Former President McAleese slams Catholic church's attitude to homosexuality

If the church's standing on the gay community didn't change in the last century.What makes you think it will in this one.

all you have to do is google - Pope UNexcommunicates bishop williamson to see how far off the rails the church under Benedicts leadership has gone.... Williamson is a holocaust denier / minimizer................. As for the church, well its getting its due. On EWTN alst year the church admitted that catholics in France - only about 13% attend on any regular basis, spain - 15 %, I have websites that say the true number is more like 5% ............... And we should all know how the church put its pocketbook and reputation ahead of the childen victims of its abnormal/abysmal policy of sex starved priests............Another poster hit the nail on the head - only the old folks have much to do with the catholic church any more. Thanks Heimet365..........te h big problem is how many more gay children will the church send to the cemetery while it talks about protecting life.

You can be sure most homophobe posters here are older Catholics just following the sheep.They have to move on for the next generation who are not influenced by the Church.This won't be an issue in a few years. Keep up the good work Mary.

It is plain that the R.C. church is being destroyed by evil from within. Those who defend it in this unchristian manner are demolishing it! The devil's work!

Mrs. McAleese can join the ranks of liberal dissenting Catholics. She is rebuking the teachings of Christ and his Apostles as it has been understood for 4000 years dating to the old testament and within every traditional religion. She has embraced the modern culture and jettisoned her faith as many have throughout history. Cherry picking those teachings that fit you own base nature and disposing of those that don't. That is it in a nut shell, plain and simple. Because some well known personality confirms our base nature to eschew God's/natural law doesn't give their opinion any more credence.

We don't need so much 'Humility,' Brolaur, that we fail to see the harm done by your Church's condemnations. Nor enough 'Humility' to believe that a Church that incites hatred and cruelty is "guided by The Holy Spirit." Pardon me for having only a limited human understanding; I'm incapable of imagining the Holy Spirit stirring up such evil. It's not 'Humility' you're calling for but complicity.

Seanmor -- Where do the Church Fathers stand with regard to the Holy Bible's ban on eating shellfish?

blackstone, how do your "gay friends" react to your judgment on their "deviant sexual behavior"? And are your gay friends all teenagers? And have you bothered checking any statistics, or do you see only what you want to see? NY Times editorial 9/21/11: "One study published in the journal Pediatrics in May, which looked at nearly 32,000 teenagers in 34 counties across Oregon, found that gay and bisexual teenagers were significantly more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. The risk of an attempt was 20 percent greater among gay teenagers who lacked supportive social surroundings, like schools with gay-straight alliance groups or school policies that specifically protected gay, lesbian and bisexual students." Your mocking dismissal of McAleese's concern, with your insult and pseudo-diagnosis of "deviant sexual behavior" tossed in, communicates nothing but ugly intolerance.

I believe the Catholic Church is guided by The Holy Spirit! It doesn't matter then, does it,who thinks what or why or anything else for that matter. We all need a little bit of Humility.

In the USA, the Catholic bishops have powerful allies in their anti-gay campaign. Evangelicals blame gays for every misfortune from economic collapse to birds falling from the skies over Arkansas: "Steve Strang, the influential Pentecostal publisher of Charisma magazine, wrote ... that America is under threat from a 'radical homosexual agenda.'" Cindy Jacobs of Generals International ministry "blamed a mysterious Arkansas bird-kill last year on Obama's repeal of the policy known as 'don't ask, don't tell,' enabling gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military." These "Christians" have organized a Philadelphia gathering this weekend, called "America for Jesus 2012," intended to save us all from God's alleged punishments for our progress in LGBT civil rights (Huff Post). Amidst all the histrionic "praying" for attention, however, the Pew Research Center released poll results showing Catholic support for President Obama at 54% to Romney's 42 percent. Romney's support from evangelicals (aka, the Christians meeting in Phily) stands at 74 percent (Huff Post 9/27). While Mary McAleese is right to worry about toxic messages reaching teens in Catholic schools, no child or adult in America is beyond reach, and the message for supporters of equality is that we're bringing "moral depravity" to America: a hate-filled message that harbors only more suicides, hate speech and hate crimes.

Is is deplorable that so many young people are driven to suicide because of their homosexuality, but the Church Fathers are hardly the ones to blame for this tragedy. Most, if not all, Catholic prelates have ststed that the R.C. Church does NOT condemn anyone for his/her sexual orientation, but these same prelates strictly follow the Holy Bible when it comes to homosexual activity, as they do with respect to the what the Bible's teachings teachings on adultry and fornication.

God Bless Our Humble Home

She`s Come Undone

The Vatican remains incapable of seizing an opportunity to pull out of its downward spiral, even when notable Catholics are trying to help them. The recent noise about the possibility of some ancient writings hinting that Jesus may have been married and there were women Apostles, was instantly dismissed. They should have taken the opportunity and said maybe, just maybe, this is all true and we no longer need to prevent married people or women from becoming priests. This would be the PR breakthrough they need, but no, they stuck to their power-retention position once again.

Like it or lump it, the Catholic Church's attitude to homosexuality is the correct attitude. It would be impossible for the Church to endorse same-sex activity, because it is sinful (like all sex outside of marriage). Love the sinner, hate the sin.