(Weekly Column)
When former Focus on the Family leader James Dobson told The Daily Oklahoman in 2004 that,“Homosexuals…want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth,” reasonable people dismissed him as a crank. And, for the record, six states have since legalized marriage equality and the earth is still here.
Now we learn that Pope Benedict XVI did his best Dobson imitation when he delivered a New Year’s address to diplomats representing 180 nations. According to reports, the pontiff said that the marriage was “not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies (such as gay couples marrying) which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”
Really? Because I just married my same-sex partner in Vermont, a state that allows for such unions. South of us is Massachusetts and Connecticut, which both allow gay people to get hitched. To my east is New Hampshire, another state where gay couples get equal treatment under the law. In this cluster of states, marriage equality has had no visible effect on heterosexuals, unless you count the extra money their businesses have made from gay tourists who visited New England to marry. Meanwhile, for the LGBT people who live in the region, there has been an obvious increase in human dignity. Whatever evidence Joseph Ratzinger possesses to back his outrageous claim must be shrouded in more secrecy than a Pope-picking conclave.
As for the claim that the future of humanity is in jeopardy – it seems to be a figment of the Pope’s vivid imagination. Life in New England has not changed one iota since marriage equality was established and anyone who says otherwise is either a liar or a lunatic. Which camp is the Pope in?
It is time for people to be honest and admit that this pope is becoming a joke and his reign is an abject failure. He arrogantly swept into office and preposterously lambasted the secularization of Europe, as if the continent was more humane when ruled by the Church and its countless bloody religious wars.
Fortunately, his goal of turning back the clock has been unrealized. Once staunchly Catholic Spain now has marriage equality and the Vatican had to recall its ambassador to Ireland after the Irish prime minister lambasted the Roman Catholic Church over pedophile priests.
Why are we even listening to the pronouncements of a “moral leader” who presides over a church that has spent billions of dollars to settle child molestation cases? If a church and its leadership do not protect the interests of children and cover-up the misdeeds of monsters, they forfeit the right to point the finger and preach. The last thing hardworking, taxpaying, law abiding LGBT families need is to be scolded by the enablers of the child sexual abuse scandals.
The pathological homophobia of Pope Benedict XVI has filtered down the food chain. Last month, Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George compared the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan. After a huge public backlash, he finally apologized.
In Minnesota, Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt recently posted a letter to the local diocesan website that infuses a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass. Nienstedt’s pathetic “prayer” was to “assist in the strengthening of our state-wide efforts to defend marriage in our civil constitution.”
Can you feel the spirituality?
Sadly, gay bashing is a way to ascend the career ladder in Rome. For instance, the Pope will promote New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan to cardinal next month. Dolan worked mightily, yet unsuccessfully, to keep gay couples from marrying in New York. Like the Pope, Dolan should either admit he was blowing holy smoke where the sun don’t shine or produce solid evidence that he was correct in asserting that gay couples marrying would harm society.
Of course, his attacks on innocent LGBT families are not the Pope’s only notable gaffes, which include:
- In 2006, the Pope enraged Muslims when he quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor as saying the Prophet Muhammad had introduced only “evil and inhuman” ideas into the world.
- In 2009, Benedict decreed that Anglicans who leave their Church because they believed it was too liberal could join the Catholic Church, which would allow them to keep some of their traditions.
- In 2009 the Pope revoked the excommunications of four schismatic bishops from the far right order, St. Pius X Society. One of the bishops the Pope embraced, Richard Williamson, is a conspiratorial holocaust revisionist who claims the extermination of six million Jews was a hoax.
The pontiff’s rule can best be described as insensitive, indecent, and intolerant, and his latest anti-gay comments should be put into context of his overall reprehensible record. While LGBT marriage equality does not threaten the future of humanity, the out of touch pronouncements and actions of Pope Benedict XVI may very well threaten the future of the Roman Catholic Church.
Oh, come on, guys, it’s Pope-atine! Just about everything he says is bigoted and bizarre!
Wayne, this is one of the reasons I left the Catholic Church in 1987. This pope, when he was still cardinal, was the author of a document which claimed that gay relationships were not loving and which claimed that if people pushed for legalization of same sex behavior, no one, not even the church, should be surprised when people react violently against them. He tried to make it more palpable by saying that no one should act violently against them, however – that would be wrong. Buy in a nutshell, in his words he indicated he could not understand the love that lesbian/gay people have for each other, but he could understand the violence perpetrated against us. His predecessor (the man Benedict declared a “Blessed”) approved the document and ordered it published.
Should be “But in a nutshell..”
Don’t forget Joe was raised in nazi Germany and was a member of the hitler youth (by force of course), but apparently much of that early indoctrination is still swimming around in his slightly demented mind. And as for conservatives Anglicans leaving to join Rome, just as many Roman Catholics have come over to the Anglican side for the opposite reason. When I joined the Episcopal Church most of the people in the ‘converts’ class were ex-Catholics, with a few ex-baptists (there were all gay) and 3 ex-Mormons. One of the female priests at our Church was a RC nun back in the 60s. She couldn’t stand the sexist b******t, so became an Episcopal priest, is married and has kids and grandchildren and now runs a free medical clinic for poor people in Philadelphia.
Remember, this guy is just a big ole closet case like his predecessor Karol Wojtyla was. These queens will do anything to protect their hard earned power at the top of the world’s largest religious denomination. Misogyny and hatred of gay people who have found the freedom to be themselves in society are to be expected from this bunch. Just like the Repuglicans and the Supreme Court, Ratz and Wojtyla have been stacking the bishoprics for 30+ years. It won’t be turned around in my lifetime.
Pope Bene-who? I’m sorry, but I stopped listening to anyone in the Hierarchy over a decade ago. To me they sound like the adults from “Charlie Brown.”
Great story!
This is their excuse from divirting from the evils of that horrible institution. The cathoic church is one of the most vile corrupt organizations on the face of this planet.