Pope Benedict Xvi's Easter Message Urbi Et Orbi To Gay And Lesbian Christians.

[Liberal Crozier]

Not since the Medicis and the Borgias - especially Rodrigio who ascended as Alexander VI has an Easter message been used by a Pope to bring his message of intolerance and absolute villification and inaccurate science. In our century, this pope has chosen to openly and clearly declare a sinful, immoral, and disordered diagnosis and judgement against our community. The hypocrisy and political calculations to offset the paedophilic crimes by scapegoating LGBT Christians is reprehensible.

On this Easter Vigil eve, it is important for LGBT Christians, and especially Roman Catholics, to know that even papal infallibility, promulgated at Vatican I in 1869-70, does not extend to matters outside a strict canonical definition only used twice in its brief codification.

Self-hatred is emotional suicide preceded by emotional homicide.

The positive message of love, redemption, and the moral neutrality of your psychosexual orientation must be celebrated on this Easter Eve. What is morally probative is how you live your life, with equal privilege and responsibility given to all Christians in this temporal life.

If you are Catholic, you should examine the breadth of Catholic Faith and Practice outside the Roman Communion who are gay-affirming. There are Catholic and Anglican Churches with valid sacraments who are outside the Papal authority - especially the authority of the present pontiff.

As a bishop with equal sacramental grade of Holy Orders, but who has decidedly more honour and political power as a national secular chief of state, I believe that in good conscience, Catholic clergy and laity can safely declare "pro se" a schism and necessary change of jurisdiction within the Body of Christ and the universal Catholic Church.

[Liberal Crozier]

I am surprised that comments from a man who wields more spiritual weaponry than all the Protestant homophobic leaders combined gets not ONE commentary.

True, Protestants outnumber Catholics in the USA, however, the Roman Catholics outnumber the largest Protestant group, the Southern Baptists.

NO spiritual leader is also a theocratic secular national leader other than the Chief of State of the Vatican City State. His pulpit reaches all Christians, of whom nine out of ten Christians have either real, nominal, or cultural attachment to the Holy See.

As a cardinal prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Promotion of the Faith...the benign renaming of the Inquisition....he was the author of the Halloween letter and the strident views of the Church on this matter.

True, Robertson, Falwell and Dobson are Southern Baptists - and they represent the largest Protestant group in your nation....but the Catholic hierarchy speaks for the largest group in your nation ......period.

In Canada, Quebec was a virtual theocracy. The fear of Quebec joining the USA made the British Crown allow for Catholic hegemony over that province with the Quebec Act of 1775 - predating Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.
In the 1960's, the provincial secularist finally removed that theocratic rule, and the Quebec populace is overwhelmingly supportive of LGBT rights. Our largest Protestant group...the United Church of Canada is supportive of LGBT rights, gives full service rights, including marriage, and stands against the Catholic Church and fundamentalists in supporting us.

I realise that this forum includes many former Christians and New Agers who have been hurt terribly by the right wing theocratic rhetoric and opposition, and have pre-emptively rejected their cultural ties to that faith system.

That is why it is important for Catholic and Anglican members of this board to discuss these issues openly and honestly. It is more than the Protestant fundies that are in cultural warfare in your country.

The Roman Catholic assault on our rights, in a global economically-tied world, is indeed global. They sit in the United Nations as a member country, and despite having native hierarchy and clergy in each nation....they have legitimate embassies called nuncios in each nation with ambassadors.

Silence to oppression is an inaudible decibel scream prior to the loud audible screams of victims that the world hears and will hear more often and in more places.

[dewdrop_world]

I was raised Catholic and this is of great concern to me. However, I was not at my computer between 11:51 pm and 6:35 am so my silence should not be taken as apathy!

More later.

Edit: Where is the text of the message? I haven't been able to find it.

hjh

[Zerbie]

Tell ya why I didn't reply. If Liberal Crozier can get past this mis-read on my part, but BWAAHAHAHA! ROFL!!!

[QUOTE=Liberal Crozier As a bishop with equal sacramental grade of Holy Orders, but who has decidedly more honour and political power as a national secular chief of state, I believe that in good conscience, Catholic clergy and laity can safely declare "pro se" a schism and necessary change of jurisdiction within the Body of Christ and the universal Catholic Church.[/QUOTE]


See the quote above. I totally thought Liberal Crozier was saying he was a bishop, AND a head of state, (because grammatically I took the sentence to be referring to Crozier, not the Pope) and got totally confused as to the honesty and/or position of who was posting on these forums. It made me just uncomfortable enough to stay away.

I understand Crozier to be a Roman Catholic clergy member (retired? not sure?) of some high ranking. But then I thought he was claiming to be a president or monarch of some kind, and I bailed from the conversation nervously.

Okay forget all that. Of COURSE what this Pope is doing is tremendously dangerous to the lives of LGBTs. It is also dangerous spiritually for reasons I don't think anyone here needs explained. I probably haven't got much commentary to make beyond that the Pope is just a man who has been through some fair amount of education and pomp, and now has a position of power. He is horrendously wrong about gay people. As not only a non-Catholic, but also a non-Christian, I see just a misinformed man on a misguided mission that is harming innocent gay people the world over. Sadly, I don't find it news. I find it the every-day backdrop against which lives play out. It will be news when it STOPS.

Which is not the same is saying it doesn't deserve commentary. It does, and there will be someone out there with more perspective to bear on this particular situation. Well, like Crozier for instance.

I find very interesting the things that *you* say Crozier. Self-hatred is emotionally suicide. Aye. What else? But I wonder if the depths of the danger of self-hatred are fully understood. No error can be worse than this. To hate what one IS. The social spin-off there is if one hates one Self, one cannot love the soul in others either. But there is worse. If you plumb the depths of it, you can imagine.

Then Crozier, you write that our silence accompanies and precedes audible screams of victims. I wish I could respond that your statement is hysteria and paranoia, but there is too much literal truth to it. Gay-bashings, the Nazi holocaust recent enough that many folks I know can *remember* it, the early neglect of AIDS when it devastated the gay community, and the state-sanctioned torture and murder of gays around the globe. Well, we *must* stop it. And so we will stop it. We are learning, growing, even organizing and lobbying now. May our efforts be enough, soon enough!

I am glad that you are speaking out. You carry a strong and honest message.

[Liberal Crozier]

The problem with total fluency in both Romance and Teutonic tongues is the differences in grammatical rules. On occasion, and especially when unable to sleep and composing in the middle of the night, these errors translate into sloppy composition and "dangling" phrases. the adjectives applying to me instead of Josef Ratzinger, of Munich and now Rome, illustrate your point well and embarrassingly. Deservedly so.

I am a "resigned" and "retired" bishop in Apostolic Succession because I could no longer suffer the pain of both denying and living my truth in a closet the size of a confessional. It hurt both my spouse and child in the process. Sacramentally speaking, all bishops have the same sacramental grade or authority - whether ordinary or suffragan/auxiliary. The honourific differences between Rome and dioceses in any of the parts of the Body of Christ speaks to power and influence. My influence beyond my home is always suspect. The particular jurisdiction must remain to others' conjecture, because I am presently unable to deny or confirm anything comfortably. The pilgrimage we have embarked upon is a process, not a complete product.

I have been lurking on Soulforce forum for years.....as long as Mel White has had this site. My current employer operates in both the United States and Canada, and dual citizenship was ironically my birthright. What excited my exit from observer to actor was the Equality Riders. I felt that I could contribute to the dialogue, and more importantly, add my prayers to the mix.

As you probably have read, surgery and radiation and/or chemotherapy will probably occupy much of my time beginning tomorrow morning. When and if possible, I will read and share if I can. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. BTW, amethyst is such a healing colour.......

CHRISTUS ANESTI