Pope steers Catholic church in ultra-conservative, anti-gay direction

November 11, 3:06 AMInternational LGBT Issues ExaminerKelvin Lynch

Previous Next

8 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the International LGBT Issues Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

                      Scary times for Catholic gays (Photo:  AP)

Pope Benedict XVI,  who was raised a Nazi and is reportedly a Holocaust denier, has decided to steer the Catholic church in an ultra-conservative direction from his pampered perch in Vatican City (which incidentally  is its own country, separate from Rome).  He's been a busy man over the past few weeks.

Richard Kern, writing for the Appalachian Independent, noted that last week, the Pope reached out to Anglicans and  violated interfaith decorum by inviting into his fold thousands of conservative Anglicans from all over the globe who are upset at their church’s embrace of gay clergy, hoping to recruit them to Catholicism.

Then, he reached out to the Society of St. Pius, a breakaway, ultra-conservative sect whose leaders were excommunicated 20 years ago for defying the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger a few years ago ordered a nun and priest in Baltimore to stop their years-long ministry to the gay community, or be forever severed from the religious orders to which they had devoted their lives.

The Pope has also banned gay seminarians.  The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan notes that this is the Pope's way of purging gays from the the priesthood, and the Pope has deemed gay men "intrinsically disordered".  The Pope has granted straights the right to reproductive sexual acts, which are impossible among gays.  And where the straights don't have the option, as in post-menopausal or infertile relationships, the church gives them a pass. The church uniquely singles out gay people in not giving us a pass on the same humane grounds. So the unique insistence on total celibacy as a condition for being accepted even as a member of the Church remains exclusively reserved for gay people.

Kerns notes that "It took the Church 375 years to acknowledge Earth revolves around the sun. Humanity has long endured but can no longer afford a Catholic Church that must be dragged to truth."  Sullivan says "the Pope remains the enemy of gay people and our dignity. And, of course, of his own."

It's a frightening turn of events for gay Catholics. The Pope wields tremendous power, attracting thousands of devout followers to the Vatican every Sunday for his weekly address, and millions more Catholics worldwide follow his teachings.

Click "Subscribe" above to have articles emailed to you.  You email address will never be shared with a third party. 

For all things LGBT-related, please visit my Home Page.