Well, it seems that the Vatican really is intent on shedding the unneccessary deadweight of a fair fraction of their clergy and their limited standing in Western Europe and the US.
Getting a word in edgewise
Well, it seems that the Vatican really is intent on shedding the unneccessary deadweight of a fair fraction of their clergy and their limited standing in Western Europe and the US.
On an unrelated note: I think you were in my first LJ people dream ever =P
http://www.livejournal.com/users/markormarky/251223.html?thread=2320727#t2320727
I wish the Episcopalians would get their act together, because the Catholic church is feeling less and less like home for me.
“The visits to the American seminaries cover a wide range of concerns, but among those the investigators will be looking for is “evidence of homosexuality”
I wonder what kind of “evidence” they will be looking for? Cum stained Cassocks? Love letters filed under the mattress? Pet names swapped between each seminairian?
As a Catholic, I have never been more ashamed of the oranization than I am right now. I think the Pope should recognize that the priest scandals that occurred mostly involved self indentified ‘heterosexuals’
What would Jesus Do?
Jesus would conduct a purge of people who might be inclined to homosexual thoughts.
I wonder what kind of “evidence” they will be looking for?
Perhaps they will use The Fruit Machine, a disturbingly-recent piece of machinery once used by the Canadian government.
Eh, if you can bar women, it only seems fair that gays should get discriminated against as well.
Christianity seems to get stupider with age, it seems…
What this will mean.
With fewer “Gay but don’t act on it” clergy, and perhaps no built-in roles for “gay but don’t act on it” people within catholicism, the gays may leave the church, while the everyday practicing church (as opposed to that wacky church they have in Rome) may become far more homophobic. This may cause a huge issue in the culture wars, perhaps singlehandedly changing the direction of the attitude shift in gay rights.
On the other hand, the new pope appears to be hell-bent on losing as many Catholics as possible. I recently read an article on Brazilian clergy who were openly defying papal orders, and handing out condoms to gay people and prostistutes to stem the spread of HIV. One of them was quoted (with his name attached, which is far bolder then the gay clergy the NyTimes interviewed in the US) as saying something like “If the pope cracks down on stuff like this, he might just lose Brazil”
Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the new pope caused a bunch of other religions to suddenly have huge successes in Latin America.
Also, one of the common takes in the US on the “priest molestation scandal” was that priests should be allowed to marry. By justifying the crackdown on homosexual clergy using the molestation scandals, Benedict is implicitly opposing attempts to change the marriage rules for priests.
The hilarity of the whole “priests marrying” issue is that technically *some* Catholic priests are allowed to marry (I think). I could be wrong about this, but the group I believe are allowed to marry belong to the Easter Rite of the Catholic Church.
Brazil is actually developing pretty nicely according to my econ development prof in the spring. (He may be biased. His wife is Brazilian.) The real dichotomy I would expect would be between well developed economies and not so well developed economies. Religion is not, per se, the opiate of the masses, it’s the opiate of those who can’t afford better. =)