Ignore the PR, the Catholic Church Continues Its Homophobia

As noted in recent posts, my view is that the Roman Catholic Church is largely incapable of any meaningful change when it comes to its horrific treatment of gays.  All of the fanning oneself with the vapors and orgasmic gushing over the statement released earlier in the week at the special synod in Rome suggesting a thawing of the Vatican's anti-gay jihad has been misplaced in my view, as evidenced by the swift back peddling by the conservative elements in the Church - .i.e. the bitter old self-loathing closet cases in Rome and in bishoprics around the world, and those in the laity who desperately need others to condemn so as to avoid facing their own betrayal of the Gospel message of love and caring for others.  A column in Pink News largely sums up views like my own.  Here are highlights:

When the BBC reported that some Catholic bishops at the Vatican had issued a statement saying that gay people should be “welcomed” by the Church and noting they had “gifts and qualities” to offer, I was almost sick with fury.

The anger intensified when the reporter went on to say that the statement had been welcomed by gay rights groups as “progress.”

Its sheer delusion to think that this is anything but propaganda and flim-flam from an organisation trying to protect itself from the international battering it is getting over its grotesque homophobia. These gay rights groups who want to praise and congratulate the Vatican can include me out.

Gay rights have been opposed by the Vatican at every step of the way – from legalising gay sex to getting an equal age of consent, from getting protection from discrimination at work to having the right to marry. When it came to trying to derail these measures, the Vatican was on the front line every time.

If the Vatican had prevailed none of these things would have happened. If it was left to the bishops and popes we would still be living in fear and dread, unable to love openly and in constant terror of losing our jobs and homes.

We should tell the congregation loud and clear that we do not want the poisonous crumbs from their wobbling table of bigotry. Instead they should be begging our forgiveness for the centuries of torture and discrimination they have heaped upon us.

The Catholic Church is about a thousand years behind everybody else but still it expects praise for yet again sneakily trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

This latest statement signifies nothing. The smiley Pope Francis is in no way different from his glowering predecessor. Nothing is going to change. Teachers are still going to be fired from Catholic schools because they are gay, lesbian or transgender. Organists and choirmasters are still going to be kicked out of their congregations because they are living with same-sex partners.

The Catholic Church is still going to agitate behind the scenes in governments round the world to try to stop gay progress. It has tried every dirty political trick in the book to retard the march of gay marriage in the United States. It has succeeded in getting itself exempted from employment protection legislation, it doesn’t want to deal with gay people in the adoption services it runs (often at taxpayers’ expense).

When you look at these spiteful acts of discrimination, the statement from the Vatican bishops looks like what it is – a mocking slap in the face for gay people.