Vatican sides with God against homosexuals

[Photo of Archbishop Celestino Migliore]


"If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death--their bloodguilt is upon them." - Leviticus 20:13


The French have sponsored a United Nation's resolution which, according to Time magazine, "calls for an end to the practice of criminalizing and punishing people for their sexual orientation. Most dramatically, in some countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, homosexuality can be punished by death."

All 27 European countries have backed this proposal.

The Vatican, however, has announced it will oppose the proposal. Father Federico Lombardi, the mouthperson of the Pope, said that this does not mean the Pope's people favor the death penalty. The Vatican is opposed to putting people to death.

What the Vatican doesn't like about this resolution is that some countries might be "somehow" targeted because they ban gay marriage. Notice the wishy washy in that statement. The papal envoy to the UN, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, said "Countries that don't recognize the union between people of the same sex as marriage will be punished and pressured."

Except...the resolution says nothing about gay marriage, and as Time points out, "most of the nations that support it themselves don't allow people of the same sex to wed."

Hmmm.


When it comes to gays, the Roman Catholic church is caught between a rock and hard place. The church is rife with gay clergy. No one knows exactly how many priests are homosexuals because such data is difficult to determine with accuracy, but various studies indicate that as many as 50% of Catholic priests are actively homosexual or of homosexual orientation.

Stanley Kurtz, writing of "Gay Priests and Gay Marriage" in the National Review in 2002 suggested that "After Vatican II, and in conformity with the broader cultural changes of the Sixties, the U.S. Catholic Church allowed homosexuals to enter the priesthood in increasing numbers."

In the 1970s, says Kurtz, "homosexuals were flooding into Catholic seminaries all over the U.S.", many of them flouting the rule of celibacy. Kurtz quotes from Jason Berry's book, Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children (1992) in which Berry claimed that "as the proportion of homosexuals in the priesthood increased dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, many gay priests were visiting the seminary 'on the make,' frequenting gay bars, and 'befriending' high school students."

In June of 2002, Catholic World News carried an article by the Rev. Paul Shaughnessy, which quoted an AP report from 2000:

"AIDS has quietly caused the deaths of hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in the United States although other causes may be listed on some of their death certificates, the Kansas City Star reported today. The newspaper said its examination of death certificates and interviews with experts indicates several hundred priests have died of AIDS-related illnesses since the mid-1980s. The death rate of priests from AIDS is at least four times that of the general population, the newspaper said. Kansas City Bishop Raymond Bolan says the AIDS deaths show that priests are human."


Bolan's comment also says something else. Gay bishops and gay cardinals have helped to conceal and play down the problem of non-celibate gay priests. Shaughnessy puts it this way: the actions of gay priests are "frequently ignored, often tolerated, and sometimes abetted by bishops and superiors."

The "problem" of gay priests is so widespread, says Shaughnessy, that gay priests "routinely gloat about the fact that gay bars in big cities have special 'clergy nights,' that gay resorts have set-asides for priests, and that in certain places the diocesan apparatus is controlled entirely by gays."

Here's an interesting tidbit. Not too many years ago, a rumor was floating around the Catholic world that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith planned to publish a ruling that would prohibit gays from entering Catholic seminaries. Cardinal Ratzinger is now known as Pope Benedict XVI.

When gay South Africa Bishop Reginald Cawcutt heard of this rumor, he wrote a letter to "his fellow gay clergy." Shaughnessy quotes from the letter:

"Kill [Ratzinger]? Pray for him? Why not just f--- him??? Any volunteers -- ugh!!! ... I do not see how he can possibly do this -- but... If he does, lemme repeat my statement earlier -- that I will cause lotsa s--- for him and the Vatican. And that is a promise. MY intention would be simply to ask the question what he intends doing with those priests, bishops (possibly 'like me') ... who are gay. That should cause s--- enough. Be assured dear reverend gentlemen, I shall let you know the day any such outrageous letter reaches the desks of the ordinaries of the world."


In fact, such a communication was issued some years ago. According to religioustolerance.org, "A Vatican document of 1961 bars persons with homosexual orientation from ordination and religious vows."

Pope John Paul II, on September 5, 2002, said "It would be lamentable if, out of a misunderstood tolerance, they ordained young men who are immature or have obvious signs of affective deviations [meaning homosexuality, primarily] that, as is sadly known, could cause serious anomalies in the consciences of the faithful, with evident damage for the whole Church."

Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez believes that the ordination of homosexuals is "...absolutely inadvisable and imprudent, and from the pastoral point of view, very risky. A homosexual person or someone with homosexual tendencies is not, therefore, suitable to receive the sacrament of holy orders."

Vatican pronouncements and hierarchical statements have not been found wanting, but they have been essentially ignored.

Things are coming to a head, however. On November 17, 2008, the Los Angeles Times noted that "The Vatican recently issued a statement re-emphasizing that even chaste gay men are to be barred from the priesthood. Never mind that large numbers of gay priests -- estimates range from 25% to 50% -- already serve the faithful, with most adhering to their vow of celibacy."

What will be done with these men? That's an especially important question considering that dismissing them will, as Austin Cline notes, "devastate an already imperiled American priesthood. ... Things are so bad in the United States that many parishes are 'importing' priests from abroad."


And here we have a clear picture of schizophrenia. The Roman Catholic Church, with somewhere between one-quarter and one-half of its clergy being of the gay persuasion, opposes a United Nations resolution backed by all 27 European countries, which would decriminalize homosexuality.

To put it bluntly: The resolution calls for all nations to stop killing gay people because they are gays. The Vatican says it will not support the resolution. To stop killing gay people might lead to gay marriage.

Whether you approve of gays in the ministry or gay marriage ...

To oppose this resolution ...

Is, as pointed out by Franco Grillini, founder and honorary president of Arcigay, Italy's leading gay rights group ...

"total idiocy and madness."


[Thanks to Think Progress for the Gillini quote]

And here's a piece on the strangeness Bishop Cawcutt. More here on his weirdness and his resignation in July 2002.

And, finally, another "law" of god: "You shall not round off the side-growth on your head, or destroy the side-growth of your beard." - Leviticus 19:27