HEADLINE: A "bitter" Vatican urges Israel to ban Jerusalem gay parade

[Bluebear]

How much more horrible and meddlesome can a religion get?




VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican has condemned a gay pride parade due to be held in Jerusalem on Friday as offensive to religious believers and urged Israeli authorities to stop it taking place.

"It is with bitterness that we have learned that the day after tomorrow, November 10, 2006, there is scheduled in Jerusalem a so-called 'gay pride parade'," the Vatican said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

In a letter to Israel's Foreign Ministry, the Vatican urged authorities to withdraw permission for the parade which is expected to attract up to 8,000 people. "The Holy See has reiterated on many occasions that the right to freedom of expression, sanctioned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is subject to just limits, in particular when the exercise of this right would offend the religious sentiments of believers," the letter said....

The Vatican has often criticized the rise of gay rights as a potential threat to the traditional model of the family. In June, it said gay marriage, abortion, lesbians wanting to bear children and a host of other practices it saw as threats to the traditional family, were signs of "the eclipse of God."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061108/wl_nm/pope_israel_gay_dc

[Erika]

1. Theocracy and bigotry.

This pope is an utter joke.

[WinkyDink]

2. Keep thy nose in thine own trough, Pope baby.

[flordehinojos]

3. on the front page of DU there is an ad which reads,

"As president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Rev Haggard has
been campaigning against gay marriage, at the same time he's been buying drugs
from a male prostitute. Should Rev. Haggard join the Hall of Hypocrisy?" ...

It occurred to me that as Haggard campaigned and/or preached against gay marriage, he was campaigning against his own "demons" as he might call his own orientation drug/addiction. It has always been my belief that people who campaign against homosexuality, people who are homophobics, are really most afraid of their own sexuality, having, possibly been attracted to someone of the same sex and having been very much frightened by that feeling.

There is lots of same sex attraction that goes in the priesthood and the sisterhood of nuns. Lots of denial about it too--to their own selves and to others.

Pope Benny (or Pope Ratzo as anyone may prefer to call him) may be suffering from some of the above, or may have suffered from some of the above at some point in his life.

[Bluebear]

4. One very unattractive fact about being Roman Catholic...

...the Pope is "God's representative on earth" or some such, so he has absolute authority. It's not like anybody can change his edicts. It's unfortunate and sick. As if walking down the street in a parade is enough to cause this much drama on the Pope's part.

[flordehinojos]

5. there are many "thinking" Catholics out there who can somehow

differentiate between the Pope's humanness, errors and mistakes ... and something that might be more "divinely inspired"... "divine inspiration" would have us believe that at the end of life the one question asked by the "Divine Judge" is, "whom have you loved?" -- there are, unfortunately, those Catholics out there, too, who are as ignorant and as rigid as those evangelicals who now have open door at the white house...

[pnwmom]

9. Realistically, most Catholics do not believe he has

"absolute authority," although some conservative Catholics would like to convince others that he does. But the vast majority of Catholics, for instance, use birth control despite the prohibitions against it. Or they support the death penalty despite the Church's opposition to it. Or they supported the war in Iraq even though Pope John Paul said a preventative attack on Iraq would be immoral. What does that tell you about a Pope's absolute authority?

Theologically speaking, the Pope is supposed to be able to make doctrinal assertions without error, but only when he is speaking "ex cathedra." And a Pope has chosen to make a statement "ex cathedra" only a few times in two thousand years of church history.

[McKenzie]

6. They should hand over the child abusers to the proper authorities

before they can presume to lecture others on personal life style. An institution that has repeatedly covered up child abuse has no bloody right to lecture anyone on morality. And an institution that has subjugated women since its inception...don't get me started.

Damn, where's my valium?

Oh yes, I am a straight male BTW.

edited to tone down my rant

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

7. Israel to Vatican: "You have no power here!"

"Now begone, before somebody drops a house on you!"

[Bluebear]

8. Hi. Lar. I. Ous.

:rofl:

[xultar]

10. Mind your own effin glass house.