The Real Reason The Catholic Church Wants Gays Oppressed

Personally, I believe that there are many reasons that the Catholic Church leadership wants gays to continue to be oppressed and treated with scorn. One, of course, is that small minded men of actually very weak faith cannot tolerate the possibility that the few passages in the Bible claimed to condemn homosexuality might just be wrong. That possibility terrifies them and threatens their entire house of cards belief system. Frankly, they ought to be more worried about the fact that Adam and Eve did not really exist since that scientific truth literally wipes out the entire foundation for Christianity's story line. Other reasons involve the warped and damaged psyches of the ranks of the Church hierarchy. First we have the fact that the Church hierarchy is filled with self-loathing closet cases who project their hatred on normal, well adjusted gays who are everything that the closet cases themselves are not. Then there are other closeted members of the hierarchy who are likely bitter that they have in retrospect thrown away their lives living a lie and missing out on any chance at true happiness. And then there's another theory raised in a piece on The New Civil Rights Movement. What is it? That the acceptance of gays is destroying the pipeline for the Church's labor forces: priests and nuns. Here are highlights:

The Catholic Church is the world’s single largest anti-gay hate group. If we are to minimize its pernicious influence, we must educate societies about the Church’s financial motivations for keeping gay human beings oppressed.

The Church’s business model depends on the cheap labor of priests and nuns, without whom the bullying theocrats at the top of the Church hierarchy would not be able to continue living their lavish and decadent lifestyle.

How does the Church intimidate gay people into signing up for lifetimes of poverty, hard work and (ostensibly) celibacy? By socially stigmatizing gay human beings and driving young gay people to despair about their chances for satisfying adult domestic lives, the Church as good as tortures young gay people into signing up to be priests and nuns.

The fall-off in the number of young people signing up for lifetimes slaving for the Church corresponds almost precisely to the gradually increasing social acceptance of gay human beings. The Church knows that and — at the expense of gay people’s basic human rights — is lashing out in attempts to protect its business interests and historical business plan.

The Pope recently announced that marriage equality is a threat to the future of humanity. . . . That bit of preposterous anti-gay hate speech is duplicitous, just another cover for trying to turn back social progress so the Church can torment young gay people into entering the priesthood.

[T]he Church opposes allowing gay parent adoptions, because such adoptions lead to increased acceptance of gay human beings, which works against the Church’s business plan.

For Church leaders to defame gay people by calling homosexuality an “intrinsic moral evil” — and other such defamatory, non-fact-based phrases — is as disgraceful as was the Vatican’s signing of the Reichskonkordat political treaty with Adolph Hitler.

Gay Americans today must refuse to allow the Catholic Church to put us under national house arrest in a system of sexual orientation apartheid, in the name of anti-gay Church dogma and for the purpose of enriching the Church.

Not only is the Church wrong to poison minds against gay people, it is doing so at least in part to distract from its crimes of child rape and child rape cover ups. . . . . As with its gay-bashing, the Catholic Church bashes Church child rape victims out of financial motivations; intimidate as many victims as possible out of coming forward, in order to avoid having to compensate them.

For those interested, Change.org has a petition HERE calling for Barack Obama to reject the political efforts of the Catholic Church to torpedo health care coverage that for contraception and other needed services to individuals.

Ireland Closes Its Vatican Embassy

In other positive Catholic Church news, Ireland has closed its embassy at the Vatican in yet another indication of the well deserved free fall the Church is experiencing in Ireland. Would that more nations would do so and eliminate the farce that Vatican City is a nation. Once the Catholic Church cannot hide behind this ridiculous myth and the associated claim of sovereign immunity, it would be far easier to hold high clerics - such as Benedict XVI - legally liable for their misdeeds and horrific malfeasance. Not surprisingly, the Vatican and the hierarchy in Ireland - including Cardinal Brady at right - have their panties in a major wad and are whining that the Irish government is ignoring the Church's deep history in that country. Of course, they leave the history that includes the work houses, the Madeline laundries and the rampant sexual abuse of children and youths. Here are highlights from The Guardian on the Church's hissy fit:

The leader of Ireland's Catholics has criticised the republic's government for closing its embassy to Vatican City.

Cardinal Sean Brady expressed his "profound disappointment" over the move, which comes after diplomatic clashes this year between the Fine Gael-Labour coalition and the Holy See over the Vatican's handling of the clerical child sex abuse scandals in Ireland.

"This decision seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between the Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries," the cardinal said on Friday.

The Irish foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, said the decision followed a review of overseas missions which gave "particular attention to the economic return from bilateral missions".

He said that while the embassy to the Holy See was one of Ireland's oldest missions, it yielded no economic return, and that Ireland's interests could be sufficiently represented by a non-resident ambassador.

The prestigious Villa Spada is the most valuable property owned by the diplomatic service. The Vatican was among the first states with which the newly independent Irish Free State established full diplomatic relations in the 1920s.

Could the Pope Be Arrested in Britain?

UPDATED: This post was cross posted at The Bilerico Project where it generated a number of comments. In response I posted the following comment that addresses some of the commentary:
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I do not deny that politics may trump the law in terms of any criminal prosecution of Benedict XVI. However, it is not accurate to say that the UN recognizes the Holy See as a sovereign nation. In fact, the United Nations does NOT recognize the Holy See as a sovereign state. Rather, it is afforded the status of a "Permanent Observer," the other such Permanent Observer entity being the Palastinian State which at present does not exist as a sovereign nation.
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The list of sovereign MEMBER nations is here: http://www.un.org/en/members/index.shtml
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The two permanent observers are listed here: http://www.un.org/en/members/nonmembers.shtml
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Chapter II, Article 4 of the UN Chrter states:
Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
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The Holy See is not a member nation. Other portions of the UN's own website seems to likewise note the differences between these distinctions in status: "The MEMBERS of the UN are sovereign nations . . . Just as individuals in a democracy have equal voting rights regardless of whether they are rich or poor, powerful or weak, all countries in the General Assembly have the same voting rights.
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In short, the UN itself distinguishes between sovereign NATIONS which are members and the non-nation Permanent Observers. I would also note that another definition of sovereign state is as follows: "a state which administers its own government, and is not dependent upon, or subject to, another power."

In terms of the Holy See, it has no municipal utilities of its own nor - as the Los Angeles Times notes - fire department. It is an enclave within the city of Rome/Italy.
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Two recent news stories raise the question of whether or not Pope Benedict XVI could potentially face criminal charges if he proceeds with his trip the the United Kingdom later in the year. The first is from the Los Angeles Times and raises the issue why the Vatican and specifically the Pope should not be afforded immunity as a sovereign nation/head of state. The reality is that the Roman Catholic Church is a religion, not a sovereign nation, and that the Vatican does not meet the definition generally applied to what constitutes a nation within the meaning of international law. As such, the Pope should not be allowed to claim immunity from prosecution because he is a "head of state." The second story was in the Sunday Times of London and focuses upon the planned effort of Richard Dawkins to have Benedict XVI arrested when he arrives in Britain in September - unless, of course, Benedict cancels the trip. Before looking at the two stories, it is helpful to look at some self-explanatory legal definitions of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and molestation within the criminal law context.

Conspiracy: An agreement by two or more people to commit an illegal act or to commit a legal act using illegal means. Proving conspiracy requires evidence that the parties agreed to the plan before taking action.
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Obstruction of Justice: An attempt to interfere with the administration of the courts, the judicial system, or law enforcement officers, including threatening witnesses, improper conversations with jurors, hiding evidence, or interfering with an arrest. Such activity is a crime.
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Molestation: The crime of sexual acts with children up to the age of 18, including touching of private parts, exposure of genitalia, taking of pornographic pictures, rape, inducement of sexual acts with the molester or with other children, and variations of these acts.

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The Los Angeles Times piece looks at the ridiculous manner in which the Vatican claims to be a sovereign nation and that the Pope is a head of state and, therefore, immune from criminal prosecution. The article makes - in my view - a convincing argument and set forth why Benedict XVI's claims of immunity need to be rejected. Here are some highlights:
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[I]s the spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics really a "head of state" as well? Benedict XVI is the head the church's governing body -- known as the Holy See -- which claims many of the privileges of a sovereign country. In recent decades the Holy See has welcomed ambassadors, signed international treaties and used its status to influence developments at the United Nations.
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That the Holy See is often treated as a state is deeply troubling, for several reasons. For one thing, the Catholic Church isn't truly a sovereign nation; to allow it to play one on the international stage perverts the meaning of statehood. Moreover, the church's claim to statehood gives it even more political influence than it would otherwise wield and grants outsized power to only one of the world's many religions. And its claim is particularly worrisome now that the church -- embroiled in a disturbing scandal that has reached from Boston to Berlin -- is claiming the sort of immunity enjoyed by prime ministers and presidents.
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This persists despite its [the Vatican's] lack of most of the key legal characteristics of statehood. It's true that Vatican City runs a popular post office and mints its own currency. But international law requires that a "state" have four attributes: territory, a permanent population, a functioning government and the ability to engage in international relations.
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As to the question of territory, there exists only the small parcel of land known as Vatican City. But as any visitor knows, Vatican City is in the middle of Rome and is little more than half the size of the Mall in Washington, D.C. In any event, the Holy See continues to claim that its international status is based on its religious authority, not its territorial enclave. To say that Vatican City possesses a permanent population of the sort envisioned by international law is even more of a stretch.
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For decades the strange practice of treating the Catholic Church as a state has been bad for women's equality, gay rights and reproductive freedom. The Holy See's fictive statehood allows it to promote its retrograde views on gender and sex in diplomatic settings and during treaty negotiations. Now, the unfolding sexual abuse scandal reveals another dark side of the Holy See's claim to statehood: the extraordinary immunities claimed by the pope in the face of conspiracy accusations that span the globe.
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Turning to the Times of London story, the theory on which the Pope could be criminally prosecuted is laid out - again in a argument that seems to make straight forward legal sense. Frankly, I hope Dawkins and his allies are successful. Clearly, Benedict XVI and the Catholic hierarchy engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct justice and shield predatory priest from appropriate criminal prosecution by civil authorities. There is little question that I or any readers who engaged in such a conspiracy to cover up rampant sexual abuse of minors on a global scale would find ourselves indicted before we knew what had hit us. Here are some highlights:
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RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”. Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.
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Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations. They have commissioned the barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to present a justification for legal action. The lawyers believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.
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“There is every possibility of legal action against the Pope occurring,” said Stephens. “Geoffrey and I have both come to the view that the Vatican is not actually a state in international law. It is not recognised by the UN, it does not have borders that are policed and its relations are not of a full diplomatic nature.”
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Andrew Sullivan sums up the situation well from a morality perspective when he stated as follows on his blog:

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The Pope cannot blame the local bishops this time - they desperately tried to get the priest fired. He cannot claim he was out of the loop: his signature is on the letter. He cannot get an underling to take the fall: it's his name and his office behind the unconscionable delay and behind the actual, despicably callous and self-serving reasons to protect a man who tied children up and raped them. It's over now.
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When we look at this Pope we see a man who knew that one of the priests he had authority to fire had restrained and raped children. Yet he did nothing for years, and finally sided with the priest. He had more sympathy for the relatively young age of the rapist, rather than the innocence and trauma of the raped children. We see a man utterly corrupted by power and institutional loyalty. So when does he resign?

Pope Palpatine to Priests: For God's Sake, Blog!

In an ironic move, Pope Benedict XVI, a/k/a Pope Palpatine, who wants to return Catholicism to a 13th century level of scientific knowledge, is now encouraging priest to use blogs and social networks to "proclaim the Gospel." Somehow, I suspect that some priests are already using social network sites such as Gay.com and Manhunt,com, although not to proclaim the gospel (even this blog has had a number of visitors from the Vatican City). If the Roman Catholic Church wants to avoid losing younger generations outside of uneducated parts of the world such as Africa, it is going to require more than the use of the Internet and Facebook to turn the tide. The worldwide sexual abuse scandal has shown the world that the Church's feet are made of clay and its venturing into interfering with civil legal rights for gays will likewise not help its cause among younger generations. Here are highlights from MSNBC on Pope Palpatine's message to priests:

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For God's sake, blog! Pope Benedict told priests on Saturday, saying they must learn to use new forms of communication to spread the gospel message. In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, the pope, who is 82 and known not to love computers or the Internet, acknowledged priests must make the most of the "rich menu of options" offered by new technology.
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"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources — images, videos, animated features, blogs, Web sites — which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis," he said.
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After decades of being wary of new media, the Vatican has decided to dive in head first. Last year, a new Vatican Web site, www.pope2you.net, went live, offering one application called "The pope meets you on Facebook," and another allowing the faithful to see the pope's speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.
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The Vatican got egg on its face last year when the pope admitted that, if the Church had surfed the Web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.

Vatican Tells Gay Tourists to Stay Away?

Now the Evil Empire, a/k/a the Roman Catholic Church, is making it clear that GLBT tourists should stay clear of the Vatican and by analogy I assume all Catholic churches in general. Why? Because our mere physical presence is "a provocation and an abuse." That's right if you're gay being inside of St. Peter's Basilica and other Catholic churches is an abuse of the buildings. The irony, of course, is that if all the closeted gays in the Vatican bureaucracies and the Pope's residence left, the place would be a virtual ghost town. I guess it's only we non-closeted and non-self-loathing gays who are unwelcome because we are a provocation that reminds the closet cases that they are living a lie and they know it. Here are some highlights from Global Travel Industry News:

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Bishop Kaleta said that tourism is important to the Vatican. Although there is no centralized body that promotes tourism, there are some coordinators and centers that advertise pilgrimages, but the main work is done in and by the churches. The Bishop said: “If you think about Europe, most of its architecture is connected with churches. It would be good to educate the people to honor these places.”
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Perhaps, though, they are not so all encompassing about tourism in the form of gay and lesbian travel. ETN asked the Bishop if the Vatican’s stand was clearly against this form of tourism, and the Bishop answered: “The church teachings are from the Bible. If we change this teaching, we will not be the Catholic Church. Don’t expect the Catholic church to change these issues, because it is our identity.” When asked if the Vatican is open to dialogue about welcoming such homosexual groups of tourists in the future, Bishop Kaleta responded that “such demonstrations are just not ethical.”
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Publisher Steinmetz clarified that what was meant by gay travel was traveling for the purpose of a visit, not as a demonstration. To this the Bishop replied, “I consider if someone is homosexual, it is a provocation and an abuse of this place. Try to go to a mosque if you are not Muslim. It is abuse of our buildings and our religion because the church interprets our religion that it is not ethical. We expect respect of our church as we expect to respect that a person does not have to belong to the Catholic Church. If you have different ideas, go to a different location.”

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So there you have it. Faggots are not welcomed at the Vatican even as paying tourists. Not only is it mentally sick, but it's bad for business. Be sure to spread the word that when in Rome, avoid the Vatican. Spend your money elsewhere where both you and your money will be appreciated.

Attorney Wants Pope to Testify on Clergy Sex Abuse

During his disingenuous visit to the USA last month, Pope Benedict XVI gave lip service about sarrow for the sex abuse scandal involing thousands of victims in the USA alone. Now, based upon a Raw Story article, Benedict could have an opportunity to demostrate that he was exhibiting more than mere crocodile tears. Namely, he can testify in a pending lawsuit in Louisville, Kentucky, against the Archdiocese of Louisville aleging that top church officials should have warned parishioners about sexual predator priests. It will be interesting to see what excuse Benedict comes up with to avoid having to come clean about what he (and probably several prior Popes) knew and covered up - my guess is that he will claim to be the head of state of a sovreign nation, i.e., the Vatican City. Here are some highlights:

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Pope Benedict XVI should be questioned soon about clergy sex abuse in the Catholic church because he is the most knowledgeable person on the topic and his advanced age makes future testimony unlikely, an attorney said Monday.
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This request comes as part of a lawsuit by three men claiming top church officials should have warned about sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville. A federal judge last year let those claims stand while dismissing other aspects of the lawsuit. It's now pending before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

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Attorney William McMurry said Pope Benedict XVI has an unparalleled knowledge of the scope of sex abuse complaints because before becoming pope, he led Vatican offices that were directly involved with the investigation of sexual abuse by clerics. "The pope has certain knowledge relevant to this case," said McMurry, who on Monday filed the motion seeking a court order for the pope's testimony.

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Along with the accusations against the Vatican, the lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act, which generally gives immunity to foreign countries from most lawsuits. McMurry said the law violates the plaintiff's rights to a trial on the merits of the case. McMurry also claims that the law doesn't apply to the Holy See because of its dual role as a religious institution and country.