Last week, TWO’s Evan Hurst reported that House Minority Leader John Boehner joined right wing Catholics to attack the Human Right’s Campaign’s Harry Knox as an “anti-Catholic bigot” and called on him to resign from President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Why?
They were allegedly upset that Knox correctly stated that the Pope is hurting people in the name of Jesus by actively working against honest sex and contraception education in sub-Saharan Africa, and is thus contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS on that continent.
The attacks on Knox over old comments seemed oddly timed and forced – as if those leveling the bogus charges were desperately groping to find a political issue to serve as a smoke screen to distract the world. It was unclear at the time why these pious henchmen wanted us to avert our gaze.
Well, today the other Prada shoe fell.
It became sickeningly obvious why the Church needed to quickly find a Boogie Man. A new child abuse scandal rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Pope Benedict’s XVI native Germany. According to The New York Times:
The widening public scandal began last month with allegations that three priests at the elite Canisius Jesuit high school in Berlin had sexually abused students in the 1970s and ’80s. In the midst of a steadily growing uproar over the handling of that case, the German magazine Der Spiegel published an article that said nearly 100 clerics and laypeople had been suspected of abusing children and teenagers nationwide since 1995.
Der Spiegel said that at least 94 clerics and laypeople had been suspected of abuse since 1995, based on a poll of 27 of Germany’s 30 Catholic dioceses. The magazine’s cover this week was illustrated with an image of a priest reaching suggestively under his robes.
Making matters worse for Rome, Irish victims of the church’s rampant sexual abuse wrote a letter to the Pope asking him to take responsibility for the church’s concealment of child molestation by forcing out bishops implicated in the decades of cover-up.
Exactly, why hasn’t The Pope done this already? Why isn’t punishing child rapists a top priority, rather than the Vatican’s outrageous campaign against marriage equality, where consenting adults commit their lives to each other?
The way I see it, conservative Catholics, such as Boehner, Thomas Peters of the American Papist Blog, Dr. Kevin Roberts of Catholic Families for America, and Larry Cirignano of Faithful Catholic Citizens tried to pick a fight with America’s largest LGBT rights groups last week over condoms only days before the German report and Irish letter were publicly released. They knew this week’s shameful news would turn stomachs and they needed to find a scapegoat.
Fortunately, their conjured anti-gay dust-up fooled no one and the world’s eyes are firmly fixed on the real issue — the church’s continued exploitation of youth and the heartbreaking cover-ups.
Before the Roman Catholic Church preaches about values and points fingers, I believe it must clean up its own house. At the moment, it has no moral authority to talk about sexual matters – from condoms to birth control to homosexuality.
The Vatican has a priority problem. I suggest it take a break and spend the next year devoting all of its energy, time and financial resources to healing the hurt it has caused to its own members. Indeed, Germany has lost 3 million Catholics since 1990. Today’s tawdry revelations won’t help reverse this trend. Nor will launching fake attacks on LGBT people and leaders as a diversion from perversion that has brought the church to its knees.
Tags: change, Der Spiegel, Faithful Catholic Citizens, Ireland, John Boehner, Kevin Roberts of Catholic Families for America, L. Brent Bozell, Pope Benedict XVI, priest molestation, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Richard Viguerie, sexual abuse, SNAP, Thomas Peters13 Comments »
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Over here in London, a major debate was held (featured on TV): ‘is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?’. Unsurprisingly, it’s because of this kind of hypocrisy that the motion was voted down by about 1850 votes to 250.
My review is here: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/10/21/catholicism-on-trial-christopher-hitchens-and-stephen-fry-attack-churchs-record-on-gay-rights/
On gay adoption, and sexual morality, the question is this: who would you rather have babysitting your children? Wayne Besen, Dan Choi, Stephen Fry….or a man in clerical dress? (ask this to Catholic League lunatic Bill Donahue if ever you have to debate him on TV)
The fact that Catholic adoption agencies threaten to close down instead of agree to abide by anti-discrimination laws is a good thing, because the Church cannot be trusted to take care of children.
Comment by adrianT — February 10, 2010 @ 10:44 am
I can’t tell you how embarrassed I am to be Catholic. All of this has given me a serious crisis of faith, and it’s been really painful to me.
I was raised in a Diocese that was very very liberal. I was unaware of how mean and hateful to others the Church as a whole is. Until I moved to Memphis.
I honestly had no idea how fundamentalist the Church as a whole is. I was a sheltered child, I suppose, in my little Diocese of Biloxi.
I have been uncomfortable in every single church I have tried mass in, here in Memphis. They seem to have more in common with the Southern Baptists and Pentecostals, ect, than the Church I grew up in.
With more and more reports like this coming out as well, it’s making it easier for me to leave my Catholic Faith behind.
I have always wondered why I had such a strong attachment to the Jewish faith. Maybe that’s where I am supposed to be. I don’t know. That’s a personal journey I am on.
But I will not stand quiet about my Church anymore.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
And prosecuted to the fullest extent of the LAW. Not just Church law.
I feel like I’m rambling here, but this is something that’s really close to me.
Comment by Melissa Anne Baluka — February 10, 2010 @ 11:00 am
Temple Israel in East Memphis is a great place.
Just sayin’.
Comment by Evan Hurst — February 10, 2010 @ 11:31 am
<3
Thanks. :)
Comment by Melissa Anne Baluka — February 10, 2010 @ 12:58 pm
Melissa, maybe you were meant to explore the Jewish faith more. Judaism is not a place that actively seeks converts. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met people who say “I feel like I belong there. I’ve just had this feeling. I feel like maybe my ancestry is Jewish, or maybe I was meant to be Jewish, even though I was born/raised Christian.” There is a Rabbinical/Kabbalistic tradition of believing that Jewish souls who were killed or died before their time are given a second chance in bodies of others – and that those bodies do not necessarily end up being raised Jewish.
If you feel this is something you want to explore, By all means go ahead. I don’t know that a place like Chabad would be the right place to go on your journey – they tilt towards ultra orthodox – but maybe you could contact Rabbi Brad Hirschfield? He runs a wonderful blog on beliefnet and might be able to answer your questions.. Of course, don’t be surprised if he is too busy, or if he answers your questions with even more questions! This happens a lot with rabbis, I’ve found.
Comment by Emily K — February 10, 2010 @ 1:09 pm
Well, and if you talk to a rabbi, realize that part of their job is to discourage you from converting, in order to make sure you’re really serious.
But yeah, Emily’s recommendations are great.
Comment by Evan Hurst — February 10, 2010 @ 1:24 pm
Yep. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve never fully pursued this. All of my Jewish friends think I’m crazy for wanting to convert.
I think I was also stubbornly holding on to my Catholicism, as well. Maybe feeling there would be a ‘hopey changey’ thing that would come down the line somehow.
(Could not resist. lol.)
I appreciate all the information, Emily.
Thank you guys so much!
Comment by Melissa Anne Baluka — February 10, 2010 @ 1:36 pm
[...] which appears to be taking cues from a Vatican that should be spending more time cleaning up the child molestation mess, than attacking healthy LGBT [...]
Pingback by Truth Wins Out - Anti-Gay Snow Job This Weekend In Lynchburg and South Bend — February 11, 2010 @ 11:01 am
Does anyone know of a good, inclusive shul in the Phoenix area?
Comment by Merlyn — February 15, 2010 @ 2:07 am
I don’t know Phoenix, but I know a couple of people there.
From my experience, though, you should Google the Reform congregations in the area. Their LGBT acceptance is fairly across the board, though not every congregation is full of other LGBT people. I don’t know whether that’s important to you or not. But at the institutional level, Reform Judaism is supportive. Some Conservative congregations are too, but that depends on the place.
Here are all the Reform congregations in Arizona:
http://congregations.urj.org/display.cfm?state=AZ
Comment by Evan Hurst — February 15, 2010 @ 8:41 am
It’s obviuous the Roman Catholic Church is bankrupt. Thankfully, the Church of Jesus Christ is not built upon the Vatican and popes. It’s built on Jesus Christ alone! When I read a person is loosing their Roman Catholic faith and exploring the Jewish faith, I laugh. The Christian faith is 100% Jewish! Jesus is the Messiah spoken about in the Old Testament. Too bad Roman Catholics don’t know the Scriptures and have lived in an unbiblical religion which which glorifies men instead of the true God of the Scriptures. It is faith in Jesus Christ that saves a man, not belonging to some unbiblical wacky child molesting church, which lies and rapes it’s own children. That’s a Satanic church which preaches a false gospel and abuses it’s members. Sad indeed.
Comment by brian — March 12, 2010 @ 3:17 pm
There has always been those in the Church, like every institution and religion in the world that do bad even evil things. The good news is that this is being revealed at least in the Catholic Church now – but what about other religious bodies, which have rates of abuse as bad or worse?
When it comes to gay rights, Catholics in the U.S. support gay marrige by 55% and those states that have good gay rights legislation actually tend to be those states with larger Catholic populations; Protestants support gay marriage by 44%. Catholics, also tend to vote more liberal than non-Catholics in the U.S. (except the Jewish community, which is more liberal voting)so many Catholics are disgusted with the sex abuse scandals – even if those quilty priests represent a tiny minority of all priests serving in this country.
The Church also actually supports gay rights when it comes to job, housing and credit discrimination – (Bishops statements since the 1970s) – thats more than most states do even now or more than many other churches have done. So its a mixed bag and I hope the Church will continue to evolve when it comes to gay rights and eventually encourage gay marriage.
Comment by Patrick — March 16, 2010 @ 5:46 pm
If I was God, I would immediately ban all religions.
Comment by glyn — May 2, 2010 @ 1:46 pm