For someone who ought to be preaching the Gospel message of love of neighbor, Benedict XVI, a/k/a Pope Palpatine, seems to surely have the message backwards. His message is consistently one of intolerance and a refusal to see the equal human dignity in all, gays on particular, but with women only a short distance behind. Palpatine is schedule to visit the UK this coming fall, but is already sending out coded anti-equality messages indicating that gays and women need to be told their place in the "natural law" scheme of things, and full equality with men - particularly the self-imposed "eunuch for the Kingdom" of the Catholic priesthood. Benedict seems unable to grasp that we are no longer living in the 13th century with its unenlightened view of women and created by God to have a different sexual orientation. Like so many self-righteous "Christians" Benedict presumes to tell God how people should be created. To me, it's hubris and blasphemy of the highest order. Here are some highlights from Peter Tachel's post on this issue:*
The Pope has criticised UK equality laws, including the Equality Bill that is currently before parliament. This attack comes ahead of the pontiff’s State Visit to Britain, scheduled for September this year.
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“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,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage!
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"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.
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“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.
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“This outburst signals that Benedict is likely to make highly partisan political criticisms during his visit to the UK in September. Most British people will not welcome a meddlesome pontiff who opposes our equality laws. “They will especially resent the fact that the UK government is asking taxpayers to cough up around £20 million to finance his visit. This money would be far better spent on schools and hospitals," said Mr Tatchell.
The Pope has criticised UK equality laws, including the Equality Bill that is currently before parliament. This attack comes ahead of the pontiff’s State Visit to Britain, scheduled for September this year.
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“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,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage!
*
"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.
*
“This outburst signals that Benedict is likely to make highly partisan political criticisms during his visit to the UK in September. Most British people will not welcome a meddlesome pontiff who opposes our equality laws. “They will especially resent the fact that the UK government is asking taxpayers to cough up around £20 million to finance his visit. This money would be far better spent on schools and hospitals," said Mr Tatchell.
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Meanwhile as Benedict takes shots at British laws, a new sex abuse scandal is coming to light, this time at an elite Jesuit school in Berlin, Germany. Not surprisingly, government authorities are finding that the Order's leadership did little or nothing to stop the serial abuse. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:
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BERLIN -- Germany's top Jesuit apologized Monday for serial sexual abuse apparently committed by two priests at one of the country's most prestigious high schools, saying there was evidence of it for years but Jesuit officials did not "react the way it would have been necessary." At least 20 students were sexually abused by the two priests at Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg in the 1970s and 1980s,
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Dartmann conceded that the Jesuit order of Germany had had evidence of the sexual abuse cases since 1981, but had never informed parents, students or authorities. Such cases can no longer be prosecuted in Germany because of its statute of limitations, he said.
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Dartmann also said the two priests continued to sexually abuse boys and girls after being transferred from Canisius Kolleg to other Catholic schools and youth institutions in Germany, Mexico, Chile and Spain.
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It seems that once again, Pope Palpatine is in no position to be lecturing anyone on morality given his own moral bankruptcy and that of so many in the Church hierarchy.
BERLIN -- Germany's top Jesuit apologized Monday for serial sexual abuse apparently committed by two priests at one of the country's most prestigious high schools, saying there was evidence of it for years but Jesuit officials did not "react the way it would have been necessary." At least 20 students were sexually abused by the two priests at Berlin's private Catholic Canisius Kolleg in the 1970s and 1980s,
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Dartmann conceded that the Jesuit order of Germany had had evidence of the sexual abuse cases since 1981, but had never informed parents, students or authorities. Such cases can no longer be prosecuted in Germany because of its statute of limitations, he said.
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Dartmann also said the two priests continued to sexually abuse boys and girls after being transferred from Canisius Kolleg to other Catholic schools and youth institutions in Germany, Mexico, Chile and Spain.
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It seems that once again, Pope Palpatine is in no position to be lecturing anyone on morality given his own moral bankruptcy and that of so many in the Church hierarchy.
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