Not to be outdone by his own slight success in taking a more principled and responsible position on the sexual abuse scandal, Pope Benedict snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today with his hyperbolic pronouncements about gay marriage and abortion.
At the shrine in Fatima, Portugal, speaking to thousands of social workers and health care providers, Benedict proclaimed abortion and same-sex marriage some of the most "insidious and dangerous" threats facing the world today.
On a par with, or worse than: famine, starvation, global climate crisis, global financial crisis, global energy crisis, AIDS in Africa, terrorism and war, denial of equal rights to women?
Really ???
Are the pope and his inner circle so sheltered from the real world, or just that dumb? Or is it really a theological/philosophical position that they truly believe? In trying to understand people, I find it useful to think: what core belief would make this piece of nonsense seem right and logical to them)? The Church's positions make sense if they really believe that the RC Church and its clerics, all the way up to and including the pope, operate in a different world, where ecclesiastical law is supreme and the law of the land is secondary?
Ergo, they have sin, repentance, and forgiveness; we have crime, fair trial, and justice. The two systems can co-exist; but the former must not replace the latter. That would be a theocracy, and that could be very bad. Think Iran, Saudi Arabia.
Ralph
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As you point out, the Pope's issues pale in comparison with the issues that concern most liberals.
ReplyDeleteSo, with AIDS, the global financial crisis, BP's oil blowout, the Afghanistan war now being a bigger and more expensive mess than Iraq...
why are you bothering to give any attention to the Pope's comments?
richard
Because millions of people worldwide do. Like it or not, he wields enormous influence.
ReplyDeleteAnd, not least, after years of living in an anti-gay society, I need my dose of schadenfreud.
Well, who could deny anyone their schadenfreud?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, 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.
richard