Let's hope that this is just the start, to trot out a phrase I'm sure many of you will love hearing, of a people's revolution in the Church:


Law quits;MA atty general says abuse coverup was \"elaborate scheme\" (CNN)

I say good riddance. I know that he fought tooth and nail to hold onto his post as Lord of Boston. But good sense and decency finally won out and he was removed.

The thing that gets me of all this is..... I believe firmly that Cardinal Law (like many many Catholic priests out there) is gay.... and that is one of the main reasons why he tried so hard to sweep the gay pedophilia subject under the rugs and gave tacit and overt support to gay pedophilic priests.

Having said that... it turns my stomach that one of the major organizations that has tirelessly campaigned AGAINST homosexuals throughout history and even today (The Catholic Church) with its numerous, hidden, in the closet gay priests, again manages to besmirch the reputation of decent homosexuals all over by associating pedophilia and homosexuality as one and the same in the eyes of many in the straight community

ok that was a bit wordy.

what I am saying in clearer terms is that the catholic church is anti-gay. They can say that they have charity work for AIDS patients etc all they want. But we see all the time their tireless work to exclude and eradicate homosexuality.

The ironic thing is that the catholic church is itself populated with an enormous number of gay priests. many of whom are completely in the closet. I would dare say that the percentage of gay priests in the US catholic church has consistently been grossly UNDER-reported.

so then... the whole time the closeted gay priests have been busy covering their trails of sin and crime..... they have been working AGAINST homosexuals. Now this blows up in our faces and who gets the lion's share of the blame? Not "the church".... rather it's the despicable homos that get blamed once again.

Why have I sundered my friendships with my catholic priest (ex)friends? for exactly that reason. I got tired of the catholic church denouncing homosexuality on sunday while its priests think nothing of going to gay bathhouses and having orgies. (I could not make this shit up even if I tried)

[ December 13, 2002: Message edited by: ung ]

Agreed: good riddance to bad rubbish. Not because he was gay, but because he was a hypocrite. I do hope this will produce a major revision in the Church's theology on and treatment of gays, most of which has absolutely no foundation in traditional Christian theology but is instead a creation of the XX Century.

Any religious scholars here who can give a capsule history of when and how the Church's condemnation of gays arose and came to the point where it remains today? Maybe Islam's not the only faith to have become ensnared in the XIV Century.

I do not know when the anti-gay furor arose (although there is evidence of the early Church marrying male couples), but I do find it interesting that in the Irish tradition, the youngest son was the one destined for the priesthood - It seemed like after a big family, the repayment to God would be the youngest boy (who had the worst chances of marriage, etc., because of lack of land). In a weird twist of fate, the more older brothers you have, the more likely you are to be gay. So it seems the Church figured that correlation out a long time ago, and thus a tradition was born.

Doom, That's a very interesting connection you made, based as it is in the law of primogeniture and entailments. I wonder if it's possible to argue for a sort of legal selection, in which the youngest sons predispose towards gayness. I doubt it, but still, a very interesting thought.