Today of all days. I should have done Dec 23rd the day he said it, that gem of hateful intolerance our church's Nazi Pope had the gall to utter in a public setting, betraying his own professed religion, one of tolerance and of not throwing stones.
I should have done it long ago but I had great catholic priests as teachers, who made me see the Church as an institution made by people and as such fallible, with sins and need for growing up like all of us.
But the lies and intolerance of this new Pope and the Prop 8 haters were just too much. I can not continue to believe what I do and condone this. The Catholic Church as it is right now is not my Church and is barely Christian, of the kind I grew up to be: compassionate, respectful, charitable. This is the Church of Ratzinger, the nazi Pope, and henceforth his church is not my church.
It was no surprise. In 2005 a mere six weeks after being ordained Pope he already had disparaged same sex marriages, which are secular and none of his damn business.
But after John XXIII and other less enlightened but still tolerable popes like JP II there was hope he would grow into a more balanced Pope. As I said, my experience with Catholics, in Brazil, was with priests who welcomed dissent and understood Christ's teachings as a mandate to help the poor, to give back to the community and to be a kind compassionate person. Liberation Theology inclined priests.
Liberation theology is a school of theology within Christianity, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church. It emphasizes the Christian mission to bring justice to the poor and oppressed, particularly through political activism. Its theologians consider sin the root source of poverty, recognizing sin as capitalism, and capitalism as class war by the rich against the poor.
Like all liberals, Liberation Theology priests are always being accused of being communists, Marxists or the right wing epithet du jour, but they are not. They just believe in Christ and because of it in social justice. As do I.
Which brings me to Prop 8 and this war against same sex marriages. It isn't fair, it isn't compassionate and it is not on Christ's teachings. It isn't Christian at all, at least not the kind of Christian I grew up to be. And I can not sit by and be part of a church that advocates unfairness and hate instead of compassion and justice. I'm done with the Roman Catholic Church.
I saw very close up what not being married can cause to a couple. My sister and her (male) husband were together for years without being married living in Europe when she came to visit me in US and she got appendicitis. The hospital were we took her adamantly denied her husband the right to see her in the ER, because they were not married. She was miserable with him outside on the waiting room, and so was he. And us. That the person she loved and trusted to be her partner was denied the right to see her when she was gravely ill made a bad experience much worse! It was so unfair and so cruel!
Two years later they got married, because unlike thousands of others, they could, there was no nosy bigoted institution denying my sister that right. I refuse to be a part of an institution that denies this right to others. I saw the angst that not being married caused all our family one night at the ER. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a lifetime of those nights ahead of me or my family members. And I will work my tail off so that it will never happen to other people's families.
UPDATE: Wow, Rec list! Thanks! Must be a slow day ;) I wanted to add two things I put in the comments: The LGBT taught me a thing or two about refusing to lie about who you are and I admire each and every one of you for this courage. I also wanted to write this diary to remind all that people can care and understand your plight, even if it doesn't affect them personally. First they came for the gays....