Former President McAleese slams Catholic church's attitude to homosexuality

Earth to Bogsidebunny: You can't resign. They don't accept it.

POPE BENEDICT TO MARY: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE RULES-RESIGN FROM THE CLUB!

Paddyo -- Mary Mc Aleese spoke as a devout Catholic commenting on her own church. I imagine she finds the attitude of Islam equally objectionable, but as a non-Muslim, her comments would not carry the same weight.

GOOD for her.....she's right....this is 1 VERY SMART LADY....she is NOT closed-minded about the issue of "gays", or closing her eyes to the SEXUAL ABUSE in the CATHOLIC church.....the POPE should MORE concerned with cleaning out the DIRT in his church, then CONSENTING ADULTS being IN LOVE with and wanting to MARRY their own gender......all he's EVER done, was MOVE the BAD priests around the world....NEVER FILED CHARGES WITH THE "LAW", the way he should have.....LOVE IS LOVE....AND GOD MADE EVERYONE...what child rapist do, is NOT about LOVE....it's about POWER....and ABUSING THE TRUST that people have in them. alisa

Paddo has signed off to go to bed. I wonder what he dreams of?

The churches thinking on so MANY things has changed over the years - not always for the better (witness their abandoning "the quickening" as "the beginning of life" JUST when science confirms it!) - but for the most part it tries to keep up with the culture it serves. We no longer condemn women for speaking in church or wearing red dresses and relegate those lines in the Bible which say we should to the cultural artifacts they are. The current misinterpretation of a few lines in Leviticus to persecute all too many of our brothers and sisters MUST eventually change as well if the church is to do its job uniting God and his (in the broadest sense) people. Those bigots who cling to hate rather than love will not be regarded as "normal" before the throne of the lamb, but it may take a miracle to get them to realize that.

Paddyo, It is part of humanity. In Melbourne Australia police say three Catholic priests were responsible for the deaths of 33 young men who they abused over a number of years, The priests were men of God. You wonder why some posters are a little negative about your Church.

I don't know what age Paddyo is, but it would be good if he answered the question.

Paddyo is one of the older Catholics I referred to before. Yes Paddy it is part of our humanity. In most jail populations throughout the world they are doing more than that and they are all all male with big tats on their arms. Why do you think they have condoms on issue? No they are not to be blown up for birthday parties.

Paddyo -- You ok with straights having anal and oral sex then?

As humans we search for the truth hoping to find an almighty, that is why there so many religions and so many Gods each believing theirs is the true one. If horses had a God it would be a horse so we think it's a man. There is no such thing as sin.As humans we are flawed and incomplete. Homosexuality is to be human,maybe the third sex. What is beyond life? I don't know but whatever it is,I accept.

Hey Paddyo -- You think it's only gays who do that? You've led a sheltered life, kid.

PiperMac52, I can't accept your apparent literal interptetation of Biblical passages. There comes a time in the human evolution that men, women, and even growing kids trust their own sense of right and wrong. The fact that Jesus supposedly proclaimed in Matthew 5:28 that it is wrong for men to have lusty heterosexual feelings for women can hardly be taken literally. No rational man or woman believes this, in the mpdern world! Why should we have to say, "I'm sorry, Lord" when we believe we have not committed any transgression, let alone one which can "send us to hell"! Asking for "forgiveness", over this sort of thing, can only lead to guilt, over human sexuality! Men who like women, and women who like man, will rightfully engage in these thoughts; they are not "impure", or "dirty"! If the Lord really believes this, then he (note the lower case pronoun) is an ego maniac control freak! Concerning homosexuals, they were born that way. Therefore, I can't condemn them for having the same fantasies towards members of their own gender. So long as they respect the fact that I am heterosexual, I should not condemn them, nor should you.

And yes btw the bible has been re-written MANY times to suit the needs of whoever was in charge. Some of the most damage was done to it in AD 300 when only a few gospels were chosen and others that were more complex in teaching and scope ignored. And still, it's just a book written by humans. It says all sorts of ridiculous things like that eating shellfish or touching pigskin is punishable by death. Or that if woman's husband dies and she has not borne him a son, she must have sex with his brother until she does. THAT'S INSANE. If you crazy people want to believe a book that says all that crap go ahead. It has some inspiring stuff in it, but you people take it so far that you use it to put other people down and as history shows, when you have the chance YOU KILL PEOPLE BASED ON WHAT YOUR RELIGIOUS BOOK SAYS (the Inquisition for example). But you're time is up. NO ONE NEEDS FAITH IN GOD, FOR THEY ALREADY ARE GOD. Leave ME and other gay people alone. It's not a sin or whatever nonsense you make up. WITHIN US ALL, WHEN WE STOP TELLING THE STORIES OF WHO WE ARE, IS GOD IN PERFECT STILL SILENT AWARENESS. TAKE YOUR RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND THROW THEM IN THE TRASH WHERE THE BIG EGO'S OF THE MEN WHO WROTE THEM BELONG.

I'm thankful someone like Ms. McAleese is speaking up. I wish she went further. The Catholic church is a sham and always has been. Anyone who thinks a book is the word of God is a nutjob and has thrown their reason into the trash can. God is an experience beyond ANY human effort to contain it, and yet God is within all those things. You don't need a man holding a book that tells men they can sell their children into slavery or that homosexuality is right or wrong (it says both btw) to be one with God. You already are. It's that simple. How could their be a God if it was limited only to what is considered "good" anyway? God is in everything. Humans just like to use some limited perception of God to put other people down or two abate their fear of death. That said, pointing out how destructive the church has always been is not "bashing'. It's telling the truth.