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RELIGION
Benedict Goes Off on Gay Marriage, Choice
Gay Catholics voice criticism after Church’s ex-spiritual leader speaks out
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI watches as Pope Francis leads a Mass to mark the opening of the Catholic Holy
Year at the Vatican in 2015.
BY MATT TRACY
To the dismay of gay Catholics,
Pope Benedict XVI
tore into same-sex marriage,
abortion, and assisted
reproduction in a newly-published
interview during which he also griped
about being silenced and issued broad
warnings that modern-day society is
moving towards ostracizing anyone
who opposes marriage equality.
The 93-year-old pope emeritus’
new comments, which tied same-sex
marriage to the Antichrist, surfaced
in a new biography about him, “Benedict
XVI — A Life,” that features an
interview with Benedict by journalist
Peter Seewald of Germany.
“A century ago, anyone would have
thought it absurd to talk about homosexual
marriage,” Benedict said
in the interview. “Today those who
oppose it are excommunicated from
society.”
Benedict continued to bemoan
same-sex marriage as well as assisted
reproduction, saying, “Modern
society is in the middle of formulating
an anti-Christian creed, and if one
opposes it, one is being punished by
society with excommunication. The
fear of this spiritual power of the Antichrist
is then only more than natural,
and it really needs the help of
prayers on the part of an entire diocese
and of the Universal Church in
REUTERS/ MAX ROSSI
order to resist it.”
The comments represent the latest
in Benedict’s trend of voicing controversial
remarks at a time when many
expected him to fade out of the spotlight.
In response to the comments, LGBTQ
Catholics are voicing criticism
while underscoring a message that
the pope emeritus’ narrative belongs
in the dustbin of history.
“Once again, the former pontiff
Benedict has gone against his word
and put himself in the public eye in
this new book being released,” said
Aaron Bianco, an out gay former pastoral
associate at a Catholic Church
in San Diego who was forced to resign
due to vicious homophobia and harassment
from alt-right groups. His
story drew national attention.
“For so many LGBT members of
the Church who want so desperately
to belong to their rightful home and
fi ght for a seat at the table, Benedict
again knocks them down,” Bianco
told Gay City News. “The gospel message
of inclusion and love is so predominant
in Jesus’ teaching. Why
Benedict can’t see this is a shame.
Benedict would be best to do as he
said he would and keep quiet.”
Francis DeBernardo, the executive
director of a national LGBTQ Catholic
organization known as New Ways
Ministry, offered a contrast between
Benedict and Pope Francis, saying
the current pope is preaching inclusion
while his predecessor is stuck
in the past. DeBernardo directly addressed
Benedict’s comments about
the views of same-sex marriage.
“A century ago, people would have
thought it to be absurd to talk about
traveling to the moon and beyond,
about a vaccine for polio, and about
carrying telephones that serve as
small computers in our pockets,” De-
Bernardo said, referring to Benedict’s
complaints about the way society has
changed views about same-sex marriage
over the last century. “Times
and human understanding changes.”
He added, “Even within the Church,
Pope Benedict’s ideas of equating
culture war topics with extreme language
like ‘antichrist’ are vanishing…
Pope Benedict’s thoughts belong to
an era of the Catholic Church which
is nearing its end.”
The comments by Benedict, who
resigned in 2013, were revealed just
over one year after he penned a
6,000-word tirade blaming child sex
abuse in the Catholic Church on the
sexual revolution of the 1960s and
cast blame on “homosexual cliques”
that he said “could not provide support
for preparation to the priestly
vocation.”
Prior to assuming the papacy in
2005, Benedict, then known as Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, served his
predecessor, Pope John Paul II, as
prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith.
In that role, he authored the infl
ammatory letter ironically titled
“The Pastoral Care of Homosexual
Persons,” in which he wrote, “Although
the particular inclination of
the homosexual person is not a sin, it
is a more or less strong tendency ordered
toward an intrinsic moral evil;
and thus the inclination itself must
be seen as an objective disorder.”
The letter’s most disturbing section,
however, involved hate crimes.
There, he wrote, when gay people
make claims that they are not disordered
and seek civil rights protections,
“neither the Church nor society
at large should be surprised when
other distorted notions and practices
gain ground, and irrational and violent
reactions increase.”
May 21 - June 05, 2 24 020 | GayCityNews.com
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