Catholic Church Ups Anti-Gay Messaging in Face of Damaging Reports of Sex Abuse by Clergy

Pope Francis and his past marriage equality foe, former president
of Argentina, Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner. Sex abuse by
Catholic clergy claims are exploding in Argentina.

Is it a coincidence that the Roman Catholic Church is increasing its anti-gay messaging in Australia and elsewhere and A diocese in Wisconsin is barring funerals for gays just as more damaging reports on clergy sex abuse are being released, including damaging reports from Pope Francis' own Argentina?  Personally, I suspect not.  Just like Donald Trump, members of the Church hierarchy are trying to distract the sheeple still in the pews from the reality that the Church remains a complete moral cesspool.  Also of interest is the fact that many of the new instances of sexual abuse in Argentina occurred AFTER 2001 and after the sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston in early 2002.  Hence, the effort to blame the worldwide scandal on Vatican II and liberal priests simply does not wash.  The International Business Times reports on many damning details coming out that show that little has substantively changed in the Catholic Church.  Here are highlights:

Karen Maydana says she was 9 years old when the Rev. Carlos Jose fondled her at a church pew facing the altar. It was her first confession ahead of her first Holy Communion.

She blames the trauma of that moment in 2004 for a teenage suicide attempt. And yet she never spoke about it publicly until this year. After hearing that two women who attended her school in the Argentine town of Caseros were allegedly abused by the same priest, she joined them as complainants in a case that in July led to his arrest for investigation of aggravated sexual abuse.

The allegations are part of a growing trend: While Pope Francis struggles to make good on his "zero tolerance" pledge to fight clerical sex abuse worldwide, victims in his native Argentina are denouncing abuses in unprecedented numbers. An analysis by The Associated Press shows that the number of clerics publicly identified as alleged sexual abusers has increased dramatically in the last two years.

Experts attribute the spike to a cultural shift as victims feel more emboldened to denounce abuse, prosecutors are more inclined to investigate complaints of even decades-old abuse, the media are increasingly aggressive about reporting them and courts are willing to hand down stiff sentences.

In the U.S., confidential files on hundreds of pedophile priests have been released either through civil litigation, settlements or court order. The contents have revealed that top church officials worked behind the scenes to control the sex abuse scandal and keep it from authorities as well as parishioners.

"What is really remarkable here is that the survivors in Argentina don't have the same powerful legal tools that we see in other countries," Barrett Doyle said. "And yet, we're still seeing the significant increase in cases."

The AP compiled a list of 66 priests, nuns and brothers who have been accused since 2001 of abusing dozens of people, most of them children.

"In Argentina, the abuse crisis is just beginning," said San Francisco Bishop Sergio Buenanueva in Cordoba province, who leads a church council on clerical abuse. "I'm sure the Argentine church is going to face increasing numbers of these disclosures."

Some of the accused remain in the ministry. In several cases, no canonical or judicial investigation was carried out. Some were probed and dismissed. Others, especially in recent years, have led to arrests and convictions.

Advocates of priestly abuse victims question how Francis could have been unaware of the allegations against Corradi since he was publicly named by the Italian victims starting in 2009 and most recently in 2014.

Francis has pledged "zero tolerance" for abuse, but he has also said he never had to confront the issue as archbishop of Buenos Aires, where he served from 1998 to 2013. Recently, he has acknowledged that the church was "late" in recognizing the scale of abuse and the damage it wreaked on victims, and said the practice of cover-up and moving pedophiles around was to blame.

Many Argentine victims of abuse say they feel abandoned by the church.  "You realize the complicity, the cover-up of the church hierarchy that goes all the way up to the Vatican," Anazco said.

It is helpful to remember that the Catholic Church in Argentina, including Pope Francis who was then a cardinal in Argentina, worked hysterically to block same sex marriage.  Ultimately it was a speech made by the then president of Argentina, Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, addressed to the Argentine Senate which referenced the Church's ugly history, including the Inquisition, that tipped the scales and caused marriage equality to be enacted. 

"Conservatives" Accuse the Pope of Spreading Heresy

Just as the media falsely describes right wing Republicans and evangelical Christians as "conservatives" even though their agenda is not truly conservative and instead is focused on hatred of others, so to are reactionary Catholics called "conservatives" despite a similar reactionary agenda.  In both cases, the adherents of these agendas have, in my view, a very sick need to condemn others and to feel superior that is the true motivation for their policies of division and exclusion.  Indeed, some in the Catholic Church seem hell bent to bring back the Tridentine mass and the Inquisition of the Medieval Ages rather than accept modernity and the more inclusionary, less animus based policies that Pope Francis is seemingly trying to implement albeit in a halting and haphazard manner. A piece in CNN looks at attacks launched by extreme elements in the Church (check out the site Church Militant for a taste of the extremism) that have gone so far as to accuse Francis of spreading heresy. Here are article excerpts:

Several dozen conservative Catholic scholars and clergy have charged Pope Francis with spreading heresy, a bold but perhaps futile salvo against Francis and his reform-minded papacy.

The widely publicized, theologically dense letter was delivered to the Pope with 40 signatures on August 11, according to its organizers. It has since gained 22 more signatures and was released to the public on Saturday. In a press release, the organizers say they speak for "a large number" of clergy and lay Catholics who "lack freedom of speech."

The letter does not accuse the Pope himself of being a heretic, but of supporting "heretical positions" on "marriage, the moral life and the Eucharist."

Francis has not responded to the letter publicly and the Vatican declined to comment.
 Specifically, the letter charges Francis with promoting seven "heresies," most notably through his openness to allowing some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

"Scandal concerning faith and morals has been given to the Church and to the world," the letter states. It accuses the Pope of imposing "strange doctrines on the faithful," and asks him to publicly correct his teachings.

The lightning rod for complaints is the Pope's 2016 document, Amoris Laetitia -- which has opened the possibility for some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion -- and the differing interpretations of the document, which conservatives say have sown confusion among Catholics. A number of the signees are members of a traditionalist group that has already broken away from the Catholic Church.

Still, the heresy charge crystallizes some conservatives' deep anxieties about Pope Francis, especially his teachings and impromptu statements about how to apply centuries-old Catholic doctrine to the complexities of modern life. None of the heresy letter's signees are cardinals or bishops in good standing within the Catholic church. The most prominent is Bishop Bernard Fellay, the head of the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist group which broke away from the Vatican under Pope John Paul II over doctrinal issues. Conservatives contest that the Pope is tinkering with what is written in the Bible and has been affirmed throughout centuries in the Catholic Church on marriage: that a divorced person who is remarried without an annulment may not receive communion, because the second marriage is considered adulterous. The question is whether Francis can hold together the church's left and right flanks while implementing reforms in how the church applies those teachings.

Monsignor Robert Wister, a professor of church history at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said he can't recall anything similar to the heresy letter in recent times. Pope John XXII was rebuked in the 1330s for teaching that the souls of the dead do not see the face of God until the Last Judgment.

"In the grand scheme of things, it will fuel some of the more extreme anti-Francis websites," Wister said. "And I think it will encourage various priests and bishops who do not like his pastoral direction."

"But, if you look in the pews or even at polls, most people like Francis," he said. "They see in him a compassion they have not seen in the church, an understanding of the very difficult reality of living in this very complicated world."

I am no fan of Pope Francis who has failed to hold to account the bishops and cardinals who aided, abetted and protected sexual predators within the ranks of the clergy.   Likewise, he has done absolutely nothing to end the Church's anti-gay jihad.  This said, Francis is far better than his "conservative" opponents who refuse to accept modernity and the common humanity of others, and who would bring back some of the Church's worst past practices that lacked both compassion and decent treatment of others.   Also so that these people can fee superior to "sinners" and inflict their foul dogma on others. 

GOP Bills in Arkansas Would Make It "Illegal to be Transgender"

With all the serious and pressing issues facing states and the nation, one would think that Republicans would have more important things to do than continue their anti-transgender jihad.  But that assumption would be wrong in many states - including Virginia, home of Side Show Bob Marshall - but especially so in Arkansas where pending GOP bills would make being transgender more or less illegal and set individuals up for fines and jail time.  Can't you just feel the "Christian love" behind these bills introduced to pander to Christofascists?  A piece in Salon looks at the anti-transgender animus at work.  Here are excerpts:

The clock is ticking on a trio of bills that LGBT advocates in Arkansas claim would make it effectively “illegal to be transgender” in the state.

Republicans have until March 31, which marks the end of the 2017 legislative session, to pass House Bill 1986, Senate Bill 774 and House Bill 1894 before these proposals are tabled for the year. SB 774, known as the Arkansas Physical Privacy and Safety Act, is similar to North Carolina’s controversial HB 2. It forces trans people in the state to use public restrooms that correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificate when entering government buildings and other entities owned by the state. That legislation is currently awaiting a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

That bill has been opposed by the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has warned that legalizing discrimination could trigger massive economic backlash in the state. After passing HB 2 exactly a year ago, North Carolina has lost an estimated $600 million in revenue . . .

The bathroom bill, though, is just the tip of the iceberg. Further legislation being pushed by conservative lawmakers threatens to target trans individuals by making it extraordinarily difficult to be in public at all.

Often referred to as the “bathroom bill lite,” HB 1986 actually goes further than the Physical Privacy and Safety Act by allowing individuals to bring charges against trans people for “indecent exposure.” Such actions are already a crime under Arkansas law, but HB 1986 would expand existing law on the subject. The bill defines indecent exposure as an instance in which an individual “knowingly exposes his or her sex organs to a person of the opposite biological sex: (A) In a public place or in public view; or (B) Under circumstances in which the person could reasonably believe the conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm.”

“If a transgender man has top surgery, his chest could be viewed as a sexual organ, according to the the language used on the bill. Anywhere his chest is in public view — like at a public pool or going to a spa — he could be in violation of the law and be arrested.”

Under HB 1986, trans people could face a hefty fine, as well as jail time, if another individual feels that the alleged assailant has exposed themselves in a way that would cause “affront or alarm.” If convicted of indecent exposure, transgender folks in the state would be subjected to a $2,500 penalty, in addition to a maximum sentence of a year in prison.

A third anti-trans bill has been reintroduced after being voted down by the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare, and Labor earlier this month. HB 1894 would bar transgender people from amending their birth certificates to match their gender identity. “If I decided I don’t want to be white, well, do I get to pick my race?” asked Representative Mickey Gates, who authored the legislation, . . .

Should this bill become the law of the land, it would be next to impossible for any trans person in Arkansas to escape the aforementioned cycle of legal harassment and criminalization. Gwen Fry, president of the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition, argued that these bills are an attempt to “legislate the trans community out of existence.”

Trump/Pence: Vulgarians at the Gate

As one friend noted on Facebook, within an hour of the swearing in of Trump/Pence, both the White House and Department of Labor websites have been scrubbed clean of references to LGBT civil rights. The completely expected start to a uniformly anti-LGBT government is clearly underway even as "friends" who voted for these foul individuals chat "sore loser" or "give him a chance" to those of us who are rightly fearful of the future.  The rage I feel - and rage is the correct term - towards these individuals is hard to quantify.  The coming assault on LGBT rights means nothing to them as white, heterosexual Christians because it doesn't effect them directly.  Their rights and sense of safety - at least for now - remain intact, so why care.  Frighteningly, its the same mindset that held sway in 1930's Germany.  The worse part of it all, to me is the normalizing of the reprehensible and manner in which deviancy is being defined downward with the "godly Christian" crowd cheering it on. As I noted myself in a Facebook post, I am seriously beginning the process of checking out the steps involved in securing dual citizenship in my mother's birth country - "just in case."  Two pieces in Salon look at the disturbing happenings.  Here are  highlights of the first that looks at the vulgarity that is now acceptable:

You see grown men wearing t-shirts printed with dick jokes. You hear parents shouting obscenities at the television during a football game, while their children throw food at one another. The woman behind you on the commuter train discusses the intricacies of her sex life on her cell phone. Right-wing commentators freely use terms like “libtard” and “cuck” to ridicule their ideological opponents, and then complain about “political correctness.” You watch as the Republican presidential nominee brags about the length of his penis, and is then caught on tape boasting about “grabbing women by the pussy” without their consent. Similar to tax policy, the admission soon becomes subject to partisan debate, then quickly forgotten. 

These are but a few of the sights and sounds now normal in an increasingly coarse and crude culture. . . . . Once a culture permits the previously unthinkable, the next logical move is tolerance of something even worse. A leader should challenge the audience, seek to inspire ambition for improvement, and offer an aspirational model for emulation. Trump’s vulgarity, in the Latin sense and the more contemporary meaning of crudity, comforts people at their basest urges, biases and fears. As President Jimmy Carter, a decidedly sophisticated leader, especially by comparison, said of the new President, “He makes people feel good about their prejudices.” . . . “It is fine if you remain uninformed and uncultured,” he might as well be whispering into the ears of his devoted followers. 

One definition of “vulgarian” is an “unrefined person with newly acquired power.” The surreal, science fiction image of Trump taking the oath of office with his hand on the Bible represents a triumph for the coarsest and crudest elements of American culture. . . . . The White House is now occupied by a narcissistic drama queen who fails to adhere to any standard of basic decency, whether they are admonitions against mocking disabled people or taboos against the objectification of women. . . . Trump will enforce the same degradation of public standards from the most powerful office in the country.

The second piece looks at the ugliness and bigotry of the base of support of Trump/Pence.  Here are excerpts:

Like many campaign slogans, MAGA [Make America Great Again] can mean a great many things. To a young white male who identifies with the alt-right and Richard Spencer, for example, it is code for making America white and “culturally pure” again; to an evangelical Christian, it stands for making America devout and dogmatic again; to a blue-collar worker in the Rust Belt, it means making America a manufacturing powerhouse again.

And then there’s someone like Christopher von Keyserling, a local Republican politician in Connecticut who was recently in the news after being arrested for pinching a woman in the genitals. According to reports, von Keyserling got into a political argument with the victim at an unnamed town facility in early December. After saying “I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct,” and calling the woman a “lazy, bloodsucking union employee,” he proceeded to reach from behind her, “place his hand between her legs and pinch her in the groin area.”

People were quick to note the disturbing parallels between von Keyserling’s behavior and President Donald Trump’s, as described to Billy Bush in 2005. In this Trumpian world, von Keyserling thought that he could be as vulgar, sexist and indecent as his party’s leader — who managed to win the election even after admitting to conduct that appeared to fit the definition of sexual assault.

“Make America Great Again” can mean many things, but it is ultimately a slogan that appeals to the politics of reaction. Whether it’s a white supremacist longing for the time when the white race dominated without shame or guilt; a bitter old man reminiscing about the days when all women were ladies; or a Christian fundamentalist who idealizes the period before Roe v. Wade, birth control and Charles Darwin, they are united in their reaction and collectively feel like victims of the modern age. Needless to say, women, people of color and LGBT people are much less inclined to romanticize the “good old days.”

The Trump campaign has accelerated the disintegration of public morality, and now the Trump administration threatens to shatter much of the progress that has been made over the past several decades, and return us to the bad old days.

Decent, moral people should be very, very afraid of what the future will hold if these forces are allowed to prevail. 

HRC Requests A Meeting with Pope

While Pope Francis has made statements that some perhaps self-delusional Catholics have perceived as a softening of the Catholic Church's anti-gay jihad and one Catholic bishop in Brazil has come out in support of civil unions for same sex couples (but not marriage), here in America the Catholic Church seems to have launched a new offensive against gays in the form of teachers contracts and opposition to any behavior that might be conceived to be "supportive of the homosexual lifestyle” which can be grounds for dismissal. As I have argued before, Pope Francis may be far better at PR than his Nazi Pope predecessor, but truth be told, to date Francis has not altered any official Catholic Church doctrine towards gays.  Officially, we are still "inherently disordered" and "motivated toward evil."  In perhaps a hope of pushing Pope Francis to stop the pretenses, Human Rights Campaign ("HRC") has asked for a meeting with Pope Francis.  Here are highlights from HRC's website:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today delivered a letter to the Vatican on behalf of 9 teachers who have lost their jobs at Catholics Schools for either being LGBT, or supporting an LGBT family member.   

 Last month, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati took anti-LGBT to a new level, calling not only for the firing of gay and lesbian school employees, but also citing support of the “homosexual lifestyle” as grounds for dismissal. 

Since then, Molly Shumate, who has been a devoted first grade teacher in Cincinnati for 14 years, was forced to resign after being asked to choose between her career as an educator and supporting her own gay son. These draconian laws are designed to force LGBT people back into the closet and silence straight allies.

They have sparked a frightening trend that is being duplicated in Cleveland, Oakland, Hawaii and most recently in Macon, Georgia where just last week Flint Dollar was fired from his position as Band Director at Mount De Sale’s Academy.  Dollar says that he was fired from the Catholic school by President David Held, who cited Dollar’s pending marriage to his male partner of six years as the reason for termination. Mount de Sales students and parents are reportedly planning a sit-in protesting the decision.

The letter signed by the teachers and delivered to the Nuncio, or diplomatic representative of the Holy See, reads in part:

Today, a majority of Roman Catholics in the pews and our communities support LGBT equality, as have the millions of fair-minded people who have shown support with their LGBT friends and families.

"We take hope from your messages of acceptance and see in your pastoral leadership the possibility for the Church to correct these hurtful injustices. We ask for a Papal audience with our families, so that you may hear our personal stories firsthand and see the impact the Church’s actions have had on us all."

Dozens of LGBT teachers committed to educating our youth have already lost their jobs in schools across the country. HRC calls on the Vatican to receive and carefully consider this letter to ensure that no more young people are deprived of  a good education and no more teachers are denied employment because of who they are or who they love.

Personally, I will not be holding my breath hoping that Francis will do something to signal real change.  Indeed, I voted with my feet over 14 years ago and left the Roman Catholic Church.  Between the sex abuse scandal and the Church's treatment of Gays, I'd feel dirty if I were still a Catholic.

Pope Francis' First Encyclical Continues Anti-Gay Jihad

Some people - who might be described as either overly optimistic or delusional depending on one's perspective (I opt for delusional) - had hoped that Pope Francis would usher in a new era in the Roman Catholic Church's protracted anti-gay jihad.   Those misplaced hopes were dashed when Pope Francis released his first encyclical entitled “Lumen fidei” or “The Light of Faith” which makes it clear that the pathological anti-gay animus of John Paul II and Benedict XVI will continue.  Again I ask gay Catholics why the remain involved in a Church which seeks to dehumanize them and depict them as "inherently disordered" and "evil?" Masochism is about the only  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this development.  Here are excerpts:

Pope Francis I just issued his first encyclical, chose former Pope Benedict XVI as his co-author, and chose to continue Benedict’s unhinged international holy war against same-sex marriage.

Benedict, as Pope, many times attacked same-sex marriage. Some thought Francis would focus more on less controversial issues and take the church back to its traditional home of caring for the poor, the sick, and the needy. Apparently, Francis has a different view than those who saw his elevation as a new time of unity for the Church.

What makes the encyclical all the more ridiculous is the fact that it argues that faith should be viewed as a "common good."  Apparently, Francis prefers to ignores the horrors done in the name of faith by his predecessors and the countless lives lost or destroyed thanks to people of faith.  Blind faith is a pernicious evil and provides the intellectually lazy and mentally disturbed with an all too easy justification for the harm they do to others.