How God Really Feels About Same-Sex Marriage

The image from Queerty sums things up well.   The far right - including the always crazy Cardinal Burke - are lambasting Ireland for approving same sex marriage, yet it is anti-gay Texas that is getting pummeled by natural disasters - something the Christian fundamentalists claim the guy upstairs controls. 

Catholic Church Is Losing Millennails Over Gays and Contraception

There are a number of factors fueling the exodus of Millenials from organized religion not the least of which is the fact that modern science and knowledge are making it harder and harder to believe the myths upon which the Bible and Christianity are based.  Then their is the rank hypocrisy and ugliness of so many of the "godly folk" who make the Pharisees of the Bible look like down right nice and wonderful people in comparison.  And in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, there are also the issues of the Church's positions on gay rights and contraception.  A piece in Crux looks at new findings on Millennials rejection of the Church's teachings.  Here are some highlights which ought to make the bitter old men in dresses at the Vatican shudder:

Catholics between the ages of 18 and 34 – the so-called Millennial generation – are split on their support for abortion rights, but reject Church teaching when it comes to contraception and LGBT issues. Those are the findings from a report issued Friday by the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington.

About 18 percent of Millennials identify as Catholic, a sharp decrease from the roughly one-quarter of those 65 and older who are Catholic. The most common religious identifier among Millennials: unaffiliated, at 33 percent.

The findings:

Contraception. 

[L]arge majorities of Catholics, white and Hispanic, report having taken a sex education class in school, and believe promoting contraception in those classes is a better method for preventing unintended pregnancies over abstinence-only sex education. 

About 70 percent of Catholic Millennials believe “it is morally acceptable to use contraception.”

Most Millennial Catholics also tend to believe that private companies should be required to cover contraception in employee health plans. Sixty percent of white Catholics agree with this, and 68 percent of Hispanic Catholics.

LGBT issues.

Gay rights garners an even higher percentage of support among Millennials. More than eight in 10 white and Hispanic Catholics favor laws that would protect gays and lesbians against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing,” a bit higher than the overall rate of 73 percent.

The report said that 7 percent of Millennials identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Among religiously unaffiliated Millennials, 12 percent identify as LGBT, but the number drops for Catholics: Just 6 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 2 percent of White Catholics identify as LGBT.

Meanwhile, demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke is saying that gays, remarried Catholics and murderers are all the same.  Talk about trying to drive younger Catholics away!  Because of mindsets like Burke's, I suspect that the percentage of Catholic Millennials is so low because most simply leave the Church and no longer consider themselves Catholic.  My children, while straight, have walked away from the Church and have not looked back.

Is Pope Francis Demoting Viciously Anti-Gay Cardinal?

A prior post looked at the viciously anti-gay statements made by Cardinal Raymond Burke who up until now has held the post of chief justice of the Vatican's Supreme Court.  Among other things, Burke said parents should keep children away gay relatives:

“If homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are — reason teaches us that and also our faith — then, what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living [in] a disordered relationship with another person?”..."We wouldn’t, if it were another kind of relationship — something that was profoundly disordered and harmful — we wouldn't expose our children to that relationship, to the direct experience of it. And neither should we do it in the context of a family member who not only suffers from same-sex attraction, but who has chosen to live out that attraction, to act upon it, committing acts which are always and everywhere wrong, evil.”

Now it appears that perhaps Pope Francis has had enough of Burke's batshitery and Burke may be about to get sacked from his high position and relegated to a minor and  largely ceremonial post as patron to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.  In an interview, Burke seems to have confirmed that the demotion is in the works.  I for one hope that the rumors are true and that perhaps through Burke's demotion, Francis is seeking to send a strong message to the reactionary elements in the Vatican.  With some 80% of young American Catholics believing that homosexuality is socially and morally acceptable, bitter, nasty old men like Burke (who is likely a self-loathing closet case) are hastening the death of the Church in America.  Here are excerpts from the National Catholic Reporter:

U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a former archbishop of St. Louis known for his rigorist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, has reportedly confirmed rumors that Pope Francis is planning to remove him from his influential post as the chief justice of the Vatican's Supreme Court.

Burke is reported to confirm the rumors, which have attracted attention in recent weeks as a sign that Francis may be preparing a tonal shift at the Vatican, in a piece Friday by BuzzFeed News.

The rumors in recent weeks have speculated that Burke, currently the prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, would be moved to the largely ceremonial post of patron to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Burke, who took up the Vatican role in 2008, has made news frequently in recent days voicing disapproval with the direction of a worldwide meeting of Catholic bishops, known as a synod, taking place at the Vatican from Oct. 5-19.

He has voiced staunch disapproval in particular to a landmark document released by the synod on Monday, which called on the church to listen more widely to people's concerns and to apply mercy more generously.

Burke has said in interviews that the document was "not of the church" and that Francis should issue a clarification reaffirming traditional Catholic doctrines.

The Apostolic Signatura is the Vatican's highest court and is widely responsible for ensuring the proper administration of justice in the Catholic church. The Knights of Malta is a lay religious order that seeks to aid people in need around the world. 

Burke also previously served as the bishop of La Crosse, Wis. A native of that state, he has been known through the years for his staunch conservative positions. In one instance in 2009, he called on U.S. bishops from his position at the Vatican to withhold Communion from pro-choice Catholic politicians. 

Francis previously removed Burke in December from an influential position as a member of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, the Vatican office responsible for advising the pontiff on bishop appointments around the world.