THE VATICAN GAY LIE: ¨Worst of all, it isn’t even the gay community who is hurt the worst — it is the children who have been molested¨

St. Peters Basilica, Roma

Ending the Gay Pedophile Myth, Once and For All

Here we go again ... officials inside the Catholic Church have once more deemed the seemingly endless instances of child molestation and pedophilia in the Church as a “gay problem." Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long for someone to blame it squarely and explicitly on us considering the stereotype “gay person as child molester” continues to creep behind the LGBT community, always lurking in the shadow of our shared consciousness, waiting to pop out and make us look like we’re despicable fiends, easily capable of the worst crime in the world.

It is the cross to bear of subjugated groups, an assignation of some sort of fundamental fault or flaw that bigots hang their hats on when making the case against us. Racists often characterize African-American men as beastly rapists, a ubiquitous threat to all white women. Women must counteract the notion that we are lascivious Jezebels, Delilahs who will ruin people’s lives if we’re left to our own malevolent devices. And on and on it goes throughout history and across racial, gender and ethnic bounds; oppressors tell the world a lie, usually centered on some sexual perversion or malfunction, and the world makes the lie a shared reality.

All too often, we in the gay community mistakenly believe that no rational human being could possibly believe that because we have same-sex attraction it means that we want to enact them on children. Because we know how ridiculous it is, we often don’t raise hell as often or as much as possible, believing that other people see the bad logic. Or, for many of us, being characterized as evil pedophiles curbs us from defending ourselves; the shame they’ve placed on us becomes a part of who we are as a culture, it silences us because in our darkest hour, we’re terrified that those around us really believe on some level that we have the capacity to molest children. Once and for all, we need to proactively, rigorously and consistently dispel this rumor.


If we wait to defend ourselves, we’re only running on a treadmill, never able to get ahead of it. And worst of all, it isn’t even the gay community who is hurt the worst — it is the children who have been molested. HERE

· Thanks to Change.Org, sidebar
· Thanks to Abbie Kopf
· Thanks to Tips-Q, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

FELICIDADES Bishop Guerra/Guatemala, and THANK YOU Archbishop Martin Barahona/San Salvador at The Anglican Province of Central America (IARCA)

Primate-elect Bishop Armando Guerra, Guatemala and ¨Padre Mickey¨ of The Diocese of Panama.

FELICIDADES to Bishop Guerra Primado-elect de la Iglesia Anglicana de la Región Central de America. HERE

Bishop Guerra´s election by the House of Bishops and confirmation by the House of Deputies at the Synod meeting in Panama for the Anglican Church Region of Central America signals a great opportunity arriving for Bishop Guerra and the Anglican Province and the Country of Guatemala.

Guatemala is a wonderful, multi-ethnic culture, artistic/colorful environment that is also a profoundly spiritual country that fills the largest land mass in Central America (all of Central America once was Guatemala). Guatemala and Central America are also deeply need of continued nurturing done by realistic/responsible HEALTHY religious leadership. Central America longs to shine even brighter after years of recession (both financial and moral). Archbishop-elect Guerra will no doubt lead a healing outreach ministry and also offer even more stewardship at all levels of society both in Guatemala and by example throughout the Province as PRIMATE.

Progress, health (both spiritual and physical/mental) and ¨progressiveness¨ remains the key. Crime and murder have run rampant for decades and now with a better understanding of desperation amongst the most vulnerable and poor most seek to decrease the human daily difficulties for many innocents victims of abuse. Remittances from the U.S.A., the number one domestic National income in Guatemala/beyond, are down 20%. Violence against Women (often domestic and drunken) is brutal, grisly and unthinkable. Murder of busdrivers (and their adjudantes/helpers) via extortion rings is epidemic. HIV-AIDS (amongst sex workers and amongst the lowest income people, less educated folk/others) grows. Bold robberies/muggings, kidnapping and extreme poverty/thieving (near and around the Cathedral of Santiago at la ¨terminal¨ and in every other Zona in the City and in surrounding countries too) fluorish. Ruthless gangs are running out-of-control. Vigilantes in the smaller pueblos out in the ¨campo¨ and up in Highlands are trying to keep ¨order¨ while rounding out the urgent craving for NATIONAL HONESTY, serenity, generosity of spirit/otherwise, inspiration, wisdom and sanity to be further inspired by religious leaders, teachers and others. The National police are not fully equipped to handle so many multi-level confrontations in most Central American countries so there are few other options than to educate and offer spiritual and well-thought-out/responsible helping hands directed toward Loving thy Neighbor and against thievery, murder, coveting etc..

Although there are many people at ALL levels of society who are LGBT citizens, they are mostly very private and have ¨low profile¨ intimacies and socializing. In Latin America no matter ¨Gay¨ or ¨Straight¨ personal intimacies are most often very discreet. However, there is a huge ¨open¨ LGBT Community throughout Central America and even Gay Pride Parades too. There are HIV-SIDA support groups for LGBT people, Straight People and all who seek HELP. Much ¨openess¨ is helping relieve the lies that harm innocent accessories to family deceit.

Most of the NGO´s in Central America as well as Guatemala are suffering from large cutbacks in funding except for the very most reliable and dependable/transparent ones such as Caminos Seguro (Safe Passages, quite a fabulous out-from-under project for families and their children who live at the HUGE Guatemala City dump). HERE

Yes, again, GOOD NEWS! No doubt Bishop Guerra and the comfortably endowed Anglican Episcopal Church of Guatemala have been delivered a grand opportunity to SHINE as they guide all of Central America through their noble stewardship projects in Guatemala during the coming four years.

THANK YOU! MIL GRACIAS! The Most Reverend Martin Barahona, Bishop of El Salvador and Primate of IARCA--YOU DID A WONDERFUL JOB AND YOU ARE BELOVED throughout the PROVINCE!

Rvdmo. Obispo de la Iglesia Episcopal de El Salvador Y Primado de la Iglesia Anglicana de la Región Central de America (IARCA) Martin Barahona, y Padre Mickey of the Diocese of Panama.

· Thanks to Anglican Church Region of Central America
· Thanks to Archbishop Martin Barahona, Primate
· Thanks to The Anglican/Episcopal diocese of San Salvador
· Thanks to The Anglican/Episcopal diocese of Guatemala
· Thanks to Father Mickey´s Dance Party, sidebar
· Thanks to Father Mickey and The Lovely Mona
· Thanks to Bishop Armando Guerra, Primate-elect
· Thanks to The House of Bishops of the Anglican Province of Central America
· Thanks to The House of Deputies of the Anglican Province of Central America
· Thanks to Grandmere Mimi
· Thanks to Wounded Bird, sidebar

¨STRAIGHT FRIENDLY¨ Tim scheduled for the DREW MARSHALL SHOW: "Living messy lives with a real God in the middle of it"

¨Next Saturday, April 24, I'll be a guest on "The Drew Marshall Show," the most listened-to spiritual talk show on Canadian radio. I like the show's tag line very much: "Living messy lives with a real God in the middle of it." (It could be my personal motto!)

Tim in Chicago, Illinois

¨I was asked to be interviewed after Grant, a regular reader here who's become a great friend, emailed the program about Straight-Friendly and me. While I'm extremely humbled by this, I'm also very grateful to Grant (and, of course, God) for making this possible. Please pray with me this week that something I say will encourage GLBT and other wounded believers to start making their way back home--as well as inspire all listeners to embrace everyone as equals in Christ.¨

My interview, slated to run 35 minutes, is scheduled between 2 and 4 PM EDT. Live streaming audio will be available at the show's Website: HERE

About OUR Gay and Straight FRIENDLY Tim:

¨I'm a gay Pentecostal preacher's kid who gratefully managed to survive coming out of the closet with my faith intact. Over the years, I've met dozens of other GLBT friends who were less fortunate. This blog is for them--and tens of thousands like them. I pray that something here will encourage all of us to renew or strengthen our commitment to Christ. This starts by looking to Him for acceptance, not those claiming to speak for Him. Instead of waiting for fellow Christians who reject us to become "gay-friendly," I hope and believe that we can overcome our issues by becoming "straight-friendly"--loving them as Jesus told us to do. On the personal side, I'm a writer who lives in Chicago with Walt, my partner of 18 years. Cody, our mischievous yellow longhaired cat, knows no end of ways to keep things hopping around our house.¨ HERE


· Thanks to Straight Friendly, sidebar
· Thanks to The Drew Marshall Show, Canada
· Thanks to ¨Straight Friendly¨ Tim´s NEW Book ¨The Gay Believer´s Life In Christ¨

An Un-Holy, Holy Week with ¨Locker Room Gossip¨

¨In a truly disgusting display during Holy Week, the Vatican has attempted to cast itself as the “victim” in all of this comparing itself with those who suffered the Holocaust.¨ Father Geoff Farrow


¨Imagine for one moment that the Cover-Up scandal involving Catholic bishops was about superintendents of schools instead of bishops. What if it were grammar school teachers who were pedophiles? Imagine the offending teachers being transferred from one school to another and parents/guardians being given financial settlements with provisions that effectively prevented the victims from making public statements regarding the abuse. Can you imagine what would happen to the Superintendent of a school district who obstructed justice? How long would it take before the local District Attorney pressed criminal charges?

Here is where the analogy fails. Unlike the Public School System, Roman Catholic Diocese are corporations. Corporations enjoy all the legal rights of individuals without the legal responsibilities of individuals. Add to that the social/political clout of the bishops and their extensive financial power and you begin to understand why not one bishop has been prosecuted for obstruction of justice in criminal cases. These are not “white collar” (no pun intended) financial crimes, but crimes in which minors have been sexually abused.

This is why the Cover-Up is actually as bad as the pedophilia itself. The Cover-Up not only is an obstruction of justice in which victims and their families are marginalized and left to fend for themselves. The Cover-Up actually facilitates new case of abuse because bishops/superiors who knew of the abuse transferred the pedophile to new parishes. In several cases, the pedophile was moved across international boarders, thereby undermining any judicial action. All of this has been done to protect not the pedophile priest, but the institution and its reputation and wealth.

In a truly disgusting display during Holy Week, the Vatican has attempted to cast itself as the “victim” in all of this comparing itself with those who suffered the Holocaust. Cardinal Angelo Sodano then dismissed countless legal cases as “rumor.” As if the testimony of thousands of victims and the judicial proceedings of many countries are comparable to coffeehouse and locker room gossip.¨ HERE


Pope Benedict has made worse just about everything that is wrong with the Roman Catholic Church and is directly responsible for engineering the global cover-up of child rape perpetrated by priests, according to this open letter to all Catholic bishops by HANS KÜNG

¨Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and I were the youngest theologians at the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Now we are the oldest and the only ones still fully active. I have always understood my theological work as a service to the Roman Catholic Church. For this reason, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, I am making this appeal to you in an open letter. In doing so, I am motivated by my profound concern for our church, which now finds itself in the worst credibility crisis since the Reformation. Please excuse the form of an open letter; unfortunately, I have no other way of reaching you.¨

CHURCH IN WORST CREDIBILITY CRISIS SINCE THE REFORMATION HERE


¨Call for a council: Just as the achievement of liturgical reform, religious freedom, ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue required an ecumenical council, so now a council is needed to solve the dramatically escalating problems calling for reform. In the century before the Reformation, the Council of Constance decreed that councils should be held every five years. Yet the Roman Curia successfully managed to circumvent this ruling. There is no question that the Curia, fearing a limitation of its power, would do everything in its power to prevent a council coming together in the present situation. Thus it is up to you to push through the calling of a council or at least a representative assembly of bishops.

With the church in deep crisis, this is my appeal to you, venerable bishops: Put to use the episcopal authority that was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council. In this urgent situation, the eyes of the world turn to you. Innumerable people have lost their trust in the Catholic Church. Only by openly and honestly reckoning with these problems and resolutely carrying out needed reforms can their trust be regained. With all due respect, I beg you to do your part – together with your fellow bishops as far as possible, but also alone if necessary – in apostolic “fearlessness” (Acts 4:29, 31). Give your faithful signs of hope and encouragement and give our church a perspective for the future.¨ HERE

· Thanks to Father Geoff Farrow, sidebar
· Thanks to HANS KÜNG
· Thanks to The Irish Times
· Thanks to Thalamus Center, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

PERVERSION WARNING: Emotionally and sexually intact people aren't particularly concerned with the emotional and sexual lives of other adults!

THE IRRATIONALITY OF HOMOPHOBIA: A DEFECT IN MENTAL HEALTH

¨Emotionally and sexually intact people aren't particularly concerned with the emotional and sexual lives of other adults! They are likely to have a "live and let live" approach to such matters!

However, when someone has an inordinate fascination with condemning others, that condemnation betrays an emotional deficiency that makes compassion very difficult, if not impossible, to have or sustain.

And if a Christian (or any other decent person) can be characterized by any one characteristic, that characteristic is "compassion!"

Christians are to be agents of God's grace in this world; we are to preach and live out the Gospel of grace, faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness! And those who condemn others, those who seek to deprive others of civil rights, those who help create a climate of fear and hatred of others, have shown by their words and/or deeds that they are neither Christians nor even decent people!

WE ARE TO MAKE NO MISTAKE HOMOPHOBES ARE ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENT IN THE MIND-SET AND IN THEIR EMOTIONAL DEFICIENCIES THAT WERE AND ARE WHITE SUPREMACISTS!


We are to make no mistake: homophobes are absolutely no different in their mind-set and in their emotional deficiencies than were and are White Supremacists! Both groups partake of the need to discriminate and hate in order for the awareness of their own emotional deficiencies to be overridden by their condemnation of others!

"Condemnation" acts as an imperfect and temporary band-aid to help heal the haters' own emotional woundedness, a woundedness that they don't have the courage to bring themselves to face, confront, and overcome! So, they take the coward's way out and, rather than deal with "the beam in their own eye," they feel the need to manufacture a beam in a minority group whom they perceive it is safe to persecute.

And when that particular minority group is no longer considered safe to persecute, they will search for another minority group upon which to vent their anger, an anger borne of their own emotional deficiencies that they cloak in religious trappings, so that they can try and stake a claim on "godliness," "virtue" and "morality" when, in fact, their own rhetoric and actions show them to manifest the greatest form of ungodliness, lack of virtue, and immorality: the sin of pride in their oppression of others!


Jesus never condemned Gay people, but He sure spent quite a bit of time condemning the proud, the haughty, the legalists who condemned and discriminated against others and put yokes of bondage onto others, all the while claiming to impose those yokes in the name of God.

If haters didn't have an object to hate, they would be forced to confront their own emotional blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, insecurities, deficiencies and frailties. And that is the last thing a moral coward feels he/she can afford.¨ HERE

· Thanks to Heavy Artillery 'Haters' show in Brighton, England
· Thanks to Odisy's Alice in Wonderland
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing
· Thanks to The Reverend Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights

Become an Anglican HERO and fight BIGOTRY, EXCLUSION, DEMONZING, MARGINALIZING and FEAR and HATE directed against LGBT Christians/others at The Anglican Communion and beyond!

TAKE ACTION: The ANGLICAN UN, United Nations, HUMAN RIGHTS Observer, Mrs Hellen Grace Wangusa from Uganda, has an office and staff provided by the Episcopal Church (USA) at the Church Center 815 Second Avenue, New York, 10017. The direct office line is (001) 212-716- 6263 and the email address unoffice@episcopalchurch.org


Lionel Deimel, HERO, click HERE,¨No Anglican Covenant¨

CARING FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAITI: The Episcopal Church Diocese of Haiti´s College St. Pierre receives First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden

"Haitians helping Haitians"

The Rev. Lucas Rigal with Dr. Biden, M. Joseph Harry Anglade and Mrs. Obama. In the background is the one of the surviving classrooms of the old College St. Pierre. Photo by Eddy Alcindor.

Diocesan photographer Eddy Alcindor was present at College St. Pierre on Tuesday when First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, visited both the senior secondary school and the Tent City at the futbol field behind it.

Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden wanted to see "Haitians helping Haitians," as well as education efforts. The U.S. Embassy chose College St. Pierre because of the Episcopal Church's efforts to care for the people of Haiti, and to rebuild the country. HERE

As many as 200 students may have died at the school during the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 earthquake, according to Stanley, who said that university students were taking tests at the high school when the quake hit.

¨First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of the U.S. vice president, April 13 visited a Port-au-Prince earthquake survivor settlement run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti.

The two women walked to College Ste. Pierre, a wrecked diocesan high school, as part of their one-day surprise tour of the Haitian capital.

U.S. Embassy personnel told the Rev. Lauren Stanley, Episcopal Church-appointed missionary in Haiti and liaison to Bishop of Haiti Jean Zaché Duracin in the U.S., that Obama and Biden visited the site because they wanted to see an actual survivor camp where Haitians were helping Haitians recover in the quake's aftermath. Stanley said the embassy personnel told her that they knew such work was being facilitated by the diocese.

Obama and Biden arrived at College Ste. Pierre about 12:30 p.m. and were greeted by head of school the Rev. Lucas Rigal; Joseph Harry Anglade, College Ste. Pierre academic director; and the Rev. Canon Oge Beauvoir, dean of the diocese's nearby seminary and executive director of its Bureau of Anglican Education of Haiti. The men, whom Stanley said learned 90 minutes before Obama and Biden arrived that they would be visiting, briefed the two women on the situation at the camp. HERE

DONATE TO THE EPISCOPAL RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR HAITI HERE

· Thanks to Episcopal News Service
· Thanks to Episcopal Cafe, sidebar
· Thanks to First Lady, Michelle Obama
· Thanks to Dr. Jill Biden
· Thanks to The Episcopal Church College St. Pierre
· Thanks to Eddy Alcindor, photos
· Thanks to The Reverend Lucas Rigal
· Thanks to The Rev. Lauren Stanley, Episcopal Church-appointed missionary in Haiti
· Thanks to Bishop of Haiti Jean Zaché Duracin
· Thanks to The Rev. Canon Oge Beauvoir
· Thanks to The Episcopal Church U.S.A. Relief and Development Fund

DEVASTATING MISTAKES: Benedict XVI and his hierarchy failed to protect children from child sexual abuse for decades. Father Marty Kurylowicz

No “Checks and Balances”--WHEN DO WE START PROTECTING CHILDREN?

¨A major problem with the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church is that there are no “checks and balances.” When the necessary “checks and balances” are not in place to protect any organization, it leaves “not making waves” the rule that governs the hierarchy and opens the way to many devastating mistakes harmful to everyone and allows corruption to grow. The following statements are harsh statements, but unfortunately they are heavily documented.

(1) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy failed to protect children from child sexual abuse for decades.

(2) They mistreated and intimidated the victims and their families who came to report the child sexual abuse, in order to cover up publicity of any child sexual abuse.

(3) They failed to protect children by repeatedly reassigning the child sexual abusers to assignments where children would be present.

(4) When the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children became public, globally, in 2002 they shifted the blame wrongfully onto gay priests.

(5) By falsely, against known research to the contrary, blaming gay priests they implicated the entire LGBT community and how they are fighting against Marriage Equality. When the scientific facts known for decades about human sexuality have been discounted with no substantiated facts given to explain why, it causes many questions whether Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s fight against Marriage Equality is more a fight to maintained the cover-up of the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children? Benedict XVI and his hierarchy need to clearly offer substantiated reasons why they are against Marriage Equality. This statement needs to be spelled out in great detail and follow Pope John Paul II’s test of truth of not separating science and religion.

(6) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous public propaganda against homosexuality encourages public intolerance towards LGBTQ&I adults and children. They continue to do this even though this summer 2 major Christian denominations approved LGBT single and partnered people for all forms of ordained ministries.

(7) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous promulgation of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings are harmful to children in their early childhood psychological developmental years, harm that is crippling throughout their lives. They have continued this even after the beginning of the year, 2009, the Family Acceptance Project research studies had shown the negative effects caused to youths, when their sexual orientation is not accepted, having health problems, suicidal ideation, etc. They ignore all the major medical, psychiatric, psychological and social workers national and international professional associations regarding their findings regarding human sexuality and sexual orientation. HERE


UPDATE

The Catholic Church Needs Its Gay Priests

¨...But when the institutional Catholic Church looks for scapegoats they must be found. And the quick and easy answer coming from the Vatican will be to simply not ordain gay priests.

Such an order, of course, makes the assumption that all gay priests are pedophiles or, if not active pedophiles, are predisposed to it.

However, in the face of overwhelming evidence by behavioral scientists to refute such a harmful and homophobic claim, the Catholic Church, nonetheless, believes that a homosocial and celibate atmosphere of gay men produces a preponderance of pedophilic priests.

But studies have proved over and over again that the overwhelming majority of pedophiles are heterosexuals. And most of these pedophiles are not only married heterosexual men, but are married heterosexual men with children.

The Catholic Church, however, will think it can solve its problem of both pedophilia and homosexuality if it rids itself of gay priests. With the Catholic Church rid of both social cancers, the spiritual and religious life of its hallowed sanctuaries can now go on with life as normal.

However, if the Catholic Church is to go on with life as normal, it couldn't possibly ban gay priests. It needs its gay priests.

The Rev. Donald B. Cozens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood, wrote that with more than half the priests and seminarians being gay, the priesthood is becoming a gay profession. Many who know the interior of the Catholic Church would argue that the priesthood has for centuries been a gay profession, and not to ordain gay priests or to defrock them would drastically alter the spiritual life and daily livelihood of the church.

"If they were to eliminate all those who were homosexually oriented, the number would be so staggering that it would be like an atomic bomb; it would do damage to the church's operation," says A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest and psychotherapist who has been studying the sexuality of priests for decades. Sipe also points out that to do away with gay priests "would mean the resignation of at least a third of the bishops of the world. And it's very much against the tradition of the church; many saints have gay orientation and many popes had gay orientations."

The reality here is that as quietly as the Church has tried to keep it, the Catholic Church is a gay institution. And that is not a bad thing!
The problem in the Catholic Church is not its gay priests, and its solution to the problem is not the removal of them. The problem in the Catholic Church is its transgressions against gay priests. And I ask: Who will remove the church from itself?

Years of homophobia and years of church laws to maintain the homophobia have made the church unsafe for us all, young and old, straight and gay, adult and child.

Eugene Kennedy, a specialist on sexuality and the priesthood and a former priest, wrote in his book, The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality, that the Catholic Church “...had always had gay priests, and they have often been models of what priests should be. To say that these men should be kept from the priesthood is in itself a challenge to the grace of God and an insult to them and the people they serve."

The Church's edicts against LGBTQ people is a farce in light of its reality and of the gifts gay priests have given and continue to give to the Catholic Church. If the Catholic Church wants to solve its problem of pedophilia, it should not look at a priest's sexual orientation but instead at his overall personality development.

Right now, the Catholic Church stands in the need of prayer.

Scapegoating all gay priests as pedophiles is a cheap and easy solution. It gives the Catholic Church an easy escape hatch that allows the Church to not own up to the reality that the reason the Catholic Church exists and will continue to exist in perpetuity is because of the gifts, and dedicated service of its gay priests.¨ HERE

GAY PRIESTS ARE NOT PAEDOPHILES

Cardinal Bertone's attempt to blame gay priests for the church's scandals is foolish and wrong

¨Prudence is a cardinal virtue, but not a virtue always shown by cardinals in Rome. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, recently refuted a link between clerical sex abuse and celibacy, but then claimed "a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia" which, he said, "many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown". His remarks were greeted with horror, as well they should have been, for they implied that homosexuals were more inclined to sex abuse of minors than heterosexuals, which is simply false.¨ HERE


Victims slam ¨blame-shifting¨ Vatican

¨A US support group for victims of predator priests slammed the Vatican for allegedly seeking to shift blame for the now global child sex abuse scandal away from the church.

Remarks made earlier this week by Pope Benedict XVI's top aide, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, which linked pedophilia and homosexuality, were "distracting, blame-shifting" and very calculated, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said on Wednesday.

"They were calculated, as are so many similarly misguided, distracting, blame-shifting, finger-pointing comments by so many church staff seeking to scapegoat others, among them journalists, prosecutors, lawmakers, victims, lawyers, liberals and gay people," the victims' group said.

Bertone's remarks "rub even more salt into the already deep and still-fresh wounds of hundreds of thousands of men and women who have been assaulted by clerics and betrayed by bishops, especially women and girls," SNAP said.

· Thanks to Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
· Thanks to Thalamus Center, sidebar
· Thanks to A Quest for Checks and Balances at the RC Church
· Thanks to ¨Shatter the Silence¨
· Thanks to Change.Org
· Thanks to The Reverend Irene Monroe
· Thanks to Eugene Kennedy
· Thanks to A.W. Richard Sipe
· Thanks to The Reverend Donald B. Cozens
· Thanks to The Guardian, U.K.
· Thanks to Austen Ivereigh
· Thanks to The Sydney Morning Herald
· Thanks to SNAP

ALAS! HARK! MIRA! UPCOMING VATICAN BREAKTHROUGH: Heterosexuals and Homosexuals are both Apples and Oranges!

¨I am reminded of a colleague who reiterated "all my homosexual patients are quite sick" - to which I finally replied "so are all my heterosexual patients."

Ernest van den Haag, Psychotherapist
HERE

Tarcisio Cardinal ¨Pedophilia is Linked to Homosexuality¨ Betone

Vatican Distances Itself from Cardinal's Assertion That Pedophilia is Linked to Homosexuality

On Monday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone made statements which attempted to link the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal to homosexuality. Said Bertone: "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. That is the problem."The

BBC reports that the Vatican is pushing back against Bertone: HERE

Vatican 'clarifies' cardinal's homosexuality abuse link

¨The Vatican has distanced itself from remarks made by a senior cardinal, who linked homosexuality with paedophilia in the abuse scandal facing the Church. It was not the responsibility of the Church authorities to make 'assertions of a specifically psychological or medical nature', a statement said."

Also:

"On Tuesday, the Vatican issued a statement questioning the cardinal's decision to discuss the matter, but also detailing its 'statistical data' on the abuse of minors by priests. Ten percent of the cases referred to Church authorities concerned paedophilia in the 'strict sense' and the other 90% concerned sex between priests and adolescents, it said. Of those, 60% had to do with homosexual acts and 30% with heterosexual acts, it added. Earlier, France - where an estimated 60% of the population are Catholic - criticised Cardinal Bertone's remarks. 'This is an unacceptable linkage and we condemn this,' foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters in Paris. 'France is firmly engaged in the struggle against discrimination and prejudice linked to sexual orientation and gender identity.' In Italy, gay rights activist Aurelio Mancuso accused the cardinal of 'clumsily trying to shift attention to homosexuality and away from the focus on new crimes against children that emerge every day'." HERE


UPDATE

Some Catholic bishops state orientation has no connection to child sexual abuse

¨In an interesting development today the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales issued a statement making clear that in England and Wales, the Roman Catholic church recognizes the sexual orientation has nothing to do with pedophilia. Not surprising, but the timing of the statement is interesting.¨

"To the best of my knowledge, there is no empirical data which concludes that sexual orientation is connected to child sexual abuse.
The consensus among researchers is that the sexual abuse of children is not a question of sexual ‘orientation’, whether heterosexual or homosexual, but of a disordered attraction or ‘fixation’.

Many abusers of children have never developed the capacity for mature adult relationships. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children – boys, girls, or both.

In the sexual abuse of children the issue is the sexual fixation of the abusers and not their sexual orientation." HERE

· Thanks to Flickr Photosharing
· Thanks to Ernest van den Haag, Psychotherapist
· Thanks to The BBC, United Kingdom
· Thanks to Towleroad, sidebar
· Thanks to Aurelio Mancuso
· Thanks to Bernard Valero
· Thanks to The Episcopal Cafe, sidebar
· Thanks to The Lead, Nicholas Knisely
· Thanks to The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
· Thanks to All Great Quotes

"Neither Bertone nor the Vatican has the moral authority to give lessons on sexuality," Rolando Jimenez

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State

¨The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true," said Bertone. "That is the problem." His comments drew angry reactions from Chile's gay rights advocates.

"Neither Bertone nor the Vatican has the moral authority to give lessons on sexuality," said Rolando Jimenez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile. Jimenez also said no reputable study exists to support the cardinal's claims. "This is a perverse strategy by the Vatican to shirk its own ethical and legal responsibility by making a spurious and disgusting connection," he said. At least one of the highest-profile pedophiles in the Chilean church victimized young girls, including a teenager who became pregnant. At the time, the archbishop of the capital, Santiago, received multiple complaints about Father Jose Andres Aguirre from families concerned for their daughters. But the priest — known to his parishioners as Father Tato — continued serving at a number of Catholic girls schools in the city. Later the church sent Aguirre out of Chile twice amid abuse allegations. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison for abusing 10 teenage girls.¨ HERE

UPDATE

¨So, it’s no wonder that with this warped view of sex and sexuality, the RC Church and most of its clergy would feel, and express, revulsion against same-sex love, since many of their clergy are likely to be sexually fearful and/or sexually frustrated and repressed, unless they have been called by God to be celibate for God’s sake...¨

¨The Vatican must realize that the church’s belligerent, resentful and paranoid response to the global scandal is not working because it now says it will cooperate with secular justice systems and that the pope will have more meetings with victims. It is too little, too late.

The church that through the ages taught me and other children right from wrong did not know right from wrong when it came to children. Crimes were swept under the rectory rug, and molesters were protected to molest again for the “good of the universal church.” And that is bad, very bad — a mortal sin.¨ HERE

UPDATE on TUESDAY:

Pedophilia libel

¨The Vatican is flailing its arms trying to pawn its current crop of sex abuse charges on the gays. They've been doing it for years, and you can almost hear the Cardinal saying, "Please just believe it's their fault. You hate them, right? Can't you just blame them instead of the church you love?" HERE

· Thanks to The Associated Press
· Thanks to Brad Haynes
· Thanks to Joe.My.God, sidebar
· Thanks to The Reverend Jerry Maneker
· Thanks to Rolando Jimenez
· Thanks to Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, sidebar
· Thanks to The Bilerico Project, sidebar
· Thanks to Alex Blaze

HOMOPHOBIA ROTS AFRICA ALERT: Anglican BishopsOrombi/Uganda, Kolini/Rwanda, Wabukala/Kenya, Okoh/Nigeria and GLOBAL SOUTH ABUSERS know what you do!

·Even After Death, Abuse Against Gays Continues

·Bodies of gays in Senegal desecrated amid rising homophobia across Africa

This Friday Feb. 5, 2010 photo shows Ousmane Diallo holding a picture of his son Madieye Diallo

Madieye Diallo's body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.

The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals.


"I locked myself inside my room and didn't come out for days," says a 31-year-old gay friend of Diallo's who is ill with HIV. "I'm afraid of what will happen to me after I die. Will my parents be able to bury me?"

A wave of intense homophobia is washing across Africa, where homosexuality is already illegal in at least 37 countries.

In the last year alone, gay men have been arrested in Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. In Uganda, lawmakers are considering a bill that would sentence homosexuals to life in prison and include capital punishment for 'repeat offenders.' And in South Africa, the only country that recognizes gay rights, gangs have carried out so-called "corrective" rapes on lesbians. HERE


ANGLICAN/GLOBAL SOUTH and GAFCON PRIMATES/accomplices ARE YOU RESPONSIBLE for the instigating of fear and hate against LGBT Anglicans in Africa?

DO YOU ¨Know Not What You Do¨ AS YOU PERSECUTE OTHER CHRISTIANS?

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Justice Akrofi, Archbishop, Anglican Province of West Africa

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Emmanuel Kolini, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Rwanda

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Valentino Mokiwa, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Tanzania

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Gregory Venables, Presiding Bishop, Province of the Southern
Cone

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Kenya

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Nicholas Okoh, Archbishop, Church of Nigeria (Anglican
Communion)

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Henry L. Orombi, Archbishop, Anglican Church of Uganda

REPENT:The Most Rev’d Peter Jensen, Archbishop, (not Primate) Diocese of Sydney

· Thanks to ABC News
· Thanks to Joe.My.God, sidebar
· Thanks to Rukmini Callimachi
· Thanks to Archbishop Desmond Tutu
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing
· Thanks to Associated Press

Become an Anglican HERO and fight BIGOTRY, EXCLUSION, DEMONZING, MARGINALIZING and FEAR and HATE directed against LGBT Christians/others at The Anglican Communion and beyond!

TAKE ACTION: The ANGLICAN UN, United Nations, HUMAN RIGHTS Observer, Mrs Hellen Grace Wangusa from Uganda, has an office and staff provided by the Episcopal Church (USA) at the Church Center 815 Second Avenue, New York, 10017. The direct office line is (001) 212-716- 6263 and the email address unoffice@episcopalchurch.org


Lionel Deimel, HERO, click HERE,¨No Anglican Covenant¨

A Message from Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate & Anglican HERO


"Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi. These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa. Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.¨