The New Pope
Pope Benedict? It sounds funny to me.
Well, the Catholic Church has a new pope. This is going to sound a bit strange I suppose, but all of this reminds me of the scene in The Wizard of OZ right after Dorothy squashed the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wicked Witch of the West appears, asking, “Who killed my sister?” Dorothy asks Glenda, the Good Witch of the North, “I thought you said that I killed the witch?” Glenda replies, “That was the Wicked Witch of the East. This is the Wicked Witch of the West, and I’m afraid she’s even worse than the other one.”
From what I’ve heard about this new Pope, he’s going to be more conservative than John Paul II, if that’s possible. We can expect more of the same. If you are gay, you should brace yourself for some caring and love pretty harsh judgment with the words to match. Nothing really new there.
In fact, none of this really effects me, since I’m not Catholic. Well, except for the fact that there are a lot of Catholics who vote. I suppose they will vote the way their Pope tells them too. The thing that bothers me about the Catholic Church and many many Catholics (I’m going to get hate mail on this one), is that from what I can tell, most of them don’t practice church doctrine.
They are right there when the vote is cast to add an amendment to a state constitution outlawing marriage for gay couples, but are they abstaining from sex when the purpose of that sex is not to conceive children? Do they use contraceptives? They aren’t supposed to have sex for recreational purposes, but the majority of Catholics I know feel free to ignore that one. And what about divorce? They know what the church says about it, but I know many who are now divorced and on their third or forth spouse.
I guess most just pick and choose what fits their lifestyle - in any religion. I just wish that more of the religious folks thought that it should be encouraged that homosexuals should be nurturing stable long lasting relationships within marriage and given encouragement to do so, rather than judgement. Perhaps there would be less AIDS, depression, and suicide in our community.
One parting thought that I wasn’t surprised at, but found interesting. It seems that the new Pope was a Hitler Youth. Chew on that one for awhile.
Some Jews in Israel professed concern over the choice of Joseph Ratzinger as pope because of his German origins and links to the Nazis of World War II - especially by comparison to his predecessor - but others say the new pontiff’s record over the last six decades is more important than his youthful affiliations.
To some extent, the concerns arise from an automatic Jewish revulsion for anything linked to the Nazis, who killed 6 million Jews and tried to wipe out all European Jews before Germany was defeated in 1945.
In marking the naming of the new pope, Israel’s government wrapped a positive statement around a barb about Ratzinger’s membership in the “Hitler Youth.” He said he had no choice in the matter.
“Israel is hopeful that under this new papacy, we will continue to move forward in Vatican-Israel relations and we are sure that considering the background of this new pope, he, like his predecessor, will be a strong voice against anti-Semitism in all its forms,” said a statement by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. (source)
Keep thinking those positive thoughts.
04/20/2005 FOLLOW UP:
Many gay Catholics disappointed with cardinals' choice for pope, seeing Ratzinger as church's most outspoken foe of equal rights.
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was raised Catholic but left the church in 1986 after former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- the new Pope Benedict XVI -- issued a letter to the bishops on the "pastoral care of homosexual persons." The letter described gays as "intrinsically disordered" and homosexuality as a "tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil." (source)
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Thankyou for sharing Matthew's story with me, I have visited his site and printed off his story to show my family and friends, I do not remember this being given much if any coverage in the UK. It is awful to read of such things and it made me think of something that has happened in my own country just this past week. A young mum Abigail Witchall was out walking with her toddler son when she was attacked, stabbed in the neck and is now paralysed from the neck down and is fighting for her life. This happened in a quite english village in broad daylight. What is going on in the world when innocent people are attacked maimed and killed, where has the love for our fellow man gone. Can I ask people who visit this site to spare a thought or a prayer for Abigail, her family and friends at this awful time.
Fiona,
You learn so much from people in your care. I know exactly what you are talking about. I've been there. At the time, it was extremely painful to let go of my friends and say goodbye. I didn't understand why. I now understand that there is not why in life. And it was beyond me why society didn't care about us. That was an eye opener for me. It showed me what real evil was.
Look at what happened to Matthew Shepard. He was robbed and beaten by two people. One of them dealt Matthew blow after blow until he lapsed into unconsciousness. Matthew died five days later as a result of those blows. The other one tied Matthew's hands behind him and bound him to the fence. This individual stood by while Matthew was beaten by his friend, and did nothing to stop the beating.
Which one was more evil? My opinion is the one who could have stopped the beating, and did nothing.
Society could have done so much to stop the suffering of those with AIDS in the United States in the early 1980's, had Reagan been willing to get off his ass and do something about it. He CHOSE TO DO NOTHING.
I am so with you on the AIDS thing. I have spent the last 12 months working with gay men who are living with HIV. Some have AIDS, some have lost partners to AIDS all have lost at least ten friends to AIDS. Anyone who thinks any kind of god would inforce such a dreadful disease on anyone as punishment is mentally ill in my opinion. The guys I worked with have so much to cope with living with a life threatening illness, loss, stigma, discrimination from the medical profession. I could write a book and thats exactly what I intend to do. I never hide what I do I'm very proud of it but I have lost a few so called friends along the way who feel that gay men have are to blame for AIDS and why the hell are they complaning about it.If someone is religious even more reason to want to look after those who suffer and try and help them come to terms with what they are going through. I never ever ask anyone how they caught HIV its not important what is important is that they get the very best care available and that they are treated with love and respect reguardless of race, age, sexuality or status. That last 12 months have taught me so much about life more than reading the bible could ever do.
On a personal level, the new Pope gives me the creeps. I look at him and all I can think of is Dracula. Yeah, I know... my issues....
Fiona, you hit on one of the issues - probably the biggest issue for me against most of the organized religions. That is, we all "sin" according to these religions. That's a given I suppose. The purpose of religion is to control people in a way - that if you kill someone, there will be consequences to that action that extents beyond this world and you will pay for that action... "forever and ever".
Fine. I get that. What I don't get is how you can pick and choose what "sin" is it that you are going to condemn people with. The very same people who are all hot and bothered about "protecting marriage from the gays" are divorced, or are having relationships outside of their marriage on the side. Somehow, that conveniently is never talked about.
AIDS is another issue. I'm so sick of hearing religions talk about how we have to help the "innocent victims of AIDS" - read that as, "help everyone with AIDS except for the faggots, who deserve this".
Honestly, how can I take anything they do or say with a grain of salt. They have no credibility.
That is why I don't go to church any longer. I am deeply religious in my own view of life and spirituality and I will tell you this. My cat has more spirituality than most who go to church. He meditates, is at peace with himself and his creator, and he lives in each moment of life. That is spirituality in it's purest form - without condemnation.
I always read your site with interest. I am a catholic, straight british woman and I must say that i am very concerned about the new pope's views on homosexuality. Ok they say in the Bible that it is wrong but is that just down to the way its interpreded. For example there is something in there saying you can sell your daughter and what about thou shalt not kill and then an eye for an eye. Its all a bit confusing don't you think? I have lots of gay friends and have spent the last year working with gay men with HIV,none of these men are evil far from it they are the kindest nicest people I have ever met. When my beautiful cat was run over and killed a few weeks back i was given enough flowers to fill my lounge, all from my gay friends who tried to ease my pain and rang me, visited me and really understood how I felt. If god wants them to burn in hell he can take me with them! I and many other catholics including my 65 year old mother would be overjoyed to see gay people have the same rights as others. Why on earth is it wrong for you to marry. God wants us to be happy, wants us to love and support each other and be faithful to our chosen partner. There will come a day when all that will be possible. We need to break down barriers between the gay and straight communities so there is love and acceptance on all sides. Good luck for the future.
When the new pope was cardinal this is what he had to say on violence against gays" the church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions & practices gain ground and irrational and violent reactions increase" this is what the new pope thinks about us being beat and killed,its okay to beat or kill a fag.
I've been remarkably restrained in my writing on this. I think you all know what I WANT to say (in four letter words no less), but the truth of the matter is, I don't like to lash out at something that I don't fully understand.
I will be the first to admit that I just simply don't understand the Catholic Church. I think that started during all the molestation issues that surfaced. For years I've know that they were shipping the abusive priests around to hide their deeds.
When I moved to California with Kent, I was, for the first time in my life, without anyone but Kent. I had no job and was in a very strange place. After a series of terrible jobs (I should write a book on this), I got a job at a Catholic school. It was ok. I was highly closeted then and it was little effort to hide the fact that I'm gay. Looking back on it, I'm not sure I wasn't obviously gay. But, as far as the school was concerned, they were happy to ignore any obvious gayness I might have (although one nun did spit on me), if I were willing to keep my mouth shut about such things. At the time, I was all too willing to do just that.
But during my time there, I met many gay Catholics who made it well known what the Catholic Church thinks of them. I've always been puzzled by the reason they stay with the church when it is so obviously repulsed by what they are, and, at the same time, say that they "love" them.
I suppose it all comes down to faith - something that died in me a long time ago.
... and Cardinal Law got to vote in this Mafia-style election process (!!), he also got to say a Mass for the last Pope (!!) - truly amazing double-standards.
Coming from a traditionally Catholic family, I can state from experience that Catholics don't vote the way the Pope tells them. My family is pretty typical. A couple of my aunts are still pretty devout. But, my dad, his brother, and one of his sisters have moved on to other religions. Virtually none of my cousins are practicing Catholics. I gave up on the Catholic church in 2000 when they brought in a former member of the Nixon administration to tell the congregation how to vote on California's defense of marriage (anti-gay marriage) law. I stormed out of church and have never returned.
The Catholic church has pretty much given up on the United States -- they view us in the same way the Muslim fundamentalists do (in the grips of Satan and all). Over the next couple of decades, they'll turn the bulk of their efforts to Africa and Latin America. The populations there are less likely to be educated and free-thinking. Just like a true con artist, they go for the easy mark.
There is one good thing about the new pontiff...he's 78.