Gay marriage and abortion are ‘insidious challenge to society’ says Pope
TIMESONLINE
by Richard Owen, Fatima and Ruth Gledhill
May 14, 2010Pope Benedict XVI yesterday condemned gay marriage and abortion as “among the most insidious and dangerous challenges” to society. Speaking on a visit to Portugal, which is preparing to legalise same-sex partnerships, the Pontiff also criticised Catholics who are ashamed of their faith and too willing to “lend a hand to secularism.” The gay marriage legislation was recently passed by the Portuguese parliament and is due to be signed into law next week by President Anibal Cavaco Silva, a conservative Catholic. Ninety per cent of Portuguese define themselves as Catholic but Portuguese society is increasingly secular, with well under a third saying they attend mass regularly…
Meeting Catholic charity workers at the shrine, the Pope called for “defence of life” and “indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman” in response to what he described as the dangerous threats of gay marriage and abortion. He offered his thanks to those who helped people “wounded by the drama of abortion”. His words will be studied in Britain where Catholics prepare for their own visit by the Pope in September. In the pre-election television debates, David Cameron said he disagreed with the Pope’s teaching on homosexuality. The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg indicated he agreed with Mr Cameron…
Once, long ago, before the in vogue epithet was liberal, someone said to me, "you secular humanists all think…" I had never heard the term before. I was in a club that I didn’t know existed – the secular humanist club. It was in the days before the Internet, so it was a while before I ran across the meaning of the term. Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that espouses reason, ethics, and justice, and specifically rejects the supernatural and religious dogma as the basis of morality and decision-making [sounds good to me]. I’ve since heard it frequently, but never as anything but a slur. It’s a way of defining an enemy as if it is a cohesive group. Well, there may be secular humanists meeting on the sly, but I’ve never heard of them. It means someone who isn’t religious or doesn’t look to religious dogma for answers [which is a lot of us].
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abortion and gay marriage are dangerous challenges to society
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secularism is a bad thing, and an enemy of the Catholic Church
- support for these things is because people are ashamed of their faith
And then there’s faith [treat yourself to the definition of faith in the Catholic Encyclopedia]. In the case of these two issues, faith requires one to believe some odd things. Women who have sex and become pregnant should have children whether they want them or not. Ergo, insuring that the world is populated by a lot of unwanted children is a good thing. Homosexual people should not be allowed to enter into committed relationships with each other – rather they should be celibate, promiscuous, or pretend not to be homosexual. Faith then decrees that unwanted children and homosexual people living as outcasts are good for society. And Faith, in this light, requires passing judgment on other people, rather than something to do with oneself. Maybe the Pope is right. If faith means punishing others for their sexuality, I’d be ashamed too.
Much more likely, the words of the Pope are more about the authority of the church than anything else. And by faith, he means faith in the Catholic Church [whether he knows it or not]. Authority comes in two flavors. "By the authority invested in me by the state of California, I do declare …" – delegated authority. And "He is an authority in particle physics …" – the authority of wisdom or knowledge. The Catholic Church is running on the former right now [delegated authority] and looking very shaky on the latter [wisdom]. And I expect faith in the Catholic Church is reaching a low ebb – particularly in the area of sexuality.
My 5/13 blog, “Vatican XI” elicited the following comment from friend Richard, who is himself a Catholic, whom I would describe as an intellectual, free-thinking one. He wrote:
“Seriously, though, the Pope is believed to have far more influence by non-Catholics than by practicing Catholics. This Pope, like the last, has a long history of anti-Capitalism remarks, but that doesn’t prevent conservative Catholics from embracing Capitalism. I think the days of the Pope actually influencing anyone’s beliefs are long past. Catholics generally see the Pope as more like a CEO than a philosopher.”
I think Richard is probably right for educated Westerners who could, for example, embrace Capitalism. But I still think the pope wields enormous influence throughout the world of less educated, less developed, and less free thinkers.
And he and his inner circle do have enormous institutional control over the affairs and operation of the church itself
Thanks for passing that on. I’m not around so many Catholics here in North Georgia, and the ones I do know are not as Richard describes. But this controversy has me more informed than I once was. The demographics confirm what Richard says:
World Catholicism
World Fertility Rates
The distribution of abortion rates and attitudes towards homosexuality are harder to document, but what is available confirms the educated world/third world split you describe.