michael, and saints Andrew and John. Finally, in order to make this splendor visible to all, he had ordered the assembly of a candelabrum in the form of a huge cross, on which 1,365 candles burned. 

But less than half a century later, none of this remained. And what happened remains generally unknown among Christians today. 

What happened is that in 846 some Muslim Arabs arrived in a fleet at the mouth of the Tiber, made their way to Rome, sacked the city, and carried away from the basilica of St. Peter all of the gold and silver it contained.

Here is a modern account of the 9th century Muslim attack, from Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries by Barbara M. Kreutz:

846: The Arab Sack of Rome 

Everywhere from Rome south there must have been a sense now of the Arabs closing in, moving to take over the whole of the central Mediterranean. The Byzantine hold on Sicily was crumbling. . . And then within Campania (Naples), at roughly the same time, both Radelchis of Benevento and Sikenolf of Salerno hire Arab mercenaries to fight in their civil wars. 

. . . In August 846, Arab raiders arrived at Ostia and Portus, with what was said to be eleven thousand men and five hundred horses in seventy-three ships. These raiders seem to have had no connection with the Beneventan and Salernitan mercenaries. They had set sail from Camania, however; a Naples source reported that the Aghlabid leaders in Sicily had sent this huge force direct from palermo and that the attackers had begun their operation by capturing the "castellum" at Misenum, site of the imperial Roman naval base at the outer tip of the Bay of Naples. 

This time, the raiders' target seemed unquestionably to be the Holy City itself. In a desperate attempt to hold them off, a makeshift army of Saxons, Fisians, and Franks was recruited from student and pilgrim hostels at Rome and dispatched toward Ostia, accompanied by some sort of Roman militia. For two or three days, this motley collection of amateur warriors ranged around the countryside but encountered few Arabs; the raiders kept out of sight, biding their time. Something, however, alarmed the Roman detachment and suddenly they rushed back to their city and the relative safety of the Aurelian walls, leaving behind the Saxons, Frisians, and Franks. The Arabs then struck. The hapless foreign recruits were slaughtered, and the raiders raced unimpeded up along the Tiber to Rome. 

They were heading toward extraordinary treasures, as they seem to have known. Over the past half-century, rejoicing in the stability now seemingly guaranteed by the Carolingian presence in Italy, successive popes had been enthusiastically engaged in embellishing Rome's churches. Many of the most impressive of these churches, certainly including St. Peter's and the basilicas dedicated to St. Paul and St. Lawrence, were outside the Aurelian walls and thus easy targets for the raiders. And these, like all of Rome's churches, were now filled to overflowing with rich liturgical vessels and with jeweled reliquaries housing all of the relics recently amassed. It is no wonder that the raiders were said to have desecrated all the very holiest shrines, even the high altar over St. Peter's grave. European contemporaries cited this desecration as a calculated demonstration of Muslim contempt for Christianity. But probably the raiders' actions only proved that they had done sound intelligence work and knew exactly where to look for the most valuable treasures. . . 

The 846 raid on Rome had wide-ranging repercussions. Not only did it appall Western Europe; it was also to affect southern Italy in many ways, in both the short and long terms. There was an immediate reaction in Carolingian circles. This was, after all, the first time that the Holy City had been attacked since the days of Alaric and Gaiseric in the fifth century, and they at least had respected shrines and churches. A genuinely horrified Emperor Lothar quickly arranged for troops to be sent south. He also ordered a levy, throughout the empire, to fund walls with which Pope Leo IV could surround St. Peter's and the papal enclave--the Leonine walls. The army was led by Lothar's twenty-two-year-old son, the future Louis II; he was to help shore up Rome's defenses, but clearly he was also instructed to see what else could be done to ensure that nothing like this ever happened again.

Next: Who else sacked Rome?

*From the "Madrid Skylitzes" by John Skylitzes, Sicily, 12th century.
**Coronation of Charlemagne, by Friedrich Kaulbach, 1861: