What Pope Francis Didn't Say About Gay Marriage

Conservatives - okay, let's call them what they are, extremists - are trying to find anti-gay condemnation in Pope Francis' statements to date during his papal visit to the United States, the reality is that he has said nothing.  And when he has talked about the family, he did not use any of the favorite phrases of the Christofascists and parasitic professional Christian crowd such as "one man and one woman" or "children need a mother and a father."  Even some anti-gay Catholic bishops may be flummoxed that Francis missed his golden opportunity to condemn marriage equality.  Michelangelo Signorile looks at Francis silence on the issue most important to the anti-gay crowd and the bottom feeders of the GOP presidential candidate pool. Has Francis changed official Church doctrine?  No, but compared to the Nazi Pope, Benedict XVI, he was downright conciliatory through his silence.  Here are highlights from Huffington Post:

The United States this past June did something that the Catholic Church and the Vatican have for years railed against: granted marriage equality to its gay and lesbian citizens.  Yet, Pope Francis had nothing to say about it. Not then and not now. 

Considering that Pope Benedict often vocally expressed harsh condemnation of marriage equality -- even traveling to Spain to speak out against it when that country was among the first to legalize marriage for gays and lesbians and called it a "threat to the future of humanity"-- it's astonishing how silent Francis is on the issue. I've noted in the past how he had no comment as country after country in Europe legalized marriage for gays and lesbians. And then this past June, he had no comment after the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

And yet, while some of the American media noted the significance of his non-mention of the issue during his address to Congress, others were determined to read into his comments something that simply was not there.

All of this seemed to be part of an insistent mainstream media narrative that the pope, on his trip to the U.S., is making comments that "both sides" -- mostly meaning Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and progressives -- will be happy about. This is simply not true. The pope spent little time in his address to Congress on abortion -- without mentioning the word -- while going full force against the death penalty and emphatically using the term. From climate change to immigration, his passions are clear. Even conservatives are noting that on abortion and gay equality, the pope was subdued.

No mention of marriage being between a "man and woman" or children needing a "mother and a father"? Really? No mention of passing laws that could inhibit marriage for gays and "protect" those opposed to it, like the Kentucky clerk, Kim Davis? That, again, is astonishing. Francis was, after all, speaking to the legislative body that could do something about it -- and which is trying to, with Republicans having introduced the odious First Amendment Defense Act, which would allow clerks like Kim Davis and bakers and florists and others to deny services to gay and lesbian couples.

Also sitting right before Francis during his address to Congress were three of the five Supreme Court justices -- a majority of the majority -- who ruled for marriage equality in June: Justices Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Kennedy. The pope had his big chance to be clear and emphatic about the terrible thing they'd supposedly done and he blew it? Maybe he just didn't care all that much.

The pope's main concern about the family, according to what he said in his comments to Congress, is that people -- children in particular -- seem to be "disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair." That sounds more like someone promoting social programs to help the poor and stop gun-violence than someone trying to end same-sex marriage.

Francis may still be more emphatic at the conference on families he's attending in Philadelphia after his trip to New York. We'll know for sure in a couple of days.

But so far, the pope at best spoke in code -- as when, during his address at the White House, and sounding like Republican political candidates, he talked of defending "religious liberty" in the context of also protecting people against discrimination -- and at worst (for anti-gay conservatives, of course) he completely dodged the issue during his address to Congress, focusing instead on other forces plaguing the family. Whether or not it's all calculated, and though it represents no change of any kind in the doctrine of the church, it's still a win for LGBT people and an angering loss for anti-LGBT forces in America.
 

During Papal Visit Popre Francis to Meet with "Ex-Gay" Quacks

Gays being burned alive by the Church

It took the Roman Catholic Church centuries to admit that it had been wrong in supporting slavery, and centuries again to formally admit that its treatment of Galileo was wrong.  How long will it take the Church to admit that its treatment of gays nearly 800 years was wrong?   It would seem that such an admission will not be forthcoming anytime soon as we learn that while in America on his papal visit Pope Francis will be meeting with the Catholic Church's own fraudulent "ex-gay" organization insanely called "Courage."  What Courage peddles involves anything but courage.  Lies, fraud, self-deception, self-hate, and snake oil marketeers all better describe what is being promoted.  The fact that Francis will meet with a group promoting "therapy which is condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association in America and is  legally banned in California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., speaks volumes to the sad reality that Francis is not the reformer some like Andrew Sullivan continue to want to see him as being.  He may be better than the Nazi Pope, Benedict XVI, but on issues of human sexuality, Francis is still back in the 13th century.  Think Progress looks at the group Francis will legitimize by meeting.  Here are story highlights:

[W]hen the pope travels to Philadelphia next month to attend the World Meeting of Families, he’ll be rubbing elbows with people known for advocating a very different kind of conversion: Ex-gay therapy.

Ex-gay therapy, or attempts to change an LGBT person’s sexual orientation, has been widely discredited for being ineffective at best and destructive at worst. Some former advocates of the practice have publicly recanted and apologized for promoting it, the American Psychological Association has condemned its use, and it is legally banned in California, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.

Yet so-called “reparative therapy” has long enjoyed pockets of support with conservative Christian circles, and some of its backers will be present at the World Meeting of Families next month.

Courage  . . . . officially rejects the label of ex-gay ministry, claiming instead that its employees promote a lifetime of celibacy for homosexual Catholics, saying the organization “prefers to think of itself as a ‘Pro-Chastity’ ministry.”

Yet Courage has repeatedly challenged the validity of this distinction. It has invited professional ex-gay therapists to lead trainings at conferences, and the suggested reading list on the Courage’s website includes several publications promoting ex-gay therapy written by ex-gay counselors.

The group’s executive director, Rev. Paul Check, has also voiced support for more explicit forms of ex-gay therapy. . . . he does not support laws banning ex-gay therapy organizations for children, arguing that it is an “unproven assertion” that such “change” counseling “does harm to people.”

Several other Catholic leaders with connections to ex-gay therapy are also expected to give talks or lead discussions at the convening. Dr. Janet Smith, a speaker for Courage who has publicly promoted a pamphlet that advocates for the “prevention” and “treatment” of same-sex attraction in children, is scheduled to lead a breakout session at the conference. So too is Christopher West, a theologian who has positively reviewed books on “reparative ministries” and is listed on the board of references for the Restored Hope Network, an ex-gay group.

[T]he Archdiocese of Philadelphia has refused to allow a local parish to host a workshop on gender identity during Pope Francis’ visit, forcing organizers — the Catholic group New Ways Ministry — to relocate a nearby Methodist church.

Ex-gay therapy is also widely rejected by most Catholics. A 2011 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute found that an overwhelming majority of American Catholics (69 percent) don’t believe that sexual orientation can be changed, and the group is actually more supportive of same-sex marriage than any other American Christian denomination. . . . the majority of Catholics embrace LGBT people while the Church hierarchy continues to push back against acceptance — and sometimes firing people for being “publicly” gay.

My advice to gay Catholics: walk away from the Church and encourage your friends and families to do likewise.  The Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America provide the same liturgical services - they are basically Catholic masses - without the corrupt Church hierarchy and the daily denigration of LGBT individuals.  That Francis will meet with "ex-gay" charlatans speaks volumes and none of it good. Being gay and remaining Catholic is like a black individual joining and participating in a pro-slavery, pro-segregation Southern Baptist Church.  It's insane.

Update - Catholic Bishops Fluff Piece Blog for Papal Visit to USA

I checked the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' blog on the papal visit this morning to see if my comment had been published. Not surprisingly, it has not and I suspect that it will never be published. I will continue to visit the blog from time to time and fully expect to only see servile and pandering comments that never take a serious look at the Roman Catholic Church's cancerous problems. In respose to my post, however, I did receive an interesting e-mail from a reader who is quite the European history buff and with whom I have had many exchanges on history. His message included some references to more dirty laundry the Church hierarcy pretends does not exist. In my opinion, in many ways, the Roman Catholic Church has to be one of the most corrupt and hypocritical institutions in the world. Here are my reader's comments:

Interesting comments on the Pope and the Catholic religion. It reminded me of an article I read a while ago in Le Nouvel Observateur, a French magazine from Paris, kind the French equivalent of Time, but that's a very rough comparison (maybe you know the mag?). Anyway, the comment about the church not doing any house-cleaning at the higher levels brought to mind the fact that after WW II, the church didn't do much house-cleaning or atonement for siding with the Nazis, and apparently, right up in to the 1970s, some catholic churches were used to hide clergy who should have been brought to trial for war crimes, but were protected instead by Catholic hierarchy.

I haven't looked, but there might be articles on the Net about this now. The Catholic Church has never taken responsibility for any of the crimes it's committed throughout the ages - no wonder some radical Muslims think that they're just getting back at what the West has perpetrated against them "in the name of Christ..." If there's no atonement for war crimes among the clergy, why should there be atonement for any other kind of abuse? They've always gotten away with it, and people's memories are just too short for the Church to be brought down. Maybe a better way to look at it is that if people don't seek justice, there won't be any. "The opium of the people" is still legal trade in many communities in the world. And not just among Catholics. Sad...

One story that looks at a rare instance of an apology by portions of the Catholic hierarchy can be found here. Sadly, as my reader points out, it is the exception to the rule: http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/magazine/data5/jedwabne.html

Catholic Bishops Fluff Piece Blog for Papal Visit to USA

In my wanders around various news articles on religion I found a blog set up by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (http://usccb.wordpress.com/) where readers are invited "to join in on the discussion of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the United States, April 15-20, 2008." A brief review of the posts to date revealed a large number of sappy fluff comments, all pandering to the Vatican and - to use blunt language - kissing Benedict XVI's ass. Comments are being moderated and I strongly suspect that only those that are suffieciently obsequious will be published on the blog. To test my theory, I submitted the following comment and I will report back on whether or not the Bishops want a true exchange of opinions or are instead merely using the blog as a propaganda vehicle:

I for one do not see Benedict XVI as a rock to uphold the Church. Rather, I view him as one who is trying to drag the Church backwards several centuries in its thinking and one who is clinging to old dogmas and refusing to face new medical and mental health knowledge and other advances in learning that must be accommodated if the Church is going to be accepted by an educated and literate laity. I believe it is no coincidence that the Church’s growth is most evident in ignorant and uneducated areas of the world while attendance lags in the more educated and enlightened western nations.

Worse yet, Benedict XVI has failed to undertake a full house cleaning of the Church hierarchy to dismiss bishops and cardinals who were complicit in the sexual abuse cover up. In short, he is a hypocritical fraud. Thus, having been raised Catholic, served as an altar boy for 10 years, attended daily mass faithfully for over a 9 year period during college and my 20’s, and become a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus, I voted with my feet as they say and am now a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – a very Catholic service and beliefs system without the corruption and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church under Benedict XVI and his less than saintly predecessor. Hopefully, Americans will see Benedict XVI as the fraud and anachronism that he truly is.