Report: Gay Priests Not to Blame For Rampant Church Pedophilia

Throughout the history of the church, priests who got caught raping kids have just been moved around to different parishes with no punishment whatsoever. When the shit hit the fan during the 90's and adult survivors of pedophile priests came forward from everywhere on Earth, the Vatican pinned the blame on Gay men in the priesthood and later said it would implement some sort of screening process to keep out the gays.

Pope Rat-shit-burger even made the ridiculous claim that the sexual permissiveness of the 60's and 70's was to blame for the prevalence of child sex abuse by priests.

A new study conducted by The John Jay College of Justice shows that contrary to Papa Ratzi's claims, gay priests are no more likely to molest kids than hetero priests. The Washington Post reports:

The 300-page report, formally called “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010,” upends a number of popular misconceptions. While some will challenge the report’s methodology — and note that U.S. bishops paid for half the estimated $1.8 million price tag — the “Causes and Context” study is clearly a landmark in the research of child sexual abuse.

The first myth challenged by the study is that priests tend to be pedophiles. Of nearly 6,000 priests accused of abuse over the past half century (about 5 percent of the total number of priests serving during that period), less than 4 percent could be considered pedophiles, the report notes — that is, men who prey on children.

“Priest-abusers were not ‘pedophile priests’,” the researchers state flatly.

Second, the researchers found no statistical evidence that gay priests were more likely than straight priests to abuse minors — a finding that undermines a favorite talking point of many conservative Catholics. The disproportionate number of adolescent male victims was about opportunity, not preference or pathology, the report states.

What’s more, researchers note that the rise in the number of gay priests from the late 1970s onward actually corresponded with “a decreased incidence of abuse — not an increased incidence of abuse.”

The Catholic Church's pedophilia problem has been around since ancient Roman times. In fact, I maintain that the Roman Empire never fell, it just changed it's name to The Catholic Church. (More on that at another time.)

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Catholic Professor: "Gays caused the fall of the Roman Empire."

Holy Duchebags, Batman!

History professor, Roberto De Mattei, a devout Italian Catholic, is making news and ruffling feathers for his outrageous claim that the Roman Empire fell due to divine retribution for its rampant homosexuality.

The Daily Mail reports:


In a radio interview, the vicepresident of Italy’s prestigious Centre for National Research said: ‘The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to the spread of homosexuality.

‘The Roman colony of Carthage was a paradise for homosexuals and they infected many others.’

The 63-year-old added: ‘The invasion of the Barbarians was seen as punishment for this moral transgression.

‘It is well known effeminate men and homosexuals have no place in the kingdom of God.

‘Homosexuality was not rife among the Barbarians and this shows God’s justice comes throughout history.’

I guess I missed that one on The History Channel. From everything I've heard and read (admittedly, I'm no expert) the decline of Rome had more to do with internal political strife and corruption, the fact that the Empire had become virtually too big to properly manage and that Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity had made him weak and ineffective.

It's been my contention for a long time that the Roman Empire never actually fell, it just became the Catholic Church. Many Roman traditions survive to this day, including wearing dresses, the destruction and assimilation of indigenous cultures, a thirst for world domination and let's not forget their favorite pass time, pedophilia. 

Home

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• Gay's To Blame For The Fall Of The Roman Empire (therainbowpost.com)
• Italian academic suggests Fall of the Roman Empire 'caused by gays (politics.ie)
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Pope says Church Considered F#!%ing Kids "Normal" in the 70's

Would you leave your kids alone with this guy?

When my brother and his wife got married in a big-ass Catholic ceremony back in the early 80's, they found a young priest that they thought was hip and cool and had him do the deed. As this cool priest spoke of the level of commitment it takes to get married during the cynical 80's, he told a joke that was popular at the time to help illustrate the point:

"What's the difference between love and herpes? Herpes lasts forever."

You could have heard a pin drop, as every jaw in the church dropped. My beautiful sister-in-law, in her perfect gown, who had spent months planning the perfect wedding, stared in stunned silence as tears welled up in her eyes. The church was flooded with complaints and the offending priest was reassigned to another parish.

I bring this up for a reason. When  it comes to matters of human sexuality, the Catholic Church is still living in the 70's. Not the 1970's, the actual First Century 70's.

The Belfast Telegraph reported on the 21st of December that in his annual Christmas address to cardinals last week, Papa Ratzi tried to excuse the church's ~ and his own ~ lack of action in response to rampant child sex abuse, saying that it was seen as "normal".

“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.

“It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than' and a ‘worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”

The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church.

Back in ancient Rome and Greece, there was a socially accepted practice called pederasty, where an older married man would take on a teen-aged boy as an apprentice to teach him a trade. The was also a sexual relationship within this context. The practice was viewed with varying degrees of acceptance and disapproval at the time, but was tolerated by those cultures.

The ancient Romans, for all their accomplishments, were a lot like the Borg in the Star Trek universe. They had no cultural creativity of their own and assimilated the cultural practices of the civilizations they conquered. Pederasty was one of the practices they inherited from the Greeks. When Rome became Catholic, the Church continued its assimilationist global expansion.

So when the Pope says that pedophilia and child pornography were becoming more "accepted" by society, he probably believes it. He has spent his entire adult life isolated within a global organization with its own bizarre social mores and customs, that go back for centuries. Having had very little involvement with life in the modern outside world, it may seem to him that fucking a kid was normal, because everybody he knew was doing it.

Adult survivors of sex abuse within the church are furious at the pontiff.

"...Outraged Dublin victim Andrew Madden last night insisted that child abuse was not considered normal in the company he kept.

Mr Madden accused the Pope of not knowing that child pornography was the viewing of images of children being sexually abused, and should be named as such.

He said: “That is not normal. I don't know what company the Pope has been keeping for the past 50 years.”

 There is a special place in Hell for pedophiles and Papa Ratzi has a front row center reservation.

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• Pope's Christmas address to cardinals: child porn and child rape was 'normal' in 1970s (americablog.com)

File this under D for "DUH!": German Expert Says Many Catholc Priests are Gay

The Irish Times reported over the weekend that widespread homophobia in the Catholic Church is due to the large number of self-loathing gays in the clergy. This striking revelation comes from German theologian and ex-priest David Berger, who was once a publisher for for a Catholic magazine.

The article says:

David Berger, an expert on St Thomas Aquinas and former publisher of a Catholic magazine, has called for Rome to own up to the gay priests in its midst and alter its attitudes and teaching on homosexuality.

“It must be acknowledged that a large number of Catholic clerics and trainee priests in Europe and the United States are homosexually-inclined,” Mr Berger told Der Spiegel magazine.

“The worst homophobia in the Catholic Church comes from homophile priests, who are desperately fighting their own sexuality,” he said. “Obviously, those who follow their urges are repudiated more fiercely when one is so painfully repressing that disposition oneself.”

For those of you born after the Great Depression, "homophile" is an old-timey word for "homosexual", which is an old-timey word for "out and proud gay or lesbian person". Berger says that as a teen he was drawn to conservative Catholic orthodoxy in an attempt to hide his own same-sex attraction. He is writing a book about his experiences as a closeted priest in hopes that the church will take a closer look at itself and change its position on the gays.  

Here's the part where I go on a rant.

As a recovering Catholic, I can tell you what every little gay Catholic boy knows: every devout Catholic mother wants her son to be a priest. Those moms put an incredible amount of pressure on their gay sons to join the priesthood. They view their boys' lack of interest in girls as a sign from God that Junior is a perfect fit for the whole celibacy thing.

My Irish-Catholic grandmother hit the jackpot twice by having a son who became a pedophile priest and a daughter who became a nun. Her other kids referred to them as "Pride" and "Joy".  She had a chapel in her home where her F'ed-up gay son the priest said mass every morning before breakfast when he was home on vacation. She knew she had a front row seat reserved in heaven and never missed an opportunity to rub it in her friends' faces.

When the Catholic church ~ or any church ~ pushes an anti-gay agenda and brainwashes gay kids to believe horrible lies about themselves because of something they have no control over, and that their only salvation is to become part of that despicable institution, church leaders shouldn't be surprised to find out that they have a lot of psychologically damaged gays and lesbians in their midst!

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• Vatican readies guidelines against sex abuse (alternet.org)
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Cardinals Relieved as Pope Okays Condoms for Gay Hustlers

News broke Saturday that Papa Ratzi said in an interview for an upcoming book, that condom use could be justified as a means of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STD's. Excerpts from the book, "Light of the World: the Pope, the Church and Signs of the Times", were published in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

The former Hitler Youth, who covered up hundreds of cases of priestly pedophilia when he was a cardinal, gave extensive interviews for the book to a German journalist in July. The book is intended to address some of the more controversial issues facing the Catholic Church.

Papa Ratshit says that the church hasn't changed its position banning the use of birth control, but says he is addressing concerns of Catholic aide workers in Africa, where HIV has spread like wildfire due to the church's medieval teachings about human sexuality.

He says, “there may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.”

As you may recall, word broke in March of this year of a Vatican sex scandal involving a male prostitution ring. It's different when it hits you at home, isn't it?

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Hundreds Greet Pope in Spain with Queer Kiss-In Flash Mob (video)

This one comes to us via the UK's Pink News:

Gays and lesbians staged a kiss-in protest during the Pope’s visit to Spain as the Pontiff defended “traditional” relationships.

The protest, said by reports to include 100-200 people, took place as he was driven through Barcelona yesterday.

Jordi Petit, who helped organise the kiss-in, said: “This is a peaceful act of protest to demonstrate that love is the same in the hearts of everyone.”

In the last seven years, Spain has legalised gay marriage, abortion on demand in the first trimester and has made divorce easier.

On Saturday, the Pope told followers that the country was at the “epicentre” of a battle between “faith and modernity” in Europe.

He also criticised “non-traditional” relationships, saying: “Generous love between a man and a woman is the efficient framework and basis of human life.”

Reuters posted the following video on YouTube.

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Gay Priest Ice Cream Ad Might Offend the Catholics, Whaaa!

This one comes to us from across the pond via my favorite source of queer news in the UK, Pink News. The image here was part of an ad for Antonio Federici Ice Cream in Great Britain showing two priests about to engage in a round of tonsil hockey with a tag line that reads, "We Believe in Salivation".

Unfortunately, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) doesn't see the humor and ordered the ad pulled. According to the story, a previous ad depicting pregnant nuns was also pulled from circulation. Pink News reports:

According to the ASA, six people complained at the gay priests ad, which had the tagline “We believe in salivation”.

The ASA said that it “considered the portrayal of the two priests in a sexualised manner was likely to be interpreted as mocking the beliefs of Roman Catholics and was therefore likely to cause serious offence to some readers”.

Antonio Federici, which is a Catholic company, argued that the ad did not mock Catholicism but reflected “grave troubles” in the church such as the issue of gay priests.

The company said it believed many people found these issues more offensive than an ad which “celebrated” homosexuality and added that it would continue to challenge the “troubled” Catholic Church.

Personally, as a recovering ex-Catholic, I love it any time the Catholic Church is the target of some much-deserved satire, especially when it hits so close to home. Besides, the two guys in the ad are obviously too old for each other. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

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• Ice cream 'seductive' priests ad banned (independent.co.uk)

Brilliant Career Choice! Married Lesbian Teacher Fired from Catholic High School

This is one of those stories that the LGBT blogosphere loves to jump all over and cry discrimination and get all whiny about how the Catholic Church is hating on the gays again. Again?

Where have you been for the last 2,010 years?

The folks at Change.Org are all worked up in a dither of mock outrage because the Catholic Church discriminates against the gays in it's hiring practices. They picked up the story from MassLive.com about a Massachusetts woman who is admired by faculty, staff and students alike, has tons of accolades and does a wonderful job, who was terminated from her job at Springfield Cathedral High School because she married her long-time partner in August.

Christine Judd, served as Athletic Director and Dean of Students at Cathedral and worked for the Catholic school for twelve years. When word got out that she had legally married her partner last month, the Catholics did what Catholics always do in situations like this. They called a meeting on Wednesday and gave Todd the option of resigning or being terminated.

Yes, it's wrong. Yes the Church is despicable for the way it treats its LGBT members. But this is not news. It's not even new. And it certainly isn't reason to stop the presses.

Change.org's Mike Jones writes: "What a tragedy. Yes, church policy gives them the right to do this. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. A valued teacher, prized on the staff and commended for her outstanding leadership, told that she can no longer teach because she's a lesbian."

Judd told MassLive, “I married my partner this summer. I was hoping that my loyalty, my professionalism the last 12 years would supersede the current hypocrisy that has already been shown with the Diocese of Springfield.”

Hello, I don't think you two have met. LGBT Community, this is the Catholic Church. Although they don't really know you, they don't like you. They don't want you in their church and they certainly don't want you around their children. They don't want you being all happy and stuff, because Catholics are all about the guilt and want everybody to feel bad about themselves, all the time. It's nothing personal, but you're an abomination before God and because they are a church, the Catholics can do whatever the hell they want. This is who the Catholic Church is. This is what they do.

Now that we've got the introductions out of the way, let's stop getting our panties in a knot every time the Catholic Church does or says something that is totally in character. Enough with the Mock Outrage, already!

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Another Sex Scandal Rocks the Vatican, No Minors Involved This Time

London's Daily Mail reported on Saturday about an undercover investigative report on the sexual activities of Catholic priests in Rome. A reporter for the Italian news magazine Panorama, which is owned by Prime Minister Berlusconi, enlisted the help of a "gay accomplice" to hook up with down-low gay priests and have sex with them on hidden camera.

I'm not sure which part of this story I'm most disturbed by: the hypocrisy of gay priests, the reporter's pimping to get the story, the hidden camera or the offensive magazine cover (see accompanying image).

The Daily Mail reports:
Panorama described its investigation as 'deeply disturbing' as it detailed how three priests - two Italians and a Frenchman - happily took part in gay events and had casual sex.

The Catholic Church forbids priests to have sex and homosexuality is also seen as a 'sin'. In 2008 the Vatican issued guidelines which said that any would be trainees should not join if they had 'deep-seated homosexual tendencies'.

In one part of the investigation Panorama said that one priest, named as Carlo, willingly put on his cassock to have sex with the reporter's gay accomplice, adding 'all of which was filmed by the hidden camera'.

The magazine also described how they had attended a Mass which was celebrated by Carlo.

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Argentine Senate: "Gay marriage is law in Argentina."

While most of us in the western hemisphere were sleeping, the Senate of Argentina passed a law making same-sex marriage legal for the first time in a Latin American country. 

Despite a fierce anti-gay campaign waged by both the Mormon and Catholic churches (big surprise!) in the mostly Catholic nation, the senate voted 33-27 to pass the bill that had the backing of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who through her actions, defines the words "fierce advocate". The vote came just after 4:00 a.m. Thursday morning.

Evan Wolfson, Executive Director of Freedom to Marry released this statement:

"Today's historic vote shows how far Catholic Argentina has come, from dictatorship to true democratic values, and how far the freedom to marry movement has come as twelve countries on four continents now embrace marriage equality. Argentina's vote for the freedom to marry marks an important advance for fairness and family values as more couples around the world will now share in marriage, with families helped and no one hurt. Today's vote adds momentum to the international movement to secure the freedom to marry for all loving and committed couples."

"Key to Argentina's human rights achievement was strong leadership from legislators and the president. It is time we see more of our own elected officials standing up for the Constitution and all families here in the United States. America should lead, not lag, when it comes to treating everyone equally under the law."

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Pedophile-Enabling Pope calls Gay Marriage "Insideous and Dangerous"

Pope Benedict XVI, or "Papa Rat-Shit" to you and me, declared his opposition to Portugal's recent passing of legislation recognizing same-sex marriage on Thursday, calling the committed, loving relationship between two people of the same sex "insidious and dangerous".

What an interesting choice of words from a guy with a history of blocking the investigation of child molestation charges against pedophile Catholic priests.

The Advocate reports:

It was no secret that Pope Benedict XVI is no fan of gays or same-sex marriage, but he launched an extreme salvo against gay nuptials while in Portugal on Thursday.

Speaking to Catholic service groups, Benedict called for quashing Portugal's same-sex marriage bill — which is expected to be signed into law soon — saying protections should be made for "the family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, help to respond to some of today’s most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good."

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My Take on the Catholic Church's Pedophile Priest Scandal

The Catholic church once again finds itself embroiled in a major international scandal involving allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. After the wave of accusations and multimillion dollar lawsuits against the church that happened in the 90's nobody is surprised by this latest wave of allegations that have swept across Europe and have once again surfaced here in the US.

What is surprising this time is that the allegations include accusations of a cover up within the church that go all the way to the top. The Pope himself is being accused of failing to take action over a decade ago in several cases involving priests from Arizona to Germany when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, known as "The Enforcer" was tasked with handling such cases.

As the pontiff prepares to celebrate Easter mass tomorrow at St. Peter's Square, his popularity among Catholics has reached an all-time low, with a favorable rating of just 27%, down from 40% in 2006, according to a CBS News poll.

The pope's personal pastor recently made a statement during a sermon comparing the latest allegations to the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust. Having been raised Catholic, I can tell you that this is a classic Catholic response. Any time you get called to account for your misdeeds, turn the tables and play the martyr. It's a routine my mother perfected very early in life. Jewish mothers have nothing on Catholic mothers when it comes to that sort of thing.

Although this story has been unfolding over the last couple of weeks, I haven't written about it before for a couple of reasons. First of all, there are stories to be told that have a more direct impact on the LGBT community and due to the limited amount of time I have during the day to update the blog, I've chosen to focus on those.

Second, but perhaps most importantly, this story hits a little close to home for me. Finding the right words to tell the story of my encounter with my now-deceased pedophile priest uncle when I was 13, has been difficult and has caused some confusion and hard feelings within my own family. What makes this story especially difficult to tell is not because of what happened, but because of what didn't, but could have happened, during the summer of 1973 when I spent two weeks at my grandmother's house in rural Sudbury Massachusetts.

That was the year that my parents had finally decided to file for divorce after 3 or 4 years of half-hearted attempts to work things out. Dad had moved out, tensions were very high at home. I was the fourth of six kids, just starting puberty and was having a really hard time dealing with it all. In other words, I was a perfect target for a pedophile priest.

My parents decided that putting me on a bus by myself to make the six-hour trip from Maryland to Massachusetts to spend some time at my grandmother's house with my uncle, Father Jim, was just the solution to my problem child status. Father Jim told me when I arrived that my parents had asked him explain the birds and the bees to me, despite the fact that I had taken a sex education class at school the year before. (I later confirmed with both my parents that this was true.) Father Jim must have felt like a kid in a candy store. Not only did he have a 13-year old kid to share his bedroom with, he had the blessing of the parents. When he started talking about things like nocturnal emissions, erections, the evils of masturbation and when he would undress in front of me, he could say it was for educational purposes.

My grandmother lived in a old farmhouse that had a tub with no shower, so every morning, I had to take a full bath. The first day, Father Jim came in to "wash my back". That first time, that was all he did or attempted to do. Having been totally creeped out by the experience, the next day I locked the bathroom door. Father Jim informed me that the house rule was that the bathroom door would never be locked, because if my frail grandmother fell in the tub, someone wouldn't be able to get to her. Never mind that my grandmother and I never bathed together, it was a house rule and I was expected to follow it.

After that, I took the quickest bath I could possibly take, so that by the time Father Jim came in to "wash my back", I'd be finished. It was then that things got even creepier. He came in as I was toweling off, so I wrapped the towel around myself. He told me that I shouldn't feel ashamed of my body and to open the towel. He took a good hard look before I covered up and left the room to quickly get dressed.

There's something that non-Catholics don't understand about the relationship that Catholics have with their priests. These guys are in a position of ultimate authority. They have a direct line to the man upstairs, they are entrusted with your deepest, darkest secrets in the confessional and they can grant absolution for any sin you might commit. They are invited into the homes of parishioners for Sunday dinner. They baptize children, and throughout their lives grant them the sacraments of communion, confession, confirmation, marriage and last rites. From cradle to grave, the parish priest is there as a trusted member of the family.

In a traditional Catholic family, the sensitive son who doesn't like girls or sports feels a great deal of pressure to become a priest. Is it any wonder there are so many gays in the priesthood? I felt it that pressure. But the time I spent with my uncle put an end to any thoughts of a career in the church. In fact, that was the year I started pulling away from the church altogether.

There were other instances of Father Jim taking liberties, but I won't go into them. Suffice it to say that the time I spent with him became a game of cat and mouse. While technically, "nothing happened", it wasn't for a lack of trying on his part. Back then there was no conversation about the threat of child sexual abuse. In the decades since, parents and counselors tell kids to pay attention to that inner feeling that tells them something is wrong with the situation they're in, to get away from it and tell an adult. As a 13-year-old, I did just that, except that I didn't tell anyone, I just tried to put it behind me.

It was about ten years before I finally told my mother about what I went through that summer. Her response was one of discomfort and anger at discussing the subject. As a devout Catholic, she had always idolized my uncle. She had stayed in close contact with him even after the divorce. She told me that if I really was so upset about it, I should confront him myself. She showed no sense of outrage toward him or any sense of guilt for having put me in that situation in the first place. It's not that I blame her, but any parent would feel a sense of guilt over their role in handing their kid over to a pedophile. There should have been some sense of a betrayal of trust, but there wasn't. There was only her anger at me for wanting to discuss such a distasteful subject.

As for confronting my uncle, how do you accuse somebody of something that didn't happen? He didn't actually molest me. He wanted to. He tried to, but he didn't, because I didn't let it happen. This is the crux of the matter.

When I told my father several years later about what his brother had tried to do, he was appropriately outraged. The next time he saw Father Jim, he confronted him about it and became violent. My uncle, naturally, denied  everything. When my father told me about the incident, I felt both proud and awful at the same time. My father had not been a part of my life since my parents' divorce, but his reaction was what I had wanted from my mother years before, but had been denied.

On the other hand, there was the fact that no actual sexual contact had taken place. Father Jim could truthfully deny that anything had taken place. I tried to set the record straight with my father a few times over the years, but I found that the more I tried, the more confusing it became. The bottom line for me is that I love my father for standing up for me.

Father Jim died several years ago. I don't know what he may of may not have done to other kids over the years. I only know that he was never publicly accused or prosecuted. And I know that if the god he devoted his life in service to does exist, there is a special place in hell for people like him, where he is suffering eternal torment as we speak.

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Gay Prostitution Scandal Rocks the Vatican

When it comes to religious hypocrisy, nobody does it better than the Catholic church. At a time when the pope and his minions are ramping up their anti-gay rhetoric and complaining that anti-discrimination laws restrict their God-given right to discriminate, the Vatican finds itself at the center of one of the biggest gay sex scandals ever, involving a married-with-children servant of his holiness, Papa Ratsi.

The Guardian reports:
Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood.

The explosive claims about Balducci's private life have caused grave embarrassment to the Vatican, which has yet to publicly comment on the affair. While Catholicism does not condemn homosexuality outright, its teaching is that homosexual acts "are intrinsically disordered". The Catechism of the Catholic church states unequivocally: "Under no circumstances can they be approved."

Balducci serves as a member of the Papal Gentlemen an elite group of ceremonial ushers in the papal household. According to a 1968 ordinance, their charge is to "distinguish themselves for the good of souls and the glory of the name of the Lord". These are the guys who served as pall bearers at the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

The Guardian says that the tapes were recorded as part of an investigation into "charges of involvement in widespread corruption. A senior Italian government official, he is alleged to have to steered public works contracts towards favoured bidders."

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No Spousal Benefits for Catholic Charities Employees in DC

In its ongoing effort to spread Christianist love, the Archdiocese of Washington has decided that since it can't coerce the District of Columbia into backing away from marriage equality -- and to maintain its right to discriminate in the name of Jeebus -- it will no longer offer spousal benefits to any new employees.

Current employees will continue to receive any benefits they currently receive, but in a move reminiscent of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, employees hired after March 2, 2010 will not be able to add their spouses to their employee health insurance coverage. Same-sex marriage will become legal in DC on Wednesday, March 3rd.

The Washington City Paper reported Monday:

The Archdiocese of Washington has been battling the D.C. government for the right to discriminate against gays and lesbians since D.C.’s same-sex marriage legislation got rolling last year.

One major point of contention: Once gays and lesbians are allowed to marry, the Archdiocese—which employs plenty of locals through Catholic Charities—will be required to provide health benefits to same-sex spouses, an act which it says would fly in the face of the Catholic church’s teachings on homosexuality.

The solution? No spousal benefits for anybody.

Today, Catholic Charities President and CEO Edward Orzechowski sent out a memo to staffers informing them of the change to the health care coverage, which will go into effect tomorrow.

In short: If you and your spouse are already enrolled in Catholic Charities health coverage, your spouse will be grandfathered in. Starting tomorrow, however, new employees (or newly married employees, hint hint) will not be allowed to add spouses to the plan. So: Longtime employees will receive the spousal benefits they’ve always had; Catholic Charities will get to keep its pool of covered spouses gay-free; only fresh employees and gays will feel the sting on this one.

 

 

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Pope Ratshit Needs an Etiquette Lesson

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting the UK in September was annoying enough to the Brits, who are being asked to shell out £20 million for the honor of playing host to the former Nazi. But the holy asshole has issued a statement saying that he applauds Britain's pending equality legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation, just as long as the church doesn't have to abide by it.

The British government, unlike ours, has the balls to stand up to bigotry and naturally the bigots don't like it. One notable exception is the DC city council. The church objected when DC approved same-sex marriage and wanted to be exempted from the city's non-discrimination policies. Catholic Charities threatened to pull out of the District and end it's services to homeless women and children, to which DC said, "see ya!"

The man in the funny dress says that the UK's pending Equality Law is unfair and discriminatory because it interferes with the Catholic Church's right to be unfair and discriminatory.

I received a press release from Peter Tatchell of the British LGBT rights group Outrage! this morning. Tatchell says, "Pope Benedict is unhappy with the new rights and protections afforded to women and LGBT people. He objects to the fact that religious institutions can no longer lawfully discriminate at will on the grounds of gender and sexual orientation."

Tatchell continued, "The Pope's criticism that British equality legislation 'violates the natural law' is a coded attack on the legal rights granted to women and gay people. It is a de facto defence of faith-based discrimination. "His ill-informed claim that our equality laws undermine religious freedom suggests that he supports the right of faith organisations to discriminate in accordance with their religious ethos. He seems to be defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law."

I'm not sure what Papa Nazi hopes to accomplish by his remarks. The Brits divorced the Catholic Church about five centuries ago and aren't interested in a reconciliation. But just like a meddlesome ex-mother-in-law, he feels he has the right to insert himself into domestic affairs that he is no longer part of. What the church hasn't learned in the 500 years since Henry VIII is that it does no good to dangle your approval like a prize in front of people who don't value it.

Pope Benny can learn a valuable lesson in etiquette from the gays he despises so much: you don't insult your hostess until after you arrive at the party.

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DC City Council Set to Vote on Same Sex Marriage Tuesday

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The DC City Counsel is set to vote on the District's proposed same-sex marriage legislation tomorrow. Despite heavy opposition from city church leaders, particularly the Catholic church, which has threatened to end its Catholic Charities services over the issue, the council will move forward with the vote. The 10-2 pro-equality majority is expected to approve the legislation which will recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and allow gay and lesbian couples to marry on DC, without a residency requirement.

Congress does have the power to intervene and overturn DC laws, however there has been no interest in doing so on Capital Hill.

Read more at OnTop.

Church Nazi to Rep. Patrick Kennedy: "No cookie for you!"

In its latest effort to achieve global domination, the Catholic Church is no longer content to threaten homeless and abused women and children and is resorting to spiritual extortion of Catholic politicians to manipulate the political process. Happy Sunday, everyone!

From Yahoo News: PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.

The decision by the outspoken prelate, reported on The Providence Journal's Web site, significantly escalates a bitter dispute between Tobin, an ultra orthodox bishop, and Kennedy, a son of the nation's most famous Roman Catholic family.

"The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion," Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

Cool Site of the Week: ChurchOuting.org

I grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family. As any gay kid in that situation will tell you, when you're the senative type with no apparent interest in girls, there's a lot of pressure -- sometimes overt, sometimes subtle -- to persue a life in the church.

When I was a kid, every Catholic mother dreamed of having a priest in the family. Some still do. My own grandmother could claim a son who was a priest and a daughter who was a nun and because of that, she knew she had a front row seat reserved in Heaven. My grandmother's sitting room had three portraits on the wall, hung vertically. From top to bottom they were, Jesus, John F. Kennedy and the Pope. (Popes come and go, but you only get the first Catholic president once.)

My grandmother even had a spare bedroom converted into a chapel, where I had to sit through mass, performed by my uncle, every morning before breakfast when I spent two weeks there as a kid. My uncle's ability to rattle off a full mass (which usually takes about 45 minutes on a good day) in just 15 minutes (motivated by his grumbling belly) was, in part, what motivated me to start questioning everything I'd been taught about being a "good Catholic". His express lane to salvation sounded to me like a used car salesman trying to close the deal before you had time to think too much about the details.

For these reasons, my choice for Cool Site this week has a particular significance. It's not the latest site featuring funny videos or political satire that everyone is talking about around the water cooler.

ChurchOuting.org is a site with a purpose. Political Activist/Blogger Phil Attey has taken on the Catholic Church's rabidly anti-gay views and political interference with the purpose of exposing its hypocrisy.

On his new site, Attey, who in his younger days considered a life in the priesthood, answers the question, Why Church Outing?":

"It is shameful that in many Catholic churches, this abuse is being supported by men,  who are gay themselves, leading  closeted lives of self-persecution and quiet desperation.

Even more shameful, is that many of these priests, while remaining silent, actually lead duplicitous lives rich with romantic and sexual relationships -- both homosexual and heterosexual.

This hypocrisy must end."

ChurchOuting.org is not just a blog that uses outing for shock value and ruining political careers. Attey launched the site in response to the Pope's recent pastoral letter directing every parish priest to over-step our constitutional separation of church and state by working aggressively to oppose same-sex marriage and to over-turn it where it has been approved. The Catholic church was a major financial contributor in anti-gay  marriage vote in Maine.

Catholic Church Threatening Women and Children Over Gay Marriage

On Wednesday, the Catholic Church threatened to end its charity work in the District of Columbia unless the city drops its plans to allow same-sex marriage. With the DC city counsel set to address the issue next week, the pope's posse issued a statement saying it will stop providing services for the homeless, battered women and adoption agencies. 

This one makes my blood boil. The folks that brought you the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades and the Flat Earth have decided that bullying and extortion is the best way to spread Jesus' love.

The Washington Post reports:

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

"If the city requires this, we can't do it," Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. "The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."

Kate Clinton's Vlog: The Pope invites Anglicans to come home

Comedian/activist Kate Clinton talks about this week's Vatican message to the Anglican Communion inviting pissed-off Episcopalians to come back into the fold. Let's see, trade equal status for women and gays in the clergy for a life of faux celibacy and misogyny and a culture that ignores rampant pedophilia. Hmm. Tough choice.