Pope Puts Prada Loafer in Mouth

Ok, it's time we had a chat with the Pope. No, not me - that other guy.

I realize he's old, but doesn't he have handlers to stop him from saying stupid, insensitive, counter-productive things? I do, and my Vatican is so much less regimented than his...

In his recent year-end address to senior Vatican staffers he warned that homosexual and transsexual behavior is a threat to humanity on a par with the disappearance of the rain forests. He called for an "ecology of man," then went on to explain that protecting creation includes protecting man from self-destruction - because anything other than heterosexuality is "a destruction of God's work."

The quote that Reuters ran with was...
""The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less.""

Figuring he was on a roll, the Pontiff went on to discard Gender Theory out of hand, and then take an uncalled-for shot at World Youth Day as well. The BBC's write-up of the whole sordid mess can be read here.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you Benny, but I think you're of the opinion that the number of queers is suddenly rising. You've made the classic blunder of mistaking growing awareness for a growing population. There aren't any more of them than there ever has been, Your Holiness. They just aren't as afraid anymore.

They are finally beginning to shake off the self-loathing handed out by your institution and others like it that kept them in the shadows for centuries. They are finally beginning to believe that they deserve the right to be themselves, just as God made them, regardless of what your readings of the old books might say. They are no longer hiding their love and the families it makes, and they aren't apologizing for it not being that love of which you approve. They're taking their rightful place at the table with ALL of God's children, and you should be in favor of that.

In the wake of the priest sex scandal, with attendance declining in the industrialized countries, and more and more Catholics simply ignoring you and your pronouncements, you're sticking to the ancient party line of bigotry and oppression...

How's that working out for you?

All kidding aside, I firmly believe that this pope was chosen because he was expected to be a short-timer. He was 78 at the time of his election, he's had several small strokes, and is on heart medications. JP II was so popular that it would have been hard to elect anyone who wasn't one of his chosen men, so the College of Cardinals figured they could put Ratzinger in the job and he'd die in a decade or less. By then, the winds would be right for a more progressive Pope, and the church could finally try to move into the 21st Century (20 years behind, but better late than never, right?). They neglected to take into account the kind of damage a former Inquisitor could wreak, even in a relatively short term of office.

I know a lot of Catholics who are outraged and disgusted by the comments made by His Holiness. Unfortunately, there is no way for parishoners to recall a seated pope. They could, however, make their disapproval known...at the offering plate. If that started happening in large enough numbers, rather than protecting mankind from the destruction supposedly caused by homosexuals, the church might turn its attention to protecting itself from the destruction that is Benedict XVI.