Rome gay priest 'scandal' is politics at its most deadly
Posted on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 07:55 PM
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This week Italian current affairs magazine Panorama ran an expose on a 'scandal' involving two gay Italian priests and one French priest.
Panorama claims the French priest 'celebrated Mass in the morning before driving two male escorts he hired to attend a party the night before to the airport.'
So far, so self-deluded. Closet-cases, like the poor, are always with us.
The story was printed in Panorama, the conservative weekly news magazine owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister.
As others have noted, Berlusconi may have an axe to grind, since his own romps with half dressed women half his age were loudly criticized by the Church.
Many critics suggest that Berlusconi's target isn't gay priests, it's really the man in the red shoes, since the Vatican knows all about its gay priests and had no intention of addressing the thorny issue until Panorma forced them to.
So why is this a story? Because for centuries the Church has used homosexuality to gain traction into everyone's sex lives (gay and straight); and Berlusconi, critics say, is using homosexuality to gain traction over the Church.
These deadly games are played right over the heads of the little people, the gay men that both players condemn. Gay people are just pawns in a much bigger conflict. The real prize is gaining wider influence and scalping your powerful enemy.
Of course they'd never say that, because there's no need.
I have no sympathy for gay priests, in fact I hold them in contempt. They're gay men who oppress other gay men whilst privately practicing what they publicly preach against. There's no shortage of such people, unfortunately.
You can see why they're tempted, too. Homosexual priests want all of the perks of that supremely powerful international men's club, the Catholic Church - and none of the consequences.
Evangelicals like Ted Haggard know all about it, so do quack psychologists like George Rekers. Sooner or later they're all hoisted on the own petards.
The closet breeds pathology, it's undeniable now. Gay men who can't or won't admit the most basic truth of their own existence can be a substantial threat to others as much as themselves. Worse, their hypocrisy makes them vulnerable to scandal, blackmail and coercion.
The surprisingly high numbers of gay priests in the Church highlight an aspect of Catholicism that in our age may have become its defining characteristic: 'omerta,' the official code of silence, as prevalent in the Church these days as it is in the Mafia.
The rules are simple: you must publicly say one thing in order to privately do something else, and whatever you say, say nothing - and for God's sake, don't get caught.
The truth is we'll have to prise homophobia from the Church's cold dead hands, and the same is true for every other venal conservative politician with a grudge. As a weapon it's just too politically useful to both parties.
Meanwhile, Panorama ran this story with a homophobic cover picture that says it all: pink fingernail polish on hands clutching rosary beads. Pink for pansies.
Public antagonism toward gay people is politically useful, just ask the Constitutional Amendment seeking George Bush, the score-settling Berlusconi or the look-the-other-way when it's wiser Benedict.
It won't stop until the majority of straight people figure out that their prejudices are being manipulated for someone else's gain.
33 Comments
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Intercessor | Jul 29, 2010, 11:06 AM EDT
What really got to me about this story, which should come as no revelation to many in the Church, is the FEIGNED Outrage, of the Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Vallini. Immediately upon the repeated accusation that 98% of seminarians in Rome were gay, he sent "an unequivocal message to homosexual priests: Come out of the closet, and get out of the priesthood." Now, the number of 98% is probably more than a little far-fetched, but at this point in time, nothing would surprise me. Cardinal Vallini went on to say that the majority of priests in Rome led holy lives. Now, that is a statement that I would really question, based on the eye-witness reports of friends in Rome, and the stories that I've read in the media. The Vatican KNOWS that it has a problem with homosexual priests and bishops, but simply claims they don't exist, or if they do, it is rarely! Because the Vatican claims that homosexual priests are practically non-existent, we should all believe Her, RIGHT? This story is far from over. The Vatican is now in the hot-seat. I wonder how She is going to squirm Her way out of this one?
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hollabackgurl | Jul 27, 2010, 01:03 PM EDT
This is a blog page for current affairs - and he can write about whatever he likes on it, I reckon. Besides, it's not like the CC isn't an issue in Ireland and the U.S. as well as elsewhere.
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sully1167 | Jul 27, 2010, 04:20 AM EDT
Siobhan39 is right,I as an Irish Catholic make the same statement. This is "Catholic" news not "Irish" news.
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Mick10000 | Jul 26, 2010, 11:26 PM EDT
I have studied catholic theology, and it holds that you can be homosexual, you just can't act on it. Now, let's see, what vocation can a devout catholic, who is repressing sexuality, choose where he must not act on his sexual drives? Is this a self perpetuating mechanism? Perhaps we should rethink the whole process of a celibate, male ministry! Sexually adjusted men and women make much better ministers. A protestant friend of mine once said that a marriage counselor priest is like a vegetarian butcher.
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S7McCabe | Jul 26, 2010, 09:05 PM EDT
Disgusted with this. With all the great Priests we have in our Church, there will be a few that are gay. As long as I can go to Mass and Receive Jesus in Holy Communion, I will let God sort it all out. I don't believe most of it anyway. A poll here in the States had only 3 % gay Priests. That means there are 97% good ones. Wonder how many gay men, women, and pedophiles they preach to every Sunday. I'd bet it is more than 3%.
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Siobhan39 | Jul 26, 2010, 07:24 PM EDT
Why is this an Irish story?
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Nicomax | Jul 26, 2010, 01:50 PM EDT
Let's have a schism wherein those with more open minds in the Catholic Church leave Rome and join the Anglicans since they have already allowed gays and lesbians as members of the clergy, as well as, allowing both straight and gay couples to marry. Leave the rest of the Catholic Church to those with 12 century ideas, and declining Western World participation but growth in those countries that have no coins to put in the basket. Not a solid business model.
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knowthyself | Jul 26, 2010, 12:53 AM EDT
GAY Men in the Preisthood ??? No way i don't believe a word of it its just nasty slander that satan has created. lol yeah right and i'll sell you the Brooklyn bridge cheap. Hey there has been Gays and Pedophiles in the church from day one.its nothing new, only today its exposed. look up the History of some of the Early Bishops & Popes who had sex with their sisters and Mothers and some of them had children with their siblings . Read the Suppressed Gospel of Mark. it will shock most christians.The Church Burnt most of the copies but a Few have survived. The church is failing because it has hidden the truth for over 1800 yrs It has a very dark History . Jesus said---- what you keep secreat will Destroy you. what you reveal will free you.
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LilPaddy | Jul 25, 2010, 10:48 PM EDT
Hey 2BorNot2B....If you need proof of what you outlined in your Jul 25 post here on-regarding IC? call me at 951-264-7103 Lil Paddy... A Dub in Ca. who tells it and likes it told AS IT IS!!!
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SteveMD2 | Jul 25, 2010, 10:27 PM EDT
There are so many good gay priests, but they live under the hand of the tyrant bishops and RATZI pope. Who always need a victim to demonize to sell their corrupt brand of love.
I have no quarrel with gay priests. What is totally unnatural is expecting adults to live with out sex, and to be in the queerest marriage of them all, married to the church.
And the church's need to demonize someone goes back a thousand years to the Jews, Jesus own people.
And its ultimate expression of this hatred was when the CAtholic Hitler leveraged that millenium old hatred to gain power, and 50 million died. Gays are just the newest victim of an absolutist regime which in some ways has been the curse of western humanity since its founding.
And the people realize the extent of the crimes of the church. Including being at the root of mass murder, the holocaust etc. While pitching their smokescreen about "protecting life"
Just in the last 6 weeks, CAtholic Portugal, Argentina, and Ireland and Iceland passed marriage laws for gay people, including actual marriage in Portugal and Argentina, and Civil Unions in Ireland.
Amd Lutheran Iceland voted in Marriage by a 49 to 0 vote of their parliment.
The world knows about this evil church. It needs to be ripped out by the roots, and replaced with a church that believes for real Jesus 2nd of only two commanments - to love thy neighbor as thyself.
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2BorNot2B | Jul 25, 2010, 05:23 PM EDT
Hey hollaback.. I think you need a dollar's worth of reading comprehension. Where can I send you my contribution? -- The premise of the article is that in some surreptitious way the CC hierarchy, and particularly the present Pope, know about and CONDONE the existence of a 'lavander mafia' within the Church. It says nothing about whether the Church is, or has historically been against the practice of and promotion of promiscuity and homosexuality; to which the answer is UNEQUIVOCABLY YES to the latter, and NO to the former.-- One more time... Catholic Christianity has ALWAYS abhorred the sin, and will forever accept and embrace the repentant sinner.-- The biblical precedent on this goes back to the Old Testament. -- As to whether there are corrupt and sinful men within the Church the answer is also YES! Always have, always will be. Who the H ignores that? -they even surrounded Jesus!- but fortunately they are a negligible minority, and those of us who know the incalculable number of good works performed by the Church, and the dedication, good character and even saintliness of the great majority of priests will forever defend the Church against malevolent attacks such as yours, and deliberate misinformation spread by the likes of the majority of writers at IC who love to throw out juicy bones to dogs in order to get more hits, and fire up interest to their sensationalist website. They aspire to be the ethnic equivalent of a supermarket tabloid… without the public, the exposure, the money and the ‘intellect’ of those rags.
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hollabackgurl | Jul 25, 2010, 04:26 PM EDT
The Church knew about the abuse crisis in Ireland for 60 years and let it fester, so yes, I think we have all the proof we need.
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hollabackgurl | Jul 25, 2010, 04:23 PM EDT
How can you not know your own Church history? In the 6th Century, Justinian wrote new laws that were especially harsh against homosexuals. In the 14 century, the first written prohibition to gay sex was set down in England with a punishment of the death penalty. In most cases though the offender was turned over to a church court. The CC has been anti-gay since the 6 century.
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2BorNot2B | Jul 25, 2010, 04:16 PM EDT
Bottom line, what is the end game of the author of this screed since it really lacks a compelling message (as do 98.9% of the pieces presented once or twice per week herein)? -- Is this guy O'Doherty a sore gayman who resents his lack of accessibility to pervert pseudo-priests who have no business being in the priesthood anyway, or is he just contending the CC knowingly and willingly accepts there's a 'lavander culture' within the Church and simply winks and nods hoping no one notices?-- I for one would stake my life on the former, rather than the latter.
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