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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
According to The New York Times, homosexuals, even those who are celibate, will be barred from becoming Roman Catholic priests, a church official said Wednesday, under stricter rules soon to be released on one of the most sensitive issues facing the church.
Instead of an honest inquiry into stopping child abuse within the church, we get an anti-gay Inquisition that threatens to destroy the lives of good men. This shameful scapegoating will only lead to more child abuse, injustice and exacerbate the church's shortage of qualified priests. Even as the world moves forward on gay rights, the Vatican moves back to the Stone Ages. The new Pope's reign is proving to be disgraceful. But, who can be surprised? Ratz has always had a peculiar obsession with attacking gay men.
25 Comments:
Wayne, the reign of terror begins indeed. This is only going to exacerbate homophobia even further, a term that a lot of right wing fundamentalists object to. I assume you read all of the comments posted under "Vatican To Hunt Down Gay Priests"? Anonymous and I have had several exchanges but I can no longer respond to his comments since we both disagree on virtually everything. He suggests that pedophilia is overwhelmingly related to homosexuality, that it is a disorder. I suppose he thinks the APA is equally disordered when it struck down homosexuality as a mental disorder many years ago. Maybe he is an an ex-gay, but he strongly denies it. Who knows, maybe its Richard Cohen or one of his followers. I wonder why he keeps coming here to vent so much about the disorders supposedly inherent in homosexuality and why we supposedly are more disposed to pedophilia than heterosexuals. He did not state if he were a qualified psychologist or psychiatrist either, but claims to have a lot of knowledge about homosexuality and pedophilia, far more than the average non-gay.
I've just read the NY Times article on this. Perhaps the church should also hunt for evidence of heterosexuality too, including bishops and cardinals, maybe the pope himself. Too often, the heterosexual pedophiles in the seminaries are minimalized. I've not read one article anywhere in the media about this. Its quite breath taking that the vatican is not investigating its hierarchy, but I suppose they are immune, just as Ratzinger was before he became pope.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/22/2005 8:18 AM
I find it odd that the APA doesn't weigh in with an official opinion on pedophilia to set the record straight. The vatican's new ruling attacking gay seminarians and priests sends the wrong message to the world, that pedophilia is a personality disorder associated overwhelmingly with homosexuality. It would be interesting to see government statistics on the ratio between hetero and homosexual pedophilia cases to date to debunk or confirm the facts.
Robert et.al. I don't know if I am too politizised, but what I see is a very good oportunity to educate intelligent Americans about the truth: THe have been lied to regarding homosexuality and that continues.
THe RC Church, as well as other religious institutions, are gasping in USA and Europe -and in many LatinAmerican Countries- to servive, because there is much more access to information and to diversity of opinion. More people read and write, and are not affraid anymore to make decisions by themselves in terms of what their heart tells them, Vs. what the Leaders of religioous institutios tell them.
As a result, the churches will have to change, and all these reactionary efforts are nothing but cathalitic agents in the process of change... wait and see.
Many, many more generations of gays and lesbians are growing up in this environment, and they will laugh tomorrow, telling the younger generations what the world was like in 2005 and how this motivated change. We may not see it, but it is very important no to be quiet now, and denounce the lies of the so called Christians, they are not Christians, they have hijacked the institutions, but their day will come!
posted by Anonymous, at
9/22/2005 11:53 AM
I agree. The church is slowly but gradually bringing about its own demise by such dastardly, ill-conceived action, and yes, it will have to answer for it one day. It is fast becoming an irrelevant institution as the civilized world progresses while the older regresses into oblivion, rightfully where it belongs.
Double standards are still de rigueur in today's church.
Pope Paul VI caused considerable surprise in 1968 when, to the consternation of his aides, he publicly denied rumours that he was homosexual. Though rumours had circulated periodically in anti-papal and anti-Catholic publications as to Paul's sexual orientation, with suggestions of a past relationship while he was an archbishop with a priest who had served as his secretary, when what Paul called the 'scandalous rumours' began to feature in some elements of the Italian media, he made the controversial choice of issuing a public denial. It was the first time in the modern era that a pope had commented in any way about his sexual identity.
Perhaps Michael Moore could make a documentary and send it to the vatican for comment.
On the front page of today's paper is an unfolding scandal of sex abuse by priests in the diocese of Philadelphia, PA. The article covers and condemns the coverup of these priests by the hierarchy since the 60s I believe it said. It was same old story as has been played out in other cities. It also said that many of these criminals, including the bishops who hid them, cant be arrested now due to the statute of limitations running out. In the city of Trenton, they recently had to close quite a few old RC churches and consolidate the parishes into one, plus the big decline in catholic schools in that area. All this is due to financial constraints as well as falling church attendance. Let these hateful ignorant hypocritical assholes shoot themselves in the foot and make a bad situation worse by witch-hunting gay priests. Pretty soon not only will the pews be empty, but the sacristies and the altars as well! Karmic paybacks are a bitch. Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
9/22/2005 3:24 PM
Frankly I dont give a damn if the catholic church canabalizes itself, but it pisses me off that they're reinforcing the homosexuality=pedophilia bullshit!
posted by Anonymous, at
9/22/2005 3:41 PM
Gary, exactly what I had said earlier. The financial constraints are exacerbated by the lawsuits, pending lawsuits and many of the settlements already paid out. They have and always will be a bunch of psychopathic liars, one of its great traditions in the area of double standards that has served it well when it comes to villifying us to advance its agenda. Its rotting from within and it will do or say anything to preserve the status quo, much like our government. Corruption at its worst. The situation in Europe is far worse with less church attendance than here. Even in Italy only 37% believe or attend, and much lower in the rest of northern Europe. There were no vocations in Ireland last year, go figure. So now in utter desperation they have to harvest the far east for priests who are few and far between. A year or so ago, one of them, I believe he was from India or possibly the African continent, was in the NYC area and was caught sexually harassing a woman over a period of time. In traditional church fashion, he was shuffled off to some remote place and no more was heard of him. The media made light of it because it was heterosexual involvement, didn't even make front page, but a blurb somehwere buried in the middle pages, unlike the situation with gay priests. This evil piece of work in the vatican will live to regret it, deservedly so.
Robert, I know, my mother's church (which I'm only in for weddings and funerals) seems to have priests only from Poland or India. The "american" ones that are left are mostly elderly. And when I do see/hear a younger guy, my gaydar bleeps right off the screen. I guess they should start looking for another career (or start lying).
Gary, right on. I'm also sad in one way and gloating in another.
Dartanyon, I hear you and agree. Its despicable. Its the tradition of the church, unfortunately, they look the other way, every time, but not when it comes to us any longer.
I can predict that this will not only decimate the church, and good riddance, but we'll see a huge upsurge in homophobia, everywhere. Karl Rove must be loving every minute of it.
According to Dr. Martin P. Kafka, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an expert on sexual impulsivity disorders, he said that "you can't really screen for homosexuality. The church investigators "might ask more questions, but unless they're going to do visual sexual arousal testing, I suspect that all this is going to do is drive this underground".
According to NY Newday, the new ban is provoking fury and fear among some priests in New York and Long Island, who worry that good men will be scapegoated and the ranks of priests decimated. Some men who described themselves as chaste homosexual priests say they are considering speaking against the ban, or even resign, because they feel so aggrieved. One anonymous priest commented..."do you want to work for an organization that barely tolerates your existence and says that people like you can no longer be accepted? What kind of self-hatred is necessary to continue in a place like that? I can't even find words to describe how many of us feel. It's like being told you have a terminal illness".
So there we have it. The genie is out of the lamp and now the church will get its just desserts.
(From Kelowna BC Canada) A Westbank man has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for sexually assaulting six children over a 20 year period.
Murray Hill, 56, was originally charged with 14 offences, but pleaded guilty to six counts and was sentenced Friday.
All of Hill's victims are members of the Westbank First Nation -- males and females.
During Hill's sentencing hearing Friday, the court heard how the abuse began in the 1970's when some of Hill's victims were as young as three-years-old. Three of the victims are still juveniles while the remaining three have grown up to be adults -- some of whom were present in the courtroom.
Police began investigating Hill in 2002, when some of his victim's began complaining about inappropriate touching.
Hill denied the allegations. But more victims came forward with stories of Hill sexually assaulting them in his basement, in his truck, during hikes on Mount Boucherie and even in the Kettle Valley Railway tunnels.
Hill would tell his victims not to tell anyone about the sexual assaults by promising them trips to Dairy Queen. He would also tell them no one would believe them because their parents were alcoholics. Hill even threatened one boy with electric shock.
Hill, married for 32 years to a member of the Westbank First Nation, has two children. Both are adults and don't reside in BC. His lawyer pointed out Hill still has the support of his family.
Prior to being sentenced, Hill addressed the court by apologizing to his victims. "I'm sorry for the things I've done to the children -- I'm sorry."
The 3.5 year sentence was a joint submission by the Crown and Hill's lawyer. (Kind of a Light Sentence) I posted this news item from the homepage of my hometown that appeared today in regards to the sentencing of a pedophile for sexually assaulting minors. I did this to illustrate a point that BEING GAY DOES NOT MAKE ONE A PEDOPHILE. Pedophiles typically do not differentiate between a male or female victim. The catholic church may think they are addressing sexual assault of minors by purging gays only and not those who have previous histories or convictions, regardless of their sexual orientation. Sadly, they are missing the boat completely and the perpetrators continue or crimes of the past go unpunished. The bottom line is that the church wants their flock to believe that being gay makes one a pedophile because of being "intrinsically disordered". Both assertions are completely false and have been proven wrong many times. The above story is typical of many stories of pedophilia and molestation. I have read many stories of good "christians" committing heinous acts against children but does that mean all pedophiles are christians? Of course not. Pope Ratzinger is scapegoating gays on a problem that the church created and does not want to bear responsibility for.
posted by BC WaterBoy, at
9/23/2005 8:41 PM
you are an insecure fag. you have not hope. die in agony blah haha
posted by Anonymous, at
9/24/2005 2:36 AM
BC Waterboy, isn't amazing how these "anonymous" writers can't bear to hear the truth and isn't it odd that they come hear to vent their own insecurities? Maybe they're insecure about their own orientation?
Robert, I too find it odd that anonymous writers show up here on just about every post. Usually, it is to say something stupid such as "insecure fag" or to spout off about how critical we are of those who criticize us. I have always been curious as to what people are hoping to accomplish by posting comments like our friend a couple of posts back. Is it to intimidate, scare,mock? Not really sure, but he/she is not having much of an effect other than to make themselves look incredibly stupid.
posted by BC WaterBoy, at
9/24/2005 10:26 AM
BC, I guess its the only way they can get their jollies off. I suspect though that they are either socalled single ex-gays or have some prurient interest in homosexuality, probably closeted gay man hiding behind sham marriages. Come to think of it, if they're not in some way connected with us, how would they know where to come and vent. Just like you, it has no effect on me. If they were that secure in their own sexuality, they wouldn't be bothered about any of this.
As some of us are aware, a handful of states permit underage children to marry, usually young girls under 16. To me, that is nothing but state sanctioned pedophilia/ephebophilia. Why isn't the RC church not condemning that, or better yet, perform such marriages? The hypocrisy is unbelievable and so transparent.
I firmly believe that the Human Race will never advance until we denounce archaic "religious" mythology as just that -- mythology.
Century after Century human beings continue to be persecuted in the name of a "god". When will it end?
I find it incomprehensible that millions of people still believe in the infallibility of the papacy ... especially considering the enormity of its past blunders (i.e... earth revolving around the sun for one).
How can any self-respecting Homosexual continue to support Rome?
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posted by Anonymous, at
5/18/2008 9:40 PM
