With New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Kentucky’s Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz isn’t about to let a colleague steal all the homophobic glory. Which is why he delivered a rousing speech to fellow bishops this week about how gay marriage is the new abortion.
Catholics must have the foresight to see how legalizing same-sex marriage is the same awful stain on America that Roe v. Wade is, Kurtz told his Baltimore audience at the church’s annual fall meeting. Kurtz, who is chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, claims “today is like 1970 for marriage.” That is: “If you had seen Roe v. Wade coming three years out, what would you have done differently?”
Hah!
Kurtz is totally right. The various marriage lawsuits snaking their way through the courts — Perry V. Schwarzenegger, Gill V. OPM — are about to flip a giant middle finger to the Catholic Church’s definition of morality. And all Kurtz can do is send out DVDs: Some 4,500 copies of the pro-discrimination disc Made for Each Other have made their way around the country. But be forewarned, Kurtz: Marriage DVDs have a tendency to end up completely unwatchable when they’re turned into sculptures.
How about we take this to the next level?
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PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Hey you vile old hatefilled relic:I 100% agree there should have been more focus on a different issue in 1970!!
Like how many of your fellow clergy members were fucking little boys and the church hierarchy was playing hide and seek with known pedophiles who were repeatedly moved to different parishes as their kiddie diddling was discovered. Your churches knowledge and actions regarding these creatians caused the rape of thousands of children. How fucking dare you or any other member of your wicked institution cast judgement on any other persons????……….
Andreusz
^ Seconded.
peteNsfo
We ALL need to have an “adult conversation” (to steal the latest buzz-phrase from the Republican handbook) with these ministers of discrimination…
“Why do you imagine you have a say in the equality & private lives of non-Katholics? Shouldn’t you be focusing on getting your own house in order?”
Repeat as needed…
Mike
What’s funny is in times of economic strife and turmoil divorce is usually at a all time high, which, oh my sequins! It is.
You would think that they would go after the people who are allowed to marry that are doing a tap number on the sanctity of marriage.
Jeffree
How or why does same-sex marriage affect the Catholic church? No church would be required to perform SSM ceremonies, and they’re free to excommunicate anyone they like.
If the Archbishop wants to bolster straight marriages, they’d be better off focusing on their own teachings about divorce. They realize of course that ousting str8 divorced folks would reduce their membership and collection plate offerings!
Remember, Maggie Gallagher is a Catholic by the way, as is Brian Brown….
Joe
As a former seminarian myself, I know for a FACT that the majority of priests (and bishops) are prancing queens, who are sexually active. What we REALLY need is a group that can publicly out these closeted homophobes with damning evidence.
B
No. 5 · Jeffree wrote, “How or why does same-sex marriage affect the Catholic church?”
Don’t know for sure but I bet it is the same reason that Galileo got in so much trouble. It took them nearly 400 years to admit a mistake. Figure on the Catholic Church accepting same-sex marriages sometime around the year 2400. Read http://www.jimloy.com/biograph/galileo.htm for some background:
“several of Galileo’s astronomical discoveries showed (or suggested) that the Earth actually goes around the Sun. He thought that he could convince the Church to change its view on this, as truth surely will win over superstition. So he wrote a book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. He presented his case in the form of a dialogue. One character (Simplicio) defended the Church’s view, and another (Salviati) defended Copernicus’ view. The Pope (who was a friend of Galileo), and other defenders of the Church’s view on this subject, were insulted by being portrayed as Simplicio, and by having their strongly held views ridiculed, for Galileo was an excellent writer who could easily show another person’s folly. Very much like Socrates had done centuries earlier, Galileo made enemies of the people who he could make look like fools. And very much like Socrates, Galileo’s “martyrdom” may have been intentional. In 1633, he was found guilty of heresy; his book was banned; he was forced to claim that he had been wrong, that the Earth did not move; and he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. It is sometimes reported that after admitting that the Earth did not move, he said under his breath, ‘But it does move.’
“In 1835, Galileo’s book was removed from the famous Index of banned books. And in 1979, Pope John Paul admitted that the Catholic Church had erred in its treatment of Galileo.”
Basically, it is a pissing contest.
Syl
@B: If the church admits they’re wrong on an issue, it undermines their power. They’re supposed to the infallible voice of God on earth, and admitting fault means admitting they’re just a bunch of pious frauds who have less in common with Chris than they do with the Pharisees he condemned. The papacy is entirely an invention of Rome, and Papal infallibility wasn’t an official doctrine until 1870. Why then? Because the church was losing ground to protestantism, nationalism, socialism, science, and modernity in general, so they had to shore up the defenses. Conservative Catholics blame Vatican II for corrupting the church, but the fact of the matter is Vatican II was just a marketing campaign to better sell the faith to young people and third worlders without changing the substantial beliefs.
I am so disgusted with my former faith.
Rob Moore
Why not take away the tax exempt status of all these churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. They are all rotten to the core.
Daniel
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS:
I’ll be praying for all of you who struggle with gravely disordered gender identity Mr. titter.
Cassandra
Daniel
One might reasonably consider that your post represents support for child molestation. Though Plays well’s langage was coarse, his point was to rebuke the sexual predation that has long afflicted the Catholic Church. Your post, criticizing him for it, appears then to be supportive of rape.