...At the same time, there's a lot that the U.S. Catholic community can do in our own backyard to clean house. The same institution that claims to uphold the values of love and mercy (and claims that it condemns "homosexual sin" out of a sense of love and mercy) is the same institution that exacted tit-for-tat revenge this month at the expense of Washington DC's neediest.
(Cross-posted on Amplify)
File this one in the "Absolutely Crazy" folder: Belgium's brand new Catholic Archbishop, Monsignor Andre-Joseph Leonard, recently shared this elegant, Solomonic analogy via a national television broadcast:
"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite."
What a wonderful introductory lesson to impart to Belgium's estimated 7+ million Catholics.
As someone who attended Catholic school for more than 10 years, I can't say that I ever heard any of my teachers compare eating disorders and being gay. That said, I do remember teachers linking being gay to the following:
- Bestiality
- Promiscuity and unassailable lust
- Tragic susceptibility to disease
What is it with these people? As a corrective, I'd love to see some influential Catholic leaders here in the U.S. call out Archbishop's Leonard's brazen ignorance. Needless to say, there are countless devout Catholics who know that their LGBT brothers and sisters aren't "disordered."
***
At the same time, there's a lot that the U.S. Catholic community can do in our own backyard to clean house. The same institution that claims to uphold the values of love and mercy (and claims that it condemns "homosexual sin" out of a sense of love and mercy) is the same institution that exacted tit-for-tat revenge this month at the expense of Washington DC's neediest. From The Washington Post:
"The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has ended its 80-year-old foster-care program in the District rather than license same-sex couples, the first fallout from a bitter debate over the city's move to legalize same-sex marriage."
"...Catholic Charities, which receives $20 million from the city, had sounded alarms in the run-up to the council vote, saying programs serving tens of thousands of people were in danger. Being forced to recognize same-sex marriage, church officials said, could make it impossible for the church to be a city contractor because Catholic teaching opposes same-sex marriage."
"...City officials knew of no other faith-based groups that said their city contracts were in jeopardy."
It's imperative that these religious influentials follow their principles and correct course. If we were to judge the above leaders against the insightful rubric of the New Testament Beatitudes, their actions would obviously receive an "F." Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill -- by all accounts, some of our religious leaders have completely forgotten this lesson.
(Thanks to Michael Jones at Change.org for bringing this story to our attention.)