Apparently, if one wants to be awarded the Order of Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great by the Vatican, one way to enhance your chances is to make outrageous and unfounded statements against homosexuality. Roberto De Mattei - described as a "devout Roman Catholic" and who has already demonstrated that he'd fit right in with some the USA leading Christofascists by saying the Japanese tsunami was ‘divine punishment’ - has now said homosexuality was the cause of the Roman Empire. Never mind the real causes of Rome's collapse, just blame it on the gays - one of Pope Palpatine's favorites past times. There seems to be no end to the lengths the Vatican will go to denigrate LGBT individuals. The Daily Mail has a sampling of the batshitery issuing from the Vatican's favorite historian. Here are highlights:*
Roberto De Mattei . . . 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.’
*
Last night fellow historians, gay rights groups and politicians expressed outrage. Paola Concia, an MP with the Democratic Left, said: ‘I have tabled an urgent call for the education minister to intervene.’
*
Italian homosexual groups said the professor’s comments were ‘based on superstition, ridiculous and outrageous’ and called on him to resign from his Rome-based post. Historian Emilio Gabba, a leading light in Roman history, said: ‘It is highly improbable homosexuality led to the fall of the Roman Empire.’
*
Professor Lellia Cracco Ruggini, an expert on Roman history from Turin University, said: ‘There is no proof Rome had a high number of homosexuals. I can safely say Rome did not fall because it was gay.’
*
Professor De Mattei co-operates with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Historical Sciences and has been awarded the Order of Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great in acknowledgement of his services to the Roman Catholic Church.
1 comment:
‘Homosexuality was not rife among the Barbarians and this shows God’s justice comes throughout history.’
I think someone has no clue as to what he's talking about. There was plenty of teh Gay in the barbarian cultures too. There is even evidence that the Celts legally recognized some form of same sex unions.
The lack of sexual inhibitions that the Celtic warriors displayed toward each other amid
such an atmosphere of masculine eroticism suggests that homosexuality was not limited to
pederastic relation, and that love between comrades was alos a part of Celtic warrior life. In
face, it is the warriors, no the youth, whom Diodorus describes as "offering their bodies to
wach other without furter ado." Such a relationship between warrior peers even appears in an
Irish Celtic sage of the late first meillennium. The hero, in explaining why he does not want
to fight his foster-brother and former comrade-in-arms, says, "Fast friends, forest companions,
we made one bed, and slept one sleep."
Sexual bonds between adult warriors were common among some of the other Indo-European
groups as well. The Roman writer Lucian, in the second half of the first century A.D.,
described the bonds between Scythian warriors whose union was recognized in a formal ceremony.
Called "blood-brother," these relationships were known for the extraordinary devotion the
partners showed for each other.
page 122, The Origins and role of same-sex realtions in human societies, by James Neill, McFarland, 2009
Same-sex wedding was an institution of Celtic culture, one that
had doubtless undergone many developments, but one that was deeply
embedded. Since such similar practices of both one-to-one same-sex troth
plighting and same-sex sex are ascribed to the Greeks, as well as some other
Indo-Europeans, there is indeed a strong case to be made that it reflects a
common inheritance, not an institution of pederastic insemination and initiation
into adulthood, but rather of homosexual pair bonding, associated, perhaps, with
the divine twins.
Page 643, The Greeks and Greek Love: A bold New Exploration of the Ancient World, James Davidson, Random House Digital, Inc., 2009
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