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.
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
Email: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
More than 4,000 People Have Already Signed TWO’s Petition Urging George to Step Down For Comparing LGBT Community to Ku Klux Klan
CHICAGO – Truth Wins Out stepped up its campaign calling on Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George to resign today by placing a full-page ad in this upcoming Sunday’s Chicago Tribune. The ad is headlined, “Hey, Cardinal Francis George, Gay is not like the KKK,” and slams the Cardinal for foolishly comparing the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan. It satirically includes a picture of a rainbow-robed Klansman and debunks the lies and misinformation disseminated by the Archbishop about the LGBT community. The ad comes as an online TWO petition calling on George to step down has reached more than 4,000 signatures.
“We felt compelled to place this ad after Cardinal George compounded his initial smear with further insults disguised as an apology,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It seems the sin of pride is keeping George from saying he is sorry for his outrageous and misleading remarks about Gay Pride. At this point, the only road to redemption is his resignation.”
George’s offensive remarks first came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual gay pride parade in June. The event was originally set to begin at 10am, but a priest bitterly complained that the starting time would interfere with morning services. In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”
Instead of backtracking this week, George tried to rationalize his below the belt smear with an offensive statement from the Archdiocese: “When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940′s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.”
“This is not a legitimate fight over religious liberty as George wrongly implies, but a vivid example of religious bigotry fueled by a mean-spirited analogy that linked innocent, law abiding families with the KKK,” said Besen. “We will stand up against such lies and speak out when LGBT people are unfairly maligned.”
Earlier in the year, TWO launched a 160,000-signature Change.org petition that helped persuade Apple, Inc. to eliminate an “ex-gay” iPhone app by the group Exodus International.
Truth Wins Out (TWO) is a nonprofit that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
The Roman Catholic Church’s toxic obsession with homosexuality manifests itself in countless ways. The most recent anti-gay outburst came from the Chicago Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, who foolishly compared the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan.
George’s offensive remarks came during a dispute over the scheduled starting time of the annual LGBT pride parade. The June 2012 event was originally set to begin at 10am, but a priest bitterly complained that this would interfere with morning services.
In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “Well, I go with the pastor. I mean, he’s telling us that they won’t be able to have Church services on Sunday, if that’s the case. You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”
Cardinal George’s outrageous comparison of the LGBT community to the Ku Klux Klan was so degrading and hurtful that apologizing will not be sufficient. He has crossed so far over the line of basic decency that he couldn’t see it with a pair of binoculars. His only road to redemption is handing in his resignation. If George has a shred of dignity and a sliver of class he will immediately step down. To help influence his decision my organization, Truth Wins Out, launched a petition that has already been signed by more than 4,000 people.
First, bringing the KKK into a logistical discussion over a parade’s starting time is as brazen as it is bizarre. Especially, when the problem had already been resolved in good faith by changing the jump off time to noon. With no logical reason to bring this hate group into the mix, it is fair to assume that the nasty analogy was a cheap shot and a low blow designed to slime the LGBT community. If George’s intention was to play demagogue by unfairly pairing the LGBT community with vile imagery, he should have simply gone all the way and thrown in the Nazis, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and Osama bin Laden. These odious examples would have made as much sense as the Klan comparison.
Second, how does one compare a peaceful movement of non-violent tax paying families to a group with a unique history of terror in the United States? Can the good Cardinal provide examples of masked homosexuals showing up at Catholic Churches and burning crosses or other objects on their lawns? Can George show us evidence that LGBT people are lynching people of faith? Are their choirboys and nuns hanging from trees that we don’t know about? Apparently, he can’t back up his irrational position and this is why he refused to appear on Chicago’s WGN radio to discuss his remarks, as I did on Tuesday morning.
Third, George falsely claimed that the LGBT parade was about “demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.” This far out assessment is simply paranoid and delusional. While the rabidly homophobic positions of Rome have rightfully angered many LGBT activists, the vast majority of parade marchers and spectators don’t go to make a political statement, but to have a good time. Such parades also include a large number of LGBT Catholics and organizations that represent the gay faithful.
It is a mark of George’s solipsism that he thinks we are as obsessed about the Roman Catholic Church as it is about our lives. Despite the Vatican’s best efforts to harm our families, most LGBT Catholics choose to follow the lead of their straight counterparts and ignore the more medieval and extreme proclamations from Rome.
For instance, the Public Religion Research Institute showed “nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.”
Such polling may explain why George tried to backtrack on Christmas day: “Obviously, it’s absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan, but if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we’ve had in our past because it stops us from worshipping God, well then that’s the comparison, but it’s not with people – it’s the parade.”
Obviously, this is another ridiculous response. Parades are not simply unattended rolling floats and hovering balloons – but events that are defined by the people marching. George’s dissembling continues when he says such parades “stops us from worshipping God.”
I’d like examples of where George was prohibited by the LGBT community from worshiping. Of course, he won’t provide any – because this is more about George’s dishonesty and hyperbole than it is about reality. At this point, the best George can do is to proclaim that he meant to say “gay, gay, gay” and it mistakenly came out KKK.
In recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has veered hard right and become politically active in opposing abortion rights and marriage equality in America. For example, they played a key role in thwarting marriage for same-sex couples in Maine and have refused to give communion to pro-choice politicians such as Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).
Beginning under Pope John Paul II and accelerating under the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has inserted itself repeatedly into America’s “culture war.” In a doctrine called “co-belligerence,” the Catholic leadership has joined forces with the evangelical right to fight against the perceived threat of secularism. Bitter extremists who are quick to incense are overshadowing the sweet and peaceful aroma of church incense.
Unfortunately, for the Church, one of its lead cultural warriors took it a bit too far when he ventured from co-belligerence to flat out belligerence. Dan Avila was forced to resign from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he served as Policy Advisor for Marriage and Family, after penning a column for The Boston Pilot that suggested Satan might cause people to become gay. According to Avila’s column:
“…the scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil. Any time natural disasters occur, we as people of faith look back to Scripture’s account of those angels who rebelled and fell from grace. In their anger against God, these malcontents prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. They continue to do all they can to mar, distort and destroy God’s handiwork. Therefore, whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally unchosen beginnings of same-sex attraction, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.”
Avila’s (pictured) demonizing words represented a major obstacle to the church’s questionable claim that it respects all people. It’s one thing for the Catholic Church to team up with Pat Robertson and quite another for its representatives to actuallybecome Pat Robertson. While the actions of the church have become increasingly hostile and homophobic, up until this point their slick PR team had made an effort to appear reasonable. Avila’s screed lacked nuance and it appeared that the Church had gone full-blown Satan, like they were part of a Saturday Night Live skit with the Church Lady.
It seems that the Church has finally been pushed to its limit – at least for now. Prior to his resignation from the USCCB, Avila was forced to offer a weak retraction in the Boston Pilot, writing that his column “[does] not represent the position of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the column was not authorized for publication as is required policy for staff of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”
Only weeks before the brouhaha, Avila appeared at the Voter Values Summit in Washington, DC. In a video that I filmed with my telephone camera, Avila spoke of a furtive Catholic plot to undermine marriage equality in Massachusetts. While pontificating on stage he said, “a deliberate uprising has been put in motion, a careful tilling of the political soil has created a bumper crop of many new legislators dedicated to letting the people vote [on marriage equality].”
The more the Catholic Church plays political hardball, the more polarizing screwballs it seems to attract. In recent years we’ve seen the conversion to Catholicism of verbal flamethrowers such as Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Exhibit A is the perpetually aggrieved Bill Donohue from the Catholic League, a blustery bulldog who is about the only person in the world who can make Pope Benedict XVI actually seem warm and sympathetic.
Donohue once had to be reined in after defending the Mel Gibson movie Passion of the Christ by saying, “Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It’s not a secret, OK? And I’m not afraid to say it. That’s why they hate this movie. It’s about Jesus Christ, and it’s about truth. It’s about the Messiah.”
The ironic part of the Catholic Church’s recent posturing is that it is a morally challenged institution that has yet to recover from multiple and ongoing pedophile priest scandals. Even as it scrounges up dwindling funds to fight marriage equality, it closes down Catholic schools across the nation. This shows grossly misplaced priorities and an unnatural obsession with homosexuality that has been elevated above the wellbeing of children who are losing their schools.
To underscore the Catholic Church’s falling moral authority, once staunchly Catholic Ireland announced this week that it will close its embassy to the Vatican. This once unthinkable move is a major hit to the Vatican’s reputation and worldwide standing.
The Vatican should get back to basics and forgo the self-destructive path of co-belligerence. If not, we will see more extremists, such as Avila and Donohue, who are fast becoming the unappetizing public face of the Roman Catholic Church in America.
It was bad enough that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid cost $72 million dollars during a worldwide economic downturn. (I don’t understand why it costs so much. The Rolling Stones are just as famous and tour all of Europe for considerably less).
However, it is galling that the pontiff, who is presiding over a worldwide pedophile-scandal, claimed moral superiority over the majority of fiercely secular Europeans. At Sunday Mass, the Pope warned Catholics that they “will be swimming against the tide in a society with a relativistic culture, which wishes neither to seek nor hold on to the truth.”
That’s rich coming from a man who held a key leadership position in a church where a shocking number of clergy raped children, then were systematically shuffled around from church to church to protect the institution’s reputation. Can anything possibly be more relativistic and less truthful than the way the Vatican handled (and continues to handle) this sickening crisis?
Please, Mr. Pope — given your record, you are about the last person on earth that should be preaching morals and values. Furthermore, can anyone really argue that Europe is worse off since it has become less religious? As much as the Pope whines, he can’t escape the fact that a non-believing Europe has been remarkably peaceful, civilized, and prosperous. Sometimes, it seems like he yearns for the good ole’ days of religious wars, persecution, and sectarian intolerance.
It is ironic that the less influence Rome has had, the more Christ-like Europe has become.
I read the New York Times with my morning coffee and came across an interesting editorial, “Advances on the AIDS Front”.
The first major advance was a pill that would potentially stop HIV- men from contracting the disease. The second step forward was a vaginal gel which cut a woman’s risk for infection. The third leap towards the future was not a scientific breakthrough, but a decision not to stifle science:
Pope Benedict XVI expressed the view that condoms could be used to prevent disease transmission. That could make it easier for ecclesiastical workers and AIDS prevention programs to promote their use.
The Pope should be applauded for leaving the fifteenth century and all positive steps are welcome. But isn’t it ironic that the Vatican finally stopped its blind attacks on condoms at the very moment there was a pill to potentially limit the spread of the disease?
My point is that the juxtaposition of these new discoveries and Rome finally seeing the light highlights how appallingly late they are to the game. I first heard of AIDS when I was eleven or twelve. I am now 40-years old and millions of people are now dead — and the Pope has finally come around to agree that male prostitutes should wear condoms.
I bristle when I think of the countless lives that could have been spared had the Vatican spoken while I was in Middle School instead of middle age. If Rome had really been pro-life than thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of human beings — men, women, children and even babies — would have survived.
Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had the power to raise awareness about condoms. Their stubborn prudishness led to piles of dead bodies — Holocaust size in scale — that could have been prevented.
When I think about what could have been accomplished with an enlightened Vatican it breaks my heart. But for some pathological reason, pontiffs always seem compelled to reject science and finally come around after a body count. Sadly, the Vatican’s two responses to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts have been sleep walking or walking off a cliff.
History will judge these actions quite harshly and severely tarnish the church’s image.
The Pope’s tardy comments are better late than never. But, unless the Pope can get Jesus to raise the dead, we will never get back the beautiful, innocent lives that were lost due to the Vatican’s stand on condoms. My one message to the Vatican:
There is no rule in the Bible that claims you must fight to undermine every scientific advance since the Enlightenment. History shows that you will eventually embrace the truth anyway, so why not sooner than later? In the future, why not try the wise — instead of the ignorant, reactionary — course of action — particualrly when lives are at stake?
In March 2009, the Pope caused a uproar when he had this to say about condoms:
“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the Pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he began a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
Pope Benedict XVI says that condom use is acceptable “in certain cases”, notably to reduce the risk of HIV infection, in a book due out Tuesday, apparently softening his once hardline stance.
In a series of interviews published in his native German, the 83-year-old Benedict is asked whether “the Catholic Church is not fundamentally against the use of condoms.”
“It of course does not see it as a real and moral solution,” the pope replies.
“In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality,” said the head of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics.
Well, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks every now and again. May the pontiff continue his path down the road of enlightenment.
There is nothing the Catholic hierarchy can do to shock anyone these days. In terms of jaw dropping disgust, they have done it all.
Nonetheless, the details and subsequent cover-up in Belgium, as detailed in the New York Times today, are quite distressing, even to seasoned followers of the child rape horror.
Let’s backtrack.
A few weeks ago, police in Belgium raided the Catholic Church to get to the bottom of an all-encompassing, long-time cover-up. The Pope went apoplectic in response to the raid and right wing Catholics worldwide screamed “persecution”. So, what caused the police to take such decisive action?
The first resignation of a European bishop for abusing a child relative came unexpectedly on April 23. At 73, the Bruges bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, Belgium’s longest-serving prelate, tersely announced his retirement and acknowledged molesting “a boy in my close entourage.”
The boy, not named, was his own nephew, now in his early 40s.
And the Vatican wants to preach to me about “family values”?
The saddest, sickest part of the whole mess, was that Catholic leaders in Belgium were repeatedly warned and did nothing:
For nearly 25 years, the nephew said, he sought to alert others that he had been molested by his uncle. Abuse started when he was 10, according to a retired priest, the Rev. Rik Devillé, who said he had tried to warn Belgium’s cardinal, Godfried Danneels, about the Bruges prelate’s abuse 14 years ago, but was berated for doing so.
Here is the part that really pissed me off:
Father Devillé said the abuse continued for about eight years. When he confronted Cardinal Danneels in 1996, he said, the cardinal listened impatiently, glancing frequently at his watch. Weeks later, Father Devillé received a letter from the cardinal. “Stop making unfounded public accusations against the church and its functionaries if you don’t have proof,” it read.
Kept glancing at his watch? What, was he late to a boy party?
This ongoing scandal that has badly eroded the fading moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church keeps getting worse by the day, if that is possible.
There was certainly no waffling in Belgium when law enforcement officials raided a Catholic Bishop’ meeting to pursue tawdry allegations of sexual abuse by pedophile priests. When Pope Benedict XVI heard about the operation, he put down his incense and announced he was incensed that police actually did their jobs to protect minors from major abuses. He called the police action “surprising and deplorable”, which more accurately might describe the way Rome has handled the child rape crisis.
Make no mistake — the raid was harsh, heavy-handed — and certainly long overdue. It is important to remember that the authorities only acted after the church stonewalled and failed to follow-through on promises it made to refer abuse cases to prosecutors under a 1990s agreement.
In condemning the sting operation, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, tried to hide behind diplomatic protocol by calling the police practices “serious and unbelievable” and compared them to the handiwork of communist dictatorships.
However, if the Vatican were a genuine country where leaders abused children on such a massive scale worldwide, they would have suffered far more serious consequences. There would surely be calls in the United Nations for sanctions and a demand that the Pope step down.
The heart of the matter is that the Holy See wants to remain in charge of investigations, despite its complete and utter failure to comprehensively investigate, no less discipline, wayward priests. They obviously remain clueless on the gravity of the situation and heartless in the clumsy way they often treat their victims.
At this point, The Roman Catholic Church arguably has less credibility than the despicable North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) in terms of investigating allegations of abuse. If you think this is anti-Catholic hyperbole, consider that the Vatican has a total of ten investigators to cover hundreds of complaints worldwide. Pause and digest this paltry number for a moment…then get really angry.
That’ right, the Los Angles Lakers have two more basketball players than the Vatican has child sexual abuse investigators. Rome’ entire molestation unit is the size of two Jackson 5′. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Pope has hired more than ten personal shoppers to help him pick out his Prada shoes.
Now, compare the figures 10 and 400.
The former we know, and the latter is the total number of sexual abuse allegations leveled against Belgian priests since the 80′. Of course, the Church created a puppet committee in Belgium to plod through the cases. But, we all know that Rome’ specialty is stonewalling and smokescreens. Given the disparity between promises to actual prosecutions, no country that cares about its children should allow the Vatican authority to police itself. The time for ceding control to Rome must end and civil authorities worldwide should follow Belgium’ laudable lead.
Left to its own deviant devices, the Vatican’ instincts are to pass the buck, while giving guilty priests a pass. When the abuse cases first came to light in the United States, the Vatican tried to spin the immoral monstrosity as an American problem, as if latitude and longitude caused the lechery and lies.
The geographical excuse imploded after an avalanche of child rape allegations came from all corners of the world including the Catholic strongholds of Ireland, Austria and Germany. In a panic, the Pope and his minions tried to blame everything from gossip to gay men.
In this particular case, I say, “drill baby, drill.” This is the way to run a proper investigation. Law enforcement across the globe must stop coddling alleged criminals and enabling a Vatican cover-up. The Pope’ kangaroo investigative committees ought to be dismantled immediately and the police should handle the possible crimes.
If the Pope and his cohorts are truly men of God, wouldn’t they welcome much-needed assistance for their obviously overburdened and beleaguered ten investigators?
A Springfield, Mass.-area Roman Catholic priest has publicly called for Pope Benedict XVI (a.k.a. Joseph Ratzinger) to resign.
According to today’s Boston Globe, Rev. James Scahill of St. Michael’ Parish said the pope’s untruthfulness constituted a violation of an important tenet of Catholicism. The Globe added that Scahill “has long been outspoken on the need for accountability among church leaders.”
Unfortunately, his superiors are far less courageous.
Mark Dupont, a spokesman for the Diocese of Springfield, was quick to distance the diocesan leadership from the comments made by Scahill.
“It in no way represents the position of the bishop,” Dupont said. “We find his statements to be unfortunate.”
CHICAGO – Truth Wins Out stepped up its campaign calling on Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George to resign today by placing a 
complained that the starting time would interfere with morning services. In an interview with Fox News in Chicago, Cardinal George said: “You know, you don’t want the Gay Liberation Movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.”
In recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has veered hard right and become politically active in opposing abortion rights and marriage equality in America. For example, they played a key role in thwarting marriage for same-sex couples in Maine and have refused to give communion to pro-choice politicians such as 
ila’s (pictured) demonizing words represented a major obstacle to the church’s questionable claim that it respects all people. It’s one thing for the Catholic Church to team up with Pat Robertson and quite another for its representatives to actually become Pat Robertson. While the actions of the church have become increasingly hostile and homophobic, up until this point their slick PR team had made an effort to appear reasonable. Avila’s screed lacked nuance and it appeared that the Church had gone full-blown Satan, like they were part of a Saturday Night Live skit with the Church Lady.
Donohue once had to be reined in after defending the Mel Gibson movie Passion of the Christ by saying, “Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It’s not a secret, OK? And I’m not afraid to say it. That’s why they hate this movie. It’s about Jesus Christ, and it’s about truth. It’s about the Messiah.”
It was bad enough that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid cost $72 million dollars during a worldwide economic downturn. (I don’t understand why it costs so much. The Rolling Stones are just as famous and tour all of Europe for considerably less).
There was certainly no waffling in Belgium when law enforcement officials raided a Catholic Bishop’ meeting to pursue tawdry allegations of sexual abuse by pedophile priests. When Pope Benedict XVI heard about the operation, he put down his incense and announced he was incensed that police actually did their jobs to protect minors from major abuses. He called the police action “surprising and deplorable”, which more accurately might describe the way Rome has handled the child rape crisis.
According to today’s 
