The Catholic Church's Accelerating Collapse in the Developed World

While arch-conservatives - extremists, if you will - in the Catholic Church reel from the Irish vote to repeal that nation's strict bans on abortion, the Church is not faring well in other parts of Europe.  Indeed, the only semi-bright spot is Poland where politicians are using Catholicism as part of the white Polish nationalist agenda. In America, Catholic Church membership is ostensibly holding steady for at least two reasons: (i) unless one actively takes them self off of church rolls, you remain in the headcount forever, and (ii) the huge influx of Hispanic immigrants is masking the decline of the traditional American Catholic demographic. The bad news for the Church is that younger Hispanics are leaving the Church like their Millennial counterparts, thus making it crucial for additional new immigrant to fill the places being left by those leaving the Church. Why the global collapse of the Church outside of the developing world?  A piece in the New York Times notes two causes: (a) the sex abuse scandal that shows no signs of going away, and (b) the Church's refusal to embrace modern knowledge and science, especially in the realm of sexuality.  The latter phenomenon is exemplified by right wing Catholics at sites such as "Lifesite" and "Church Militant" rallying to "experts" deemed crackpots by sane, mainstream medical and mental health experts.  The Irish Times looked at one of these, in my view, nutcase "experts." Here are excerpts:

Dutch psychologist Dr Gerard van den Aardweg. . . . said: “Homosexuality is presented by the majority of the media as a question of unjust discrimination of people who in themselves are just a little bit different by nature ... denied rights the majority enjoy. This is absolutely absurd and completely nonsensical.” The event was organised by the Catholic Alliance for the Defence of the Family and Marriage group.

Global organisations with a global sexual ideology wanted “to deal a blow to normal marriage and the family and to this end they use the homosexual movement, the sexual rights movement”, he said. . . . He claimed many scientific institutions have been taken over by “active militant gays” who produce information to further the gay cause. He also said it was not true that homosexuals are born gay.

Many gay people were “comparable with alcoholics or other persons who are addicts but they have the feeling it’s my fate”, he said. . . . He also claimed the Nazi party was “rooted” in homosexuals. . . . . He said wealthy organisations were interested in imposing homosexuality on the world and included the abortion movement, feminism, and freemasonry international.”

It used to be evangelical groups that trotted out such "experts," but increasingly the Catholic Church is embracing such extremists.  It's little wonder Millennials in particular are exiting from the Church.

But back to the Times piece.  Here are highlights on the Church's collapse in Europe and accelerating drift toward ultimately being Africa centric:

In August, Pope Francis will return to Ireland for a World Meeting of Families event attended by the church’s most committed anti-abortion activists. But they will find themselves, after Saturday’s historic repeal of an abortion ban in a landslide vote, in a country that is clearly part of Europe’s secular sprint out of the Roman Catholic fold.

Across Western Europe, the church’s once mighty footprint has faded, in no small measure because of self-inflicted clerical sex abuse scandals and an inability to keep up with and reach contemporary Catholics. Church attendance has plummeted, parishes are merging, and new priests and nuns are in short supply. Gay marriage is on the rise, and abortion is widely legal.

Francis is not sounding the alarm or calling the faithful to the ramparts. He seems resigned to accept that a devout and Catholic Europe has largely slipped into the church’s past. . . . . Instead, he has shifted his focus on the faith’s future to the global South . . . .  This turn has drawn criticism from conservative Catholics like those in the Continent’s most faithful country, Poland, who have allied with a nationalist government to keep out migrants.

The challenge for Francis is to keep the present decline of the church in Europe from becoming a preview of its future in South America and Africa. . . . . Inoculating the Southern Hemisphere from the growing scourge of sex abuse scandals, spreading secularism and out-of-touch clergy that devastated Catholicism in Europe is no easy task and will require much of the pope’s attention.

The church’s looming problems outside Europe’s borders don’t stop with sexual abuse. In Latin America and Africa, where the future of the church seems most promising, there are also signs it is losing ground in a bustling religious marketplace. In Brazil, which has the world’s largest Catholic population, evangelicals preaching prosperity gospels are giving stiff competition to Catholicism, which is projected to become a minority faith in 2030. 

In wealthy Europe, though, the church’s woes show few signs of abating. . . . In Italy, many Catholic parishes are now operated by clergy born outside the country. In mostly Catholic Luxembourg, the government, led by a gay prime minister, abolished religious teaching in state schools in September. In 2012, the Archdiocese of Vienna consolidated its 660 parishes into 150. 

Only one-in-five Catholics attend Mass in Spain now. In France, it’s one in 10. In the Netherlands, Mass attendance among Catholics is down to about 5 percent. In Germany, financial contributions to the church have thinned.

By most measures, Poland is the most faithful Catholic country in Europe. About 40 percent of Catholics attend Sunday Mass . . . . But there is also a more contemporary convergence between the traditional Christian values that John Paul promoted and the nationalism of President Andrzej Duda’s governing Law and Justice Party, which opposes Francis’ calls to accept migrants and to combat global climate change.

If the landslide vote in Ireland bothered Francis, he didn’t show it on Sunday afternoon. He smiled broadly as he blessed tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square and urged them to pray for Africa.  Kilvia Passos, 47, cheered the pope as she held a flag of her native Brazil, the country with the world’s largest Catholic population. She said despite the growing competition of evangelicals there, the country still felt deeply Catholic. But so, until a few decades ago, did Ireland and the rest of Europe.

As a former Catholic very familiar with the Church's 11th century dogma on sexuality and the family, I do not believe the future will be kind to Catholicism which increasingly requires and ignorant, uneducated population to thrive.  Relying on lunatic "experts" will not stop the ongoing collapse in Europe and, I suspect soon, America.  

Is China the New Spanish Empire?

One thing that politicians seem to rarely do is look at and learn from history - much of America's Middle East debacle could have been avoided had any serious thought been given and delusions of "American exceptionalism" not blinded both military and media leaders not to mention George W. Bush, idiot-in0chief- and Emperor Palapatine Cheney.  A piece in Politico makes the case that the current market instability in China might well be understood through the lens of history if westerners - and the Communist leadership - were to learn lessons from the past.  Most specifically, that a centralized dictatorship over times cannot control the economy and events despite huge efforts to do so.  Here are highlights that suggest that China's future could be quite different that what some expect:

The Chinese turmoil roiling markets right now presents a fresh and profound challenge to the world economy: For the first time, a giant, non-European superpower threatens world financial stability and the powers that be seem at a loss.  If the IMF and World Bank have stumbled with Greece, how are they going to get a hold on the stock market travails of Communist China? What tools do we even have to affect how it plays out?

But if the particulars are novel, in the bigger sense this is a movie we’ve seen before. Though China has been the global economic star of the last low-growth decade, it remains a totalitarian dictatorship, with its economy shrouded in state secrecy.  What we’re encountering in this crisis is the spectacle of a closed society colliding with the forces of complex, free-market capitalism. If we look beyond China, we can find a long history of these collisions, dating back hundreds of years, as both closed societies and capitalism evolved and became more complex. And the history has a clear but unsettling lesson to offer: When such a collision happens, it’s a moment to genuinely worry.

Since the dawn of capitalism, closed societies with repressive governments have—much like China—been capable of remarkable growth and innovation. Sixteenth-century Spain was a great imperial power, with a massive navy and extensive industry such as shipbuilding and mining. One could say the same thing about Louis XIV’s France during the 17^th century, which also had vast wealth, burgeoning industry and a sprawling empire.

But both countries were also secretive, absolute monarchies, and they found themselves thrust into competition with the freer countries Holland and Great Britain. Holland, in particular, with a government that didn’t try to control information, became the information center of Europe—the place traders went to find out vital information which they then used as the basis of their projects and investments.  The large empires, on the other hand, had economies so centrally planned that the monarch himself would often make detailed economic decisions.  As these secretive monarchies tried to prop up their economies, they ended up in unsustainable positions that invariably led to bankruptcy, collapse and conflict.

In Spain, the result was a slow collapse, which has left it and its former empire suffering from perpetual economic crisis and political instability. In France, an open society would eventually be born through monarchial bankruptcy that pulled down banks around Europe, and ended in violent revolution and the vastly destructive Napoleonic wars.

More recently, Germany long struggled with the mix of modern industry, capitalism and authoritarianism.  Throughout the 19^th century, and into the 20^th, Germany experienced massive economic growth under the hand of Bismarck’s central political authority; the result was a period of great strength, followed by crisis, war, political upheaval and the geopolitical and moral catastrophe of WWII. 

And though we tend to forget this now, the Soviet Union experienced massive economic expansion for half a century.  America feared it not only for its m military, but for the industrial might, expanding GDP and technological achievements that added heft to its ideological challenge around the world.  Only after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 did we fully understand what was really going on behind the curtain. In financial terms, Soviet secrecy was very effectively shrouding the massive liabilities of the state. 

China is a new case, for it has mixed capitalism and totalitarianism in a unique way.  Unlike the USSR, there are privately owned companies and public investment.  And yet behind banks, companies and the stock market still lies the heavy hand of the state.  The Chinese government forces investment in the stock market and bolsters banks, companies and state entities with secretive cash infusions; it and hides toxic assets in its enormous and completely secretive sovereign wealth funds.

As in imperial Spain, or Cold War Russia, there is neither transparency nor trust.  There is no question that China has massive growth potential until its population curve starts to turn, but what we are seeing in this current financial crisis is likely to be only the beginning of the political and societal crisis brought about by a dictatorship’s efforts to simulate the performance of a capitalist economy—but one that only grows.  The stock market is not real; government financial statistics are fake and obscured.

There is no historical example of a closed imperial economy facing large capital-driven, open states and sustainably competing over the long term. That is not to say that China isn’t an economic powerhouse and a remarkable site of energy and potential. It is certainly both. But we also know Chinese debt—as secret as the state likes to keep it—is enormous, and that its financial system is like any other bubble. 

The great “Beijing Consensus,” China’s absolute commitment to showing 8% growth every year, is unsustainable, at least through legitimate means. And without it, China is beginning to look like an enormous totalitarian ponzi scheme—a phenomenon common enough in world history, but extremely dangerous to be near in the long run.

It’s tempting to look for quick policy solutions, or—for some political candidates—to wave around threats as a way to gain leverage. But almost by definition, a society like China is immune to our efforts . . . In the short term, the best goal to push for is more transparency, in the hope that sunlight helps mitigate whatever shock is still coming. And until then, a healthy skepticism might be the best protection we can offer ourselves.

Beauty Queens Come Out as Gay

As this past weekend's HR Pride Fest event made clear, LGBT individuals come in all shapes and sizes and in every race and ethnicity.   Nonetheless, the enemies of LGBT equality and same sex marriage work diligently to disseminate and reenforce negative stereotypes about LGBT people.  One of their favorites - after describe gay men as disease ridden Nelly queens - is to depict lesbian as mannish, unattractive freaks.   Over the weekend, two beauty queens blew that would be stereotype to Hell.  First, former two time Miss Spain, Patricia Yurena Rodriguez (pictured above), came out as lesbian as noted at MSN:

A former Miss Spain, Patricia Yurena Rodriguez, came out as a lesbian last week, after revealing on Instagram that she was in a relationship with her girlfriend DJ Vanessa Cortes. The revelation makes Rodriguez the first openly gay national beauty queen in the country.

"Romeo and Julliet," Rodriguez, 24, captioned the pic of her laying in bed and staring into Cortes' eyes. . . . . I do not regret what I did," Rodriguez told local Spanish newspaper, La Opinion de Tenerife of her announcement. "I'm thrilled with what is happening to me."

Meanwhile, yesterday the news broke that 2014 Rose of Tralee, Philadelphia Rose Maria Walsh (pictured below), is gay.  Here are excerpts from Irsih Central:

"I'm confident in who I am as a person," the 27-year-old said, in a matter of fact interview with The Sun that laid the truth bare.

Others were equally confident in Walsh too.  Her sexuality is likely to "create some interest, hopefully all positive,” the executive chairman of the festival Anthony O'Gara told the press this weekend.

Twitter and Facebook erupted, with the majority of commenters applauding her brave decision to come out. But others got in line a little too hastily to write a terse “so what?” as though there could never be any controversy about being LGBT nowadays.

If only. Right on cue a host of apoplectically angry commentators reminded us why it’s still news when Ireland’s Rose of Tralee sweetheart announces she’s gay. Across the internet they posted strong biblical condemnations or outright bigoted profanities, carefully calculated to wound.

In New York, like every prior Rose, she will be feted and fawned over during the 2015 Saint Patrick’s Day season. The Rose of Tralee competition has already show us that Walsh has courage, heart and class, and so hopefully her example will inspire others to show her the same courtesy now.

If New York’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Committee is still discriminating against – rather than embracing – Irish gay people by 2015 (almost 100 years after the Rising that was fought in the name of freedom for all Irish people) they will look and sound like last century's men.

The fact is that Ireland has changed utterly; an Irish gay group has already won the best float award in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin. A massive rally was held at the weekend to amend the constitution to permit same sex marriage. Now a Rose of Tralee, the nations sweetheart, has revealed she’s gay.

Kudos to both of the brave, beautiful women!!

Europe Mulls Sanctions Against US Over Spying

In addition to concerns about illegal domestic spying on American citizens, the NSA's out of control spying program have ignited other problems: European nations are considering sanctions against the USA as they have learned that the NSA efforts also focused on tapping communications of allied leaders.  The US government's defense/excuse?  "We did not know that NAS was spying on foreign allies and their leaders."  Talk about pathetic excuses!  Not surprisingly, the Germans and French among others are not amused.  ABC News has details.  Here are highlights:

The United States could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows, German officials said Monday, as Europe weighed a response to allegations that the Americans spied on their closest European allies.

In Washington, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein called for a "total review" of all U.S. intelligence programs in response to the allegations — activity the California Democrat said she wasn't told about.

Feinstein said that while her committee was informed of the National Security Agency's collection of phone records under a secret court order, it "was not satisfactorily informed" that "certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade" — including eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's own cellphone.

She said President Barack Obama was also not told that Merkel's communications were being collected since 2002. 

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of U.S. allies—including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany—let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," Feinstein said in a statement Monday.

"Unless the United States is engaged in hostilities against a country or there is an emergency need for this type of surveillance, I do not believe the United States should be collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers," Feinstein said. "The president should be required to approve any collection of this sort."

Spain became the latest U.S. ally to demand answers after a Spanish newspaper reported that the NSA monitored more than 60 million phone calls in that country during one month alone. The report Monday in the daily El Mundo came on the heels of allegations of massive NSA spying in France and Germany.

With European leaders dissatisfied with the U.S. response so far, officials have been casting about for a way to pressure Washington to provide details of past surveillance and assurances that the practice will be curbed. The challenge is to send a strong message to Washington against wholesale spying on European citizens and institutions without further damage to the overall trans-Atlantic relationship.

As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's non-binding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money.

Suspending the agreement, officially known as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, would require approval by an overwhelming majority of the 28 European Union countries. The agreement allows access to funds transferred through the private, Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which handles the movement of money between banks worldwide.

The European Parliament's foreign affairs committee chairman, Elmar Brok, told reporters that failure to resolve the differences over data protection could threaten the trade talks. Brok, a member of Merkel's party who was in Washington to discuss the spy allegations, said the challenge was to strike a balance between security and personal freedom.  "We are fighting for the rights of our citizens," he said.

The steady drumbeat of reports stemming from documents provided to various media by NSA leaker Edward Snowden has created a sense of urgency among European governments that, at the very least, they need to be seen in the eyes of their citizens to be doing something to stop the spying.

Heather Conley, Europe director for Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that for Germany, at least, the situation appeared to have reached tipping point and for now other European countries were willing to follow Berlin's lead.  German intelligence officials are to travel to Washington this week and expect something tangible to bring home, she said.  "If they leave empty-handed, we've got a big problem," Conley said.

Once again, I believe that Edward Snowden did Americans a great favor by exposing the lawlessness of the NSA and its affiliates.  What has been done is far beyond what's truly legal and would shock the founding fathers.  

 

  

European Countries Consider Taxing Churches

Given the flagrant role that some churches are playing in politics here in America: think the Roman Catholic Church and a number of far right denominations, I would argue that it is time that tax payers stop indirectly underwriting these political operations and revoke the tax exempt status of politically active churches, starting with the Roman Catholic Church. As the Washington Post is reporting, some countries in Europe see this as both good policy to increase tax revenues and a recognition that churches that are playing politics should be treated no differently that any other group.  Here are some story highlights:

Cash-strapped officials in Europe are looking for a way to ease their financial burden by upending centuries of tradition and seeking to tap one of the last untouched sources of wealth: the Catholic Church. Thousands of public officials who have seen the financial crisis hit their budgets are chipping away at the various tax breaks and privileges the church has enjoyed for centuries.

Rubio, a city council member in Alcala, is leading an effort to impose a tax on all church property used for non-religious purposes. The financial impact on the Catholic Church could be devastating. As one of the largest landowners in Spain — with holdings that include schools, homes, parks, sports fields and restaurants — the church could owe up to 3 billion euros in taxes each year.

Similar efforts that target church coffers or powers are underway in neighboring countries. In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Monti has called for a tax on church properties or on those portions of properties that have a commercial purpose. In Ireland, the minister of education is fighting to end church control of many of the country’s primary schools, and the government has slashed in half the grants it gives poor families for first Communions. More than half the city councils in Britain have eliminated state subsidies for transportation to faith-based schools, leading to a precipitous drop in enrollment.

In response to the controversy, the Vatican and representatives of the church — Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco in Spain and Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco in Italy, who head the council of bishops in their respective countries — have released statements saying they intend to comply with all laws. But they have declined to comment further except to emphasize that current norms recognize the “social value” of church activities.

The net worth of the Vatican and the Catholic Church dioceses is difficult to estimate, but it is thought to be astronomical, according to Zech. The Vatican’s treasure of gold alone is thought to be worth several billion dollars. The church’s nearly 3,000 dioceses serve individual countries, regions or cities that defer to the Vatican in matters of doctrine but maintain their own finances.

With most of its assets tied up in buildings and artwork, the church has faced a cash-flow problem in recent years. Contributions have fallen dramatically in the wake of the global economic downturn. The clergy abuse scandal cost the church hundreds of millions in settlement costs, further eroding cash reserves.

 The article is lengthy but raises issues that ought to be discussed in the USA - especially as the Catholic Church and other churches flagrantly violate IRS laws that bar political activities.

Ricky Martin Granted Spanish Citizenship

It's sad when Americans have to seek citizenship in other nations in order to have full civil legal rights. Yet that appears what Singer Ricky Martin has done in order to legally marry his partner. I can fully understand the feeling and have not infrequently pondered leaving the USA since I am not a full citizen in America. Indeed, in Virginia, I'm not even a 2nd class citizen given Virginia's virulently anti-gay legal climate. As I have less than jokingly noted before, pet owners have far more legal recognition afforded to their relationships with their pets than same sex couples do with their partners even if they have been together for many decades. The United States is truly falsely advertised as a nation of equality and a nation offering freedom from religious persecution. But back to Ricky Martin. It seems that the Spanish government has sought to help the performer realize his dream of a legal marriage. Even though because of DOMA it will be treated as a nonentity. Here are some highlights from Pink News:

Puerto Rican pop singer Ricky Martin was given Spanish citizenship today, the country’s government said. The star, who came out in 2009 reportedly wants to take advantage of Spain’s gay marriage laws.

Spokesman Jose Blanco told a news conference that ministers had agreed to grant him a “letter of naturalization”, issued in special circumstances, because of his “personal and professional links with Spain”.

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Martin sought citizenship in order to marry boyfriend Carlos Gonzalez Abella, with whom he is bringing up his twin three-year-old sons.

Appearing on the Larry King show last year, he had said: “I would get married… There are many countries around the world where same-sex marriage is a right. Not in Puerto Rico, unfortunately. And not in many states in America.

“Yes, we could go to Spain and get married. We can go to Argentina and get married. But why do we have to go somewhere else? Why can’t I do it in my country where the laws are – you know, protecting me?”

He added: “I can go to Spain. I have many friends in Spain. And get married. And make it very beautiful and symbolic. But… I [can't] do it in the backyard of my house. I want to have that option. I don’t want to be a second class citizen anymore. I pay my taxes. Why can’t I have that right?”

Second class citizen gets old especially when the only true justification for it is so that nasty bigots can feel better about themselves and feel free to look down on others whether it be to feel a sense of power, privilege, or ignore the fact that in truth they are the ones who are morally inferior. Were circumstances different, I would never have returned to the USA after our recent trip to Europe.

European Adventure - Barcelona and Back to the USA

Of the cities that we saw on our journey, the one that we most fell in love with was Barcelona. The city is beautiful, clean and definitely full of great looking men. Add to that the fact that Spain recognizes full same sex marriage and it made for a great experience. Unfortunately because of our flight schedule we were not able to fully experience Barcelona's vibrant gay night life. All in out group would love to make a return visit and focus our visit on the city and its resort areas to the north and south. The boyfriend and I had a great lunch in the Gothic District after visiting the Picasso Museum and walking around the district and viewing its many shops and amazing architecture, including the city's cathedral the construction of which was commenced in 1291. We also visited Gaudi's masterpiece, Sangrada Famillia (pictured above), which was commenced in the 1880's and is still under construction. As an added note, Barcelona's beaches are beautiful.

On the trip back today, we were struck by how poorly the USA's passport check points and Customs operations compared to what we experienced in Europe. Coming through Newark was a nightmare and while we could re-check our bags without too much difficulty, we ourselves had to go through the security check points - which were chaos - again even though we'd already been through security before. As for United/Continental Airlines, I will have more to say in a future post and none of it good.

As for being back in backward Virginia, let's just say that I am less than thrilled.

European Adventure – Day 7 – At Sea

Yesterday afternoon we walked around in Naples – overwhelmingly the least pedestrian friendly of the cities we’ve visited and reminiscent of New York City in the bad days of the mid-1980’s in terms of trash and people pan handling. One bright exception was the Umberto I Galleria pictured above which was absolutely magnificent. The evening consisted of dinner with our traveling companions from Virginia – it was the second formal night and we dressed. Dinner was followed by a show based on Saturday Night Fever that was well done in terms of the performers but a chaotic mess in terms of the Royal Caribbean personnel who allowed in too many people and were once again less than friendly. After that we went to a dance party with new friends we’ve made on board.

Today was a welcome day at sea which allowed us to sleep in and then have a lazy day overlooking the gorgeous blue of the Mediterranean Sea (it’s a cross between royal blue and sapphire blue) and then in my case lazing by the pool with a book in hand. The boyfriend is off making use of the health club on board. I’d rather get my aerobic exercise dancing as opposed to on a treadmill or an elliptical machine.

For those considering a cruise, I cannot say the whole experience with Royal Caribbean has been bad. Our dining room staff has been wonderful as has the steward for our cabin. The huge disconnect seems to be with guest services and the cruise director staff who seem to never communicate with one another and who seem oblivious to the fact that they work in what is basically a service industry where politeness and a personal touch are essential to repeat business. The boyfriend has been on five previous cruises and after the debacle at the show last night says he’d never cruise on Royal Caribbean again. Don’t get me wrong, overall the trip so far has been wonderful. But what could have been a truly exceptional experience has been rendered something less due to the indifference and rudeness of certain Royal Caribbean staff mostly within the cruise director's ranks.

We are looking forward to tomorrow in Barcelona and our stay at the Novotel in the heart of Barcelona. A friend who lived in Barcelona until earlier in the year has put together for us a suggestion list of what to see and where to eat given our time table. The only down side is the crack of dawn disembarking tomorrow – it will not be a day for sleeping in.

Mediterranean Cruise - Day Three

Internet access continues to be a nightmare - and from what other passengers say, it's a common problem. With difficulty I have managed to get online (after many headaches and having to vent to Guest Services) and complete needed work for clients, but the Internet access continues to be spotty and a major pain in the ass. Royal Caribbean really needs to tell the truth to would be customers that their satellite Internet is a crap shoot at best. Other than crappy Internet service (which is also very expensive), the trip has been great and we had a great stop in Toulon from which we visited Marseilles where my father was U.S. Army Fire Marshall at the end of WWII. Yesterday we pulled into Nice and had a morning excursion to Monaco and Monte Carlo. The weather has been gorgeous and the ship is beautiful. The photos above are of the ship in the harbor at Nice as we went ashore by tender and a view of the casino at Monte Carlo. Today we had a great visit to Florence.

Think Twice About Booking Royal Caribbean If You Need Business Internet Access

The boyfriend and I made it to Barcelona and are now aboard the Liberty of the Seas and life might be good if the Internet service wasn't a major piece of crap. From what I have been able to figure out so far with my computer - which I need to access the law firm e-mail, etc., remotely - it seems that Royal Caribbean has expired security certificates and the result is that a computer with good firewall protection and anti-virus cannot sign onto the Internet.

To say that I am hugely PISSED is an understatement and unless a fix can be found, I will be cancelling some shore excursions so that I can find reliable Internet access in port. My advise from my experience so far to anyone who must conduct business while traveling and must use secure computers, check out a different cruise line. I could in theory use the ship's computers but guess what, they lack the program I need to access the law office account. I'm afraid I am majorly f*cked.

I will keep you updated and do some posting - since I can't do what's most critical. So far my thoughts on the trip are that it was a major, major mistake - or at least traveing on Royal Caribbean - and I wish I had stayed home.

Finally Headed to Europe

Some readers have asked where I am currently - I'm in Norfolk this morning and then the boyfriend and I and two friends (another gay couple) fly out to Barcelona a little after noon today. Yesterday was chaos at the office trying to get things done before my departure and naturally just to make things a major pain in the you know where the main copier/scanner/ fax machine decides to go down. I'm headed tot he office extra earlier to meet the repair folks, get some more closing documents signed and then off to the airport to meet the boyfriend and our friends who will take my luggage to the airport with them. I will definitely need an adult beverage by the time I get on the plane!

This trip is my gift to the boyfriend as a "thank you" for all he's put up with over the last 3+ years - the last drama of my contentious divorce, other family issues, including the loss of my mother, and the stress of having a solo practice in this economy - and for being a sweetheart in general although he does have his "yes, mein fuhrer" moments when he's not being "Martha Stewart."

We finished packing late last night, the house sitter/dog sitter arrangements are in place, I have back up arranged for my office staff, and hopefully after this morning we can escape for a needed break. As noted yesterday, I will try to post on the trip as we do a loop around the western Mediterranean on the Liberty of the Seas.

Posting and Trip Preparation

Tomorrow the boyfriend and I leave for Barcelona - pictured above (click the image to enlarge it) - and to say I'm going crazy at work is an understatement. I may work until midnight tonight, so posting will be hit or miss today and in the morning (I haven't packed anything yet). As noted before, I do plan on posting on the trip although it may be more travelogue than political commentary - well, at least some of the time.

Why Can't the USA Approve Gay Marriage When Unlikely Nations Have??

A column in the New York Times looks at the issue of gay marriage around the world and the at first blush surprising passage of full same sex marriage laws in South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Argentina, three of which were once viewed as bastions of Catholicism. The author, Frank Bruni comes up the hypothesis that these surprising supporters of same sex marriage have one trait in common: a devotion of equality and civil rights born out of years of regressive and/or dictatorship rule. These nations value modernity and civil equality all the more because they have experienced the opposite alternative and recognize the importance of the rule of law and a secular society. Stated differently, these nations endured the type of government and repressive society that the Christian Taliban would seek to impose in the United States. Bruni also notes something that played a significant role in the passage of same sex marriage laws in Spain and Portugal - and I'd posit in Argentina as well where President Kirchner gave a moving speech before the Argentine Senate passed the legislation: Political leadership and political will on the party leading the effort for change. Under the Obama administration, we have neither. Here are some column highlights:

With minimal international attention, Portugal — tiny, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Portugal — legalized same-sex marriage last year. Although the country is hardly seen as a Scandinavian-style bastion of social progressivism, it’s one of just 10 countries where such marriages can be performed nationwide, and in this regard it finds itself ahead of a majority of wealthier, more populous European countries, like France, Germany, Italy and Britain. In the United States, only six states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage. How did that happen? And what wisdom do the answers offer frustrated supporters of same-sex marriage here and elsewhere around the globe?

The eight countries that later joined the club were a mix of largely foreseeable and less predictable additions. In the first category I’d put Canada, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. In the second: South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Argentina.


Why those four countries? People who have studied the issue note that that they have something interesting and relevant in common: each spent a significant period of the late 20th century governed by a dictatorship or brutally discriminatory government, and each emerged from that determined to exhibit a modernity and concern for human rights that put the past to rest.

“They’re countries where the commitment to democracy and equal protection under the law was denied, flouted and oppressed, and the societies have struggled to restore that,” said Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy group, in a recent interview. That dynamic informed Spain’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005.

Politicians in Portugal and Argentina — two countries with their own large Catholic majorities, strong geographic or historical ties to Spain, and a palpable desire to keep pace with it — took note of the same-sex marriage legislation there. Spain set off an Iberian wave with trans-Atlantic reach: one of the countries considered most likely to approve same-sex marriage next is Uruguay, which already permits same-sex civil unions and allows gay men and lesbians to adopt.

The idea that Portugal should do no less than Spain came up repeatedly in my conversations with those who pushed for the Portugal measure, and so did the insistence that Portugal was much more cosmopolitan than many outsiders gave it credit for being. I was left with the strong impression that for many highly educated and young people in Portugal . . . . . same-sex marriage became a badge of sophistication, affirming their country as an enlightened place.

And once it became law, everyone for the most part moved on. Sócrates’s government was tripped up by economic matters, not same-sex marriage, support for which rose significantly in polls following its institution, as people saw that their society wasn’t crumbling as a result. “It was a good example of the pedagogical effect of law,” Vale de Almeida said.

San Francisco isn’t all of America, and the religious dynamics and political vitriol in this country are different from Portugal’s. But might it be possible for President Obama, so maddeningly hesitant to endorse same-sex marriage, to take a lead on the issue? And might he find, as Sócrates did, that it wouldn’t make or break him? “At the end of the day,” Sócrates told me, “what we had was the political will.”

The Times also has a map that looks at the range of treatment of gays in nations around the world. Gay acceptance is the lowest and gays are treated most harshly in countries where national levels of education are abysmally low - not surprisingly, Africa and a number of Muslim nations rank the lowest on education levels. Another parallel with gay oppression is the role of religion in the national government. Again, theocratic Muslim nations and African nations under the sway of virulent form of Christianity exported by American Christianists lead the way in oppression. In sum, ignorance (also the reason Christianity is growing in Africa) and religious extremism are the leading causes anti-gay bigotry.

European Adventure

A week from this Friday the boyfriend and I are headed to Barcelona, Spain, to embark aboard the Liberty of the Seas (pictured above) for a cruise around the Western Mediterranean stopping in the ports of Toulon and Nice, France; Livorno (the port of Florence), Rome and Naples, Italy, and then back to Barcelona. If any readers have recommendations and suggestions, please drop me an e-mail. We will be traveling with another gay couple and another couple and have some general ideas of what we will do in each port, but suggestions are always welcome.

In addition to being a much needed get away, the trip is my way of thanking the boyfriend for all the love and support that he has given to me over the last 3+ years. As longer term readers know, that time period has not been without some major drama. Internet access aboard ship is a bit pricey, but I will try to blog some during the cruise each day and, of course, I will be in e-mail contact with the law office daily.

Again, drop me recommendations via the e-mail on my profile.

New York City - Friday 9-9-11

We arrived in New York last evening and got settled into the apartment briefly before going out to dinner and then drinks at the Monster. I don't know if I had food poisoning or tequila poisoning, but I was pretty hurting this morning hence the minimal posting. I dealt with office e-mail and talked to the office a few times and then went back to bed for several hours. The boyfriend and our friend Rob who is traveling with us went out to breakfast and retrieved me around noon and we set out uptown to go shopping and to purchase tickets for a matinee show of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. We lucked out and got a great deal on great seats. It should definitely be a lot of fun.

As the New York Times and other news outlets have reported, there seem to be unconfirmed reports of a truck bomb attack plot for either New York City or Washington. From what we have seen, other than a heightened police visibility, New Yorkers are unfazed and are going about their business.

On Sunday we are doing brunch with the daughters of two of the boyfriend's clients who live her in New York. One works for a big law firm and the other is in the fashion industry. It should be fun and one of them went to school in Barcelona for two years and should be able to give us great suggestions for things to do and see next month when the boyfriend and I go on a western Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona.

To nigh, we'' do dinner out - probably Phillip Marie - and then finish the night at the Monster before heading back to crash. If any readers are out at the Monster, pleas say hello.

10 Years of Gay Marriage in the Netherlands - And Gays Have a Lower Divorce Rate

This coming Friday will mark the tenth anniversary of the advent of full same sex marriage rights in the Netherlands and - I'm sure to the shock and dismay of Maggie Gallagher, et al - the world has not come to an end. Nor have heterosexual divorce rates soared as a result of civil law recognition of same sex marriages. Indeed, the Netherlands continues to have a markedly lower divorce rate than the USA as a whole and even more so compared to the Bible Belt where divorce and unwed mothers rank the highest. One might even conjecture that Ms. Maggie and her fellow gay haters' real motivation in trashing same sex unions is because they are scared to death that we gays might be better at marriage than the heretofore privileged straights. So far in The Netherlands, gays divorce at a rate of roughly 5% versus a rate of 38% for the larger public. Rex Wockner has a few reflections on the upcoming anniversary and here are some highlights:
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In the intervening 10 years, 14,813 of the Netherlands' 55,000 gay couples have gotten married, according to Statistics Netherlands. Of those couples, 7,522 were female and 7,291 were male. There have been 1,078 same-sex divorces, 734 of them by female couples.
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Same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Mexico (where same-sex marriages are allowed only in the capital city but are recognized nationwide).
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In the U.S., same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. In addition, same-sex marriages from anywhere in the world are recognized as marriages in Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and California (if the marriage took place before Proposition 8 passed) even though those states do not let same-sex couples marry.
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As noted, what is striking about the Netherlands and most of the nations that allow full same sex marriage, is that most have much, much lower divorce rates that the USA. Just as Massachusetts - the first U.S. state to have gay marriage - has a much lower divorce rate than say Arkansas or Mississippi deep in the conservative Christian Bible Belt. So just maybe, its the far right, multiple divorced conservative Christians who are the real threat to marriage. Here are some statistics from Divorce Mag.com:
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Country Divorce Rate (per 1,000 population per year):
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United States 4.1
Belgium 2.6
Sweden 2.4
Canada 2.28
Norway 2.2
Netherlands 2.1
Iceland 1.9
Portugal 1.9
Spain 0.9
South Africa 0.81
Mexico 0.41
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I could not find data for Argentina, but its neighbors, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile all divorce have rates that are a fraction of the rate in the USA. Perhaps if the Christianists worked to address the REAL threats to marriage in the USA - instead of using anti-gay animus as a fund raising tool - the nation's divorce rate would not be sky high compared to so many other nations.

Unhappy Valentine's Day - America's Continuing Hostility Towards Same Sex Couples

As noted many times before on this blog, the United States of America likes to depict itself as "the land of the free" and the home of "religious freedom." Of course, based on the country's treatment of same sex couples, both claims are a lie and LGBT citizens receive neither the freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness as they see it afforded to other citizens nor the religious freedom marry to who they wish. Instead, the nation continues to cater to a Taliban like version of Christianity that belittles religious freedom and strives to make LGBT citizens pay a heavy price for their failure to conform to Christianist religious beliefs. In the pockets within the country where gays have secured marriage rights, the Christo-fascist work diligently to roll back progress. Add the high level of secret surveillance America applies to its citizens under the guise of "homeland security" to the mix and the USA even less resembles the myth that is disseminated by politicians and swallowed by the ignorant and xenophobic. The South Florida Gay News has a column that looks at America;s hollow promise when it comes to its LGBT citizens. True, the USA is not as horrid towards gays as some Middle Eastern and African countries, but it surely is not the beacon of freedom it pretends to be. Here are some column highlights:
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Valentine's Day holds a very special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. The two milestones that changed my life happened on this very day. First and foremost, on February 14, I met my life partner of eighteen years. Furthermore, 36 Valentines ago I decided to leave my native country because I thought I could never be myself there. There was a siren calling me. History says it was discovered by an Italian from Genoa. Only fitting since I was born a few miles away from that same city.
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America seemed to me the shiny example, and the beacon, of a true democracy; maybe the last hope for an Italian gay man, stifled in a country run by Church and Mafia. Or so I thought!
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I embraced my adopted country only to witness the rise of Anita Bryant, the killing of Harvey Milk, the emergence of hate preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and their pseudo Moral Majority, a bunch of white, right wing, heterosexual, homophobic, bigoted, intolerant Christians. I discovered that even though the Pledge of Allegiance says "...with Liberty and Justice for ALL", I was not fully included in the "ALL".
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I read articles about gay men getting set up, busted, and arrested for hanging out in public parks, more often than not entrapped by police officers acting as bait and decoys. What was that all about? How could the greatest country in the world be so oppressive?
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In "The Home of the Free" I came to we are not only still fighting for equal rights, laws and legislators and voters are still voting against us. Yet, on the continent I left, gay marriage is acceptable, permissible, and even commonplace. It is legal in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Portugal. Many other countries like the UK, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Finland, Greenland, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland fully recognize same sex unions. So does Slovenia, The Czech Republic, even Germany.
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By all means enjoy your Valentine’s Day, but think about what YOU can do to bring about change. Speed up the process. Come out. Speak up. Be counted. Get involved. Don't ever forget what this country is supposed to stand for: People being who they are and most importantly: letting other people be, on equal terms and with equal rights.
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It's a sad state of affairs and as noted before, once the boyfriend's parents pass on (both my parents are gone), we will seriously have to think twice as to whether or not we want to remain in the faux land of the free or instead move to a country that delivers what the USA falsely promises.

Catholic Church in Steep Decline in Poland

The 12th Century minded Pope Benedict XVI has said that one of the goals of his papacy was/is to revive Christianity - Catholicism in particular - in Europe. Increasingly, however, it seems that instead he is overseeing the Church's wake on that continent instead. And deservedly so in light of the Church's worldwide sex abuse scandal and the ever increasing evidence that secrecy, cover ups, and an utter disregard for the welfare of children and youths was and remains the norm for the Church hierarchy. Yes, there are crocodile tears shed when the truth of the abuse comes out in the news media, but most responsible in the hierarchy have gone totally unpunished. Added to this phenomenon is the Church's refusal to accept modern medical, scientific and mental health knowledge - a refusal that is all the more evident given the free flow of information via the Internet. Catholic Spain - once reliable from the Vatican perspective - now has gay marriage and abortion. And now, according to a New York Times story, the Church finds itself in free fall in Poland, yet another once reliable bastion of Catholicism. To my view, the Church leadership has brought most of this on itself and it looks increasingly that those who claim to want to "save the Church" are the ones killing it. The irony is just too delicious. Here are some highlights from the Times story:
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Poland is still an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation, still conservative and still religious, especially when compared with its European neighbors. But supporters and critics of the Roman Catholic Church all acknowledge that the society is changing. They agree that church representatives in Poland have lost authority and credibility, and that much of the population is moving toward a more secular view of life, one with a greater separation between church and state, and a rejection of church mandates on individual morality.
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Poles cite a wide variety of reasons for the church’s declining influence. They say the dynamic gained momentum after the death in 2005 of the hugely popular Pope John Paul II, whose leadership is credited with helping bring down the Iron Curtain.
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Church critics and supporters said that the trend was partly an expression of disgust with the clergy for taking sides in recent political battles, and partly the influence of thousands of Poles who had returned home after working and studying in the more secular societies in the West.
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But they also said there was a strong anticlerical movement in Poland, one that was unique to this nation and not tied to the sex scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church elsewhere. It is more closely linked to an almost genetic predisposition to rebel against authority, many people here said, as much as the church’s often heavy-handed intervention in national politics and debates over social issues, particularly in vitro fertilization.
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The list of grievances against the church tends to be Polish specific: that it managed to recover its property after Communism, but that average people often could not; that it appeared to take sides in politics . . .
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Antichurch sentiment has run so hot that one of the most popular politicians in the country, Janusz Palikot, started a political party based largely on an anticlerical platform. He said that the national divide tended to be generational, with older citizens more closely aligned with the church, but that it was impossible to discern distinct boundaries.

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The Church truly seems headed towards a day where its sole center of influence will be limited to backward countries with uneducated populations, primarily in Africa. And Rome will have accelerated the trend by insanely clinging to 12th century dogma and "natural law" arguments now refuted by modern knowledge.