In his continuation of the anti-Christian attacks on the gay community, the Pope recently stated that the media is to blame for portraying gays as “normal.” He further accused the media of not promoting the “family” enough as the wholesome institution that it is supposed to be.
The aging Pontiff lumps together “divorce, contraception, abortion and homosexuality” as things unworthy of positive coverage by the media, while criticizing the media for its uncritical coverage of “infidelity, sexual activity outside of marriage,” and lack of “moral and spiritual vision of the marriage covenant.” We must remember that the Vatican recently condemned the use of condoms declaring that, “They do not help prevent the spread of HIV,” in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary.
But all of these statements pale in contrast to the Pope urging “restraint” on the part of the media on these topics, or if not, urging that the “State should step in!” The State should step in to do what? Shut down the media? The Pope wants regulations to stop the media from acting against “the good of the family.”
Unbelievable! Isn’t the State “stepping in” to control the media what the Nazis and the Communists did? Once again we have the Pope trying to interfere with the internal freedoms and rule of government in the United States that states that a free press is vital to any democracy. Has the Pope become a Communist? Or are the methods of the Communists only acceptable when they further the Papal agenda? Has the Pope forgotten that the United States is not a theocracy, at least not yet?
This kind of rhetoric plays into the hands of the right wing in the United States and gives them more ammunition in their war on the gay community. We see evidence of this war throughout the United States. The right wing elements that include the White House and the Vatican are soundly “in bed” with each other to the detriment to an entire global class of God’s children. Where is the message of love that is the primary command of the Son of God in all this? Rome is creating hate where there was no hate, and increasing it where it already exists. The age of the Inquisition is once again on the horizon.
I once again call for the various elements of the gay community to come together to fight a common enemy. This time the enemy is Rome. Every single GLBT Roman Catholic should leave the Roman Catholic Church and take their money with them. I urge every gay deacon, priest, bishop and cardinal, and we know there are gay cardinals, to leave the Roman Catholic Church and either form a new branch of Catholicism or join the Old Catholic Church which has retained the original deposit of faith which existed before papal abuses became so common. Rome is only so powerful as the number of blind sheep that it has within its fold.
Finally, the Pope states and I agree that, “All communication has a moral dimension. People grow or diminish in moral stature by the words which they speak and the messages which they choose to hear.”
They sure do.
Author of The Gay Face of God and If He’s Queer He Musta Done It, Archbishop Bruce J. Simpson, OSJB studied at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and Catholic University of America and was ordained a priest in 1996 by the Reformed Catholic Church and consecrated bishop in 1999. He went on to serve as the Archbishop Protector of the Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved, the oldest Old Catholic Benedictine order in the United States.