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November 18, 2018

Was a sexy Italian actor living with the man who would be Washington's new cardinal?

By Monica Showalter

Was the man who who's widely believed to be the next cardinal for the Washington archdiocese, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, bunking with a houseboy?

It looks like it, given the reporting of the indefatigable George Neumayr.

I wanted to ask Tobin about a story I broke in October: that an Italian actor, Francesco Castiglione, was living in his rectory, which had caused murmuring among concerned Catholics in his archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey.  Some of those concerned Catholics had called me, suspecting that Castiglione was the real recipient of Tobin's infamous accidental tweet from last February in which he declared to someone unknown, "Nighty-Night Baby, I love you."  An embarrassed Tobin had explained away the Twitter misfire as a late-night message to one of his sisters.

My slippery walk to the Marriott proved productive.  I lurked about the Marriott lobby for a few minutes, then looked up and saw Tobin emerge from the elevator and saunter over to the check-out desk.  Here was my chance.  I waited for him to complete his business, then introduced myself and asked him about Francesco Castiglione.

Was Castiglione living at the rectory until I reported it?  Tobin responded that, yes, Castiglione was living at his rectory "temporarily."  I asked him why.  He said that Castiglione was taking "language classes" at Seton Hall.  Asked why he would provide temporary housing to a random Seton Hall student, Tobin couldn't offer an explanation.

Via another Neumayr tweet, here's an Instagram screengrab of the sexy Italian actor:

Here's the guy's IMDB page, which, by its photos, is even more suggestive.  Update: Or, well, it was.  The photos seem to have been taken down a few minutes ago.  Here is a Google screen grab mostly of what had been there:

It makes one wonder about the propriety of the whole picture – a big distinguished archbishop and cardinal, living it up with a young sexy Italian actor in the same house.  Never mind the gay aspect – isn't Tobin supposed to be continent?  His known love-tweet, uncovered by Neumayr, is rather hard to believe as a misfire to his sister, given the living situation.

This matters because Tobin is widely believed to be the next guy to take the archbishop's job in Washington, which has already been in a world of sexual scandal.  It's the place that housed Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who's been credibly accused of molesting the seminarians and, later, children, and who was summarily removed to keep the long arm of the law away.  Then it housed Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who was accused of covering up for McCarrick and who was forced to resign for it.  Now Tobin is in line for next?  Here is what Neumayr tweeted earlier:

Seems there really is a lavender mafia, one covering up for another, and in succession, with business as usual going on as it always has.  There seems to be a lot going on that has yet to be reported still – in the comments sections of Neumayr's tweets, parishioners report that Tobin's first acts as cardinal in New Jersey were to put on gay-friendly cathedral events, which might reveal more about what he's about.  Here is an example of the local sentiment on Twitter:

Any questions as to why there seems to be cover-up racket plaguing the Catholic Church?  Tobin denies he's going to be the next Washington cardinal, but nobody really knows.  Now there is this.

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