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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyApril 12th, 2010
That’s how the AP is reporting it:
“Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true,” said (Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio) Bertone. “That is the problem.”
…At least one of the highest-profile pedophiles in the Chilean church victimized young girls, including a teenager who became pregnant. At the time, the archbishop of the capital, Santiago, received multiple complaints about Father Jose Andres Aguirre from families concerned for their daughters. But the priest — known to his parishioners as Father Tato — continued serving at a number of Catholic girls schools in the city. Later the church sent Aguirre out of Chile twice amid abuse allegations. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison for abusing 10 teenage girls.
The Cardinals assertion is a willful faith-based slander, similar to the kind of blame that has been levied against gays here in the U.S. against priests who are equal-opportunity abusers. It’s worth noting that the California priest who Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) in 1985 demurred from defrocking for tying up and raping boys in his parish, was finally convicted in 2004 of molesting a young girl at the home which that very same by-then ex-priest shared with his wife. His crimes also led to a lawsuit against the Oakland diocese by seven women who said he abused them in the 1970’s, apparently before he tied up those two boys.
Experts on child sexual abuse point out that for many perpetrators the gender of the victim is inconsequential. But who needs experts or common sense when gays makes such a convenient scapegoat?
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gar
April 12th, 2010
Hey, but that’s OK. The Church made up with the Beatles! My Sweet Lord. . .
DN
April 12th, 2010
These guys just keep *going!* I really have to wonder if their followers are actually buying this nonsense. If they are, then, well I guess congratulations for being able to manipulate gullible people. Just keep fillin the collection plates – I mean pews, right guys?
DN
April 12th, 2010
Another thought:
What’s the difference between Bertone and Nancy Elliot?(http://vimeo.com/9393552)
The first difference is rank. Elliot is just a New Hampshire state rep, while Bertone is the Secretary of State of a country recognized by 170+ other nations on Earth.
The other difference is that when Elliot was called on her BS, she eventually issued an apology. Bertone will do no such thing. I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but isn’t giving the Vatican the benefit of the doubt kind of part of how we got into this mess?
Mortanius
April 13th, 2010
Here’s an idea for the Catholic Church. If you want your priests to be celibate, how about you castrate anybody who wants to be a priest? If they’re not going to use it and they’re serious about the priest hood, loosing “the twins” will be nothing to their service to their god.
Richard Rush
April 13th, 2010
The Vatican is conducting a desperate obfuscation campaign to
mask the emerging evidence that Ratzinger has been the
Priest’s Official Pedophile Enabler (POPE).
Regan DuCasse
April 13th, 2010
Hello, DN..
Yes, a LOT of people buy it. Not just members of the church, but too many folks aren’t willing to go further in checking such information for it’s veracity.
One only has to look as far as mega churches like those of Joel Osteen or Ernie Long, and they harbor the same attitudes.
The LDS, and fundamentalist Islam believes it too. The only denominations with a little more interest in balance is the Episcopal and Reform Jews.
If you visit TownHall often enough, their contributors like Bishop Harry Jackson, Mike Adams, Chuck Norris and Star Parker do a fairly regular rotation of gay bashing, but in the case of Adams, emphasis on cases involving children who were molested by gay people.
If you look at the comment threads that follow, yes…the pedophile/homosexuality link is made constantly.
We know it’s dangerous. We know it keeps real examination and understanding of sexual assault and molestation from occurring.
I mentioned my law enforcement background and experience, and ONLY because of my support of gay equality, did a few people in there libel my reputation and turned it completely around until I was accused of aiding and abetting child abusers!
I. Kid. You. Not.
Folks WANT to believe it SO fervently to give them a reason to abuse gay people all over again. Reason, information and so on. They aren’t interested Common sense and ALLIANCE of gay and straight people towards protection of children isn’t even an option in their minds.
The mission of the Church, is to maintain hostility against gay people so that the closet is the only refuge.
If that.
So yeah…don’t hold your breath that these folks want to believe there is no link to sexual orientation and child abuse, even if it’s RIGHT IN FRONT of their faces.
Jason D
April 13th, 2010
I think the line of thinking goes like this:
Being gay is so weird, so absurd, so beyond strange and bizarre anyone interested in that must be really screwed up and capable of ANYTHING.
Ben in Oakland
April 13th, 2010
Yup. just as soon as I turned gay i suddenly wanted to start having sex with girls. especially, unwilling, underaged girls.
Makes perfect sense.
Paul in Canada
April 13th, 2010
They just keep loading that gun they have pointed at themselves with more and more bullets. Eventually, the trigger will get pulled!
Ben in Oakland
April 13th, 2010
Paul, we can only hope so. but y’kknow, she’s a wily old beast and she’s been around– and around the block– for a while.
If it was able to live down the Inquisition, the witch burnings, the crusades, and the cathars, a bit of child abuse should be a piece of cake.
The very fact that this has been going on for years, decades, even centuries, and so few people seem to care– where are the multiple arrests? prosecutions? news stories?– is a good indication that the church is going to be around for a long, long, time, and accorded a respect that it does not merit.
Meanwhile, they get a two-fer. they can continue to blame happy gay people for the inapproriate sex fantasies of their priesthood.
The last i looked, whatever the percentage of the molesting priests preferring post-pubescent boys (whatever that means), exactly 100% of the perpetrators were catholic priests.
Jason D
April 13th, 2010
Dan Savage had a quote recently, something to the effect of
You want your kids to be safe? Don’t take them to a catholic church, take ’em to a gay bar.
Paul in Canada
April 13th, 2010
You all MUST read this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/13/pope-prosecution-dawkins
Amii
April 13th, 2010
Pure deflection and bigotry. If everyone of those priests were gay it would still not change the fact that the pope protected them from prosecution and kept them in positions where they could continue their crimes unabated.
anteros
April 14th, 2010
there may or may not be any relation between celibacy and pedophilia.
there’s definately no relation between homosexuality and pedophilia.
there is an overwhelmingly indisputable strong relation between the catholic church and pedophilia.
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