Thursday, April 21, 2005

Doc says cholesterol is too high

Ugh! It's a fat-free/cholesterol free vegetarian diet for me for the next 3 months. Any suggestions?

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Statement from HRC on Papal Election

From the Human Rights Campaign:

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, April 19, 2005

ELECTION OF POPE BENEDICT XVI PORTENDS FURTHER CONFLICT BETWEEN CHURCH AND GLBT COMMUNITY

‘We hope that Pope Benedict XVI will follow the biblical tradition of expressing love and compassion for all,’ said HRC President Joe Solmonese.

WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign pointed to years of statements by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the newly elected pope, in expressing concern about the Catholic Church’s future treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

“We hope that Pope Benedict XVI will follow the biblical tradition of expressing love and compassion for all,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “In the past, he has made deeply disturbing comments regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, so his selection as the 265th pope is distressing. It’s imperative that there be a positive conversation with the Catholic Church about GLBT people of faith and we welcome that discourse.”

“The selection of a new pope is a time of hope and anticipation,” said John Mattras, member of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan and president of the Scriptorium. “While we welcome the opportunity for open dialogue with the new pope and church leaders, we’re deeply concerned by a pattern of homophobic and uninformed statements and opinions relayed by Pope Benedict XVI that fall wholly outside modern western norms.”

In 1986, as cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger delivered a Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. He said, “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.”

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith website, directed by Cardinal Ratzinger, includes the following statement: “Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil.”

The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization with members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure that LGBT Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.


This begs the question... what is more evil? Two people in love solidifying their relationship in a civil marriage ceremony or a cardinal of the church shuffling pedophiles around the diocese to hush up their abuse and rape of children?

Ratzinger New Pope, Same Old-Same Old

In what to me is a reinforcement of my feelings about the Catholic Church, Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Benedict XVI. Ratzinger has been JPII's henchman and enforcer of reactionary Catholic doctrine for the entirety of JP's reign; a reign that includes the pedophile scandals, the vilification of gays and lesbians, and the shrinking of the priesthood as less and less men choose to go into the church, because of antiquated ideas about women in the priesthood and priestly celibacy. One can only hope that this reign includes an epiphany on the Pope's part regarding his ugly treatment of gays, lesbians in particular, and women and children.

Some words by this "holy" man:

‘It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church’s pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.

‘But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase (No. 10).

8. "What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behavior of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable. What is essential is that the fundamental liberty which characterizes the human person and gives him his dignity be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well’ (No. 11).
So what Ratzinger is saying is that if we are attacked, abused, and discriminated against, that we should not be surprised. Why should we? We are homos after all. Need I say more?