Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, has just been named the new Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Scholars and pundits will spend the next few weeks discerning what his appointment means, and what the faithful can expect from the newly minted Pope Francis in terms of tone and agenda.
But for the global LGBT community, it’ll likely be business as usual.
While he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio sent a missive to monasteries denouncing a bill that ultimately introduced marriage equality to Argentina:
“Let’s not be naive, we’re not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.”
Fortunately, Bergoglio’s spiteful words went unheeded—Argentina legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, making it the first country in South America to do so. It also extended adoption rights to gay couples, even though Bergoglio called allowing gays to adopt a form of child abuse
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
No, leaving your children alone in Vatican City is a form of child abuse.
claudeinalbany
The Catholic Church continues to make itself increasingly irrelevant. People just don’t put up with their dated teachings anymore!
KEVINVENTION
Ugh… 🙁
Spike
Staunchly opposes gay marriage and abortion, wow, didn’t see that coming, what a shock.
Bulls Eye
Oh good. ANOTHER Pontiff we can ignore.
He must be used to it, since Argentina ignored his hissy-fit as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and legalized same-sex marriage anyway.
Dinodogstar
I’m sorry, popester. but your lying and wrong, and the new proud owner of both the pagent title and Europe’s largest gay spa, very nearby the Vatican itself…I suppose in a way were lucky that some will be able to pass off his far-right orientation as simply a product of his upbringing in South America…” i’m trying to put apositive spin on this as I am humming Evita’s song,”see Buenos Aires, just what your gonna get from me! Justa little touch of *star-quality*!!! ‘we hate in others what we hate most in ourselves’-Navajo/Dine’ Proverb
Cam
Interesting how loving gay couples are evil, but apparently covering for child molesters is fine in the eyes of the church.
Shanestud
@Dinodogstar:
Great words “pageant title” and terrific comment!!
Ann Mason
The fact that the Catholic Church has anything to say about marriage or children is just one more cruel absurdity.
ait10101
Posted this on my Facebook page and have some comments in less than 30 seconds. Someone posted, “And apparently during the regime of General Videla Redondo and Dirty war, the new pope ratted on left wing priests and monks, causing them to “disappear”.”
Nice guy.
queerty1958
…From the Who song ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’…”Meet the new boss…Same as the old boss”.
Same shit…different Pope!
titansweet
Another wicked and backward thinking pope indeed!
paulahare2
@Cam: your right
Vinaregglia
Dear Vatican,
Don’t look to remove the spec of dust in my eye until you remove the log from yours.
Vin
Ann Mason
@claudeinalbany: I’m not Catholic, so I can’t speak from personal experience on why many people remain loyal to the Church when they should know better. Obviously, there’s something complicated going on when someone says — either out loud or in a more subtle way — “I know the Church’s leaders are wrong, but let’s not dismiss the Church because of it.”
Some people are emotionally hooked on the rituals as well as the sense of community they find in their religions. If their families have practiced the same religion for generations, the rituals and (non)thinking might be wired right into their brains.
We should never underestimate the power of misguided institutions which have been around for centuries.
paulahare2
will pope child molesters are good and G.L.B.T. are not—so up your pope
Redpalacebulleaglesox
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Buzzct
Give the guy a chance: Rome wasn’t built in a day. And we ALL know that politicians sometimes say things different when they’re running than after the election. ANYTHING would be better than what we’ve had. Remember, he has to condemn all those priests for their dastardly deeds, because there is no way he can condone them!
yaoming
Gay marriage is Satan’s plan – nice attitude.
I wonder if this guy was one of the Cardinals staying in a luxury suite near the MULTICLUB. We have a right to know.
Derek Williams
And so out of touch with the Catholic faithful:
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/03/22/survey-catholics
oilburner
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH USED TO ANNOY ME, BUT THEN I CAME TO THE REALIZATION THAT THE CHURCH HAS EVERY RIGHT TO CHOOSE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE IN AND THEY DON’T HAVE TO WELCOME THOSE THEY FEEL ARE DEVIANT. I ALSO REALIZED THAT I HAVE CHOICES AS WELL. 1 i don’t have to be Catholic & 2. .i don’t need to go to their churches. ESPECIALLY IF I’M NOT WELCOME. IT IS THAT SIMPLE.
Cee
How come the only time I hear about the Catholic Church is when it’s about Homosexuality?
1EqualityUSA
oilburner, It they stayed within the confines of their church, that would be an acceptable attitude, but they influence political appointments, fund anti-gay NOM-skulls, entwine themselves in hateful propositions designed to discriminate against us, and protect pedophile clergy. So it’s not, “THAT SIMPLE.”
titansweet
@Ann Mason: @Dinodogstar: @1EqualityUSA: Very true!
darkmoonman
As the old saying goes: same song, different Pope.
NormdePlume
That has a name. It’s called projection.
2eo
I WONDER IF ANYONE ELSE SPOTTED THE UTTER STUPIDITY IN OILBURNERS POST OR DID YOU SKIP IT BECAUSE OF THE SHOUTING.
trojanboy
Oh lord.
Yang Tai
Gay Marriage is an oxymoron
titansweet
@oilburner: Not that simple! Catholicism is not just a religion it has its own country The Vatican and it is a hellish political machinery. Through ages past!
1EqualityUSA
Yang Tai, speak for your shallow self.
Derek Williams
@oilburner: Perhaps it is that simple if you’re an adult. But if you’re a kid trapped in the universe created by your parents and being told by the religion that what you are is “ordered towards evil”, then you are a prime candidate for suicide. Been there, done that. Still alive by some miracle.
yaletownman
So they are calling him Francis? I’m just calling him @sshole.
Maximiliano5458
I am not surprised that this Pope comes from South-America, considering the massive exodus of catholics that are leaving the church everyday. I was in extreme awe to see so many catholic churches, in my last trip to Chile, that are emptied and vacants due to the loss of the membership. The Celibacy is the main question that even catholics ask and that the clergy cannot and/or avoid to respond. This issue is one of the many that is eroding what used to be the mother church of the christian world. As the way we go soon, I hope, it will stop to be the “main church” of the christian faith and it will disappear as many others have already set themlseves to follow in that fate. They can say many things, but their own members are not following their leaders and that speak for itself. Let be patient and see how they cut their own throats and become extint as the dinasours did it….just a thing of the past…..
Evji108
@oilburner: Please don’t use all caps, it is considered shouting and that makes it hard for us to listen to what you are saying.
queerty1958
No matter who the Pope is or how he feels about gay people, I don’t need his permission or approval to live my life and love me life partner. How can ANY Catholic priest be an authority on the topic of a relationship between two people [man+woman/man+man/woman+woman]? They can never speak from experience, being that they are not allowed to be in one. The more they talk, the more I ignore them.
Bnl
Fuck him! #closetqueen
KentonForshee
Francis the talking mule has spoken.
qur812
And her name shall be called…….. FRANNY!
ronsfo
The choosing of the new pope, one that is probably even more conservative about, birth control, abortion, same-sex relationships. Consequently, the Catholics will continue to be mired down in the thick mud of scandal and hypocrisy surrounding child abuse, the evasion and cover up. A new conservative pope means a missed opportunity to bring this 2000 year obsolete political/religious behemoth into the 21st century, embracing the cultural and religious changes that are long over due, which will ultimately happen with Catholics or without them. The first victims of change, those that fail to embrace it.
jmmartin
It takes a father of lies to know one. The RCC is the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, and now this fool has hit the top and gets all the goodies.
jmmartin
@claudeinalbany: Oh? Then what are those thousands doing in St. Peter’s Square?
2eo
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Exactly as I predicted, a formal dsisagreement with politicians and the populus in Britain has already arrived. Absolutely making this known to as many people [especially conservatives], if I can play even a remote 0.000000000000000001% part in the souring and severance of our relationship with catholicism then I will feel proud and just.
Even the right wing halfwit papers are reporting that he hates Britain.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293118/Day-One-new-Pope-faces-controversy-Argentinian-pontiff-Francis-I-labelled-British-usurpers-Falklands-year-ago.html
Even the staunchly anti everything but white christian comment brigade have turned on him. I really hope I’m not over reacting, as the world and my country needs this to happen. The world needs them out of humanities way forever.
Brown Gay Al
Expecting the Vatican to say anything different would mean erasing the story of Lot and Sodom from the 3 Abrahamic religions. Not gonna happen.
rextrek
F him and the church – so glad I got away from that Brainwashing!
Derek Williams
@Brown Gay Al: Never been proved that was actually about homosexuality, since no such word existed in Ancient Hebrew or Ancient Greek, or Aramaic.
What about these below? The Abrahamic religions you refer to seem to be quietly ignoring them:
DEUTERONOMY 21:18-21 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or mother… then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.
DEUTERONOMY 22:13-21 A woman not a virgin on her wedding night must be executed
DEUTERONOMY 22:22 If a married person has sex? with someone else’s husband or wife, both adulterers be stoned to death
DEUTERONOMY 22:28-29 A virgin who is raped must marry her rapist.
MARK 12:18-27 If a man dies childless, his widow is ordered to have intercourse with each of his brothers until she bears her deceased husband a male heir
LEVITICUS 18:19 A married couple who have sexual intercourse during a woman’s period shall both be executed.
LEVITICUS 20:9 anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
NUMBERS 15:32,35 While the people of Israel found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be surely put to death” … and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.”
TIMOTHY 2:12 “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”
CORINTHIANS 14:34 Women should be silent in the churches, .. they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive.
COLOSSIANS 3:22 “Slaves, obey your human masters in everything”
Aidan8
@oilburner: Actually, it’s not “that simple” at all. The RC Church is actively political and pushing a brutal misogynistic agenda at the U.N. It is not some passive organization that you can take or leave. It exerts its anti-LGBT and misogynistic influence widely.
Aidan8
Pope Francine… a fresh new same-old-white-man face for the church!
queerty1958
It is so ridiculous when the Catholic Church say it is the Devil when it come to gay people, but NEVER says anything even remotely close to that on the topic of child abuse from Catholic priests. That particularly shows how lost and messed up the hearts & minds of The Church is!
1EqualityUSA
Based on how Christ Jesus dressed and conducted Himself, it’s likely that He would not appreciate the fancy dress, the palaces, the idolatry, the sexual exploitation, the hoarding of art-money-land-jewels-and other worldly goods, the substitution of Him for the worship of mere men or Saints, the political tethers, the exclusion of those deemed undesirable, well, you get the point. The “Machinations of the Father of Lies” is an accurate way to describe what has been done in His Name by this most unholy bunch of charlatans to have ever congregated on the planet. You can tell the kind of spiritual soil in which one’s roots are planted, by the fruit that they bear.
Rusty
Let’s not worry about those who are against us, but what we can do for those who are suffering because of them, let’s stand up for them and try to free them, make their lives better and work on those things to prove that we are right and those who are against us are wrong. This man can rule the Catholic church but he can not rule us as an individual or a community. We may only be 10% of the population but there are other individuals who stand with us and are trying to change the world too.
titansweet
@1EqualityUSA: Totally agree!
Derek Williams
@1EqualityUSA: superbly expressed
susanz
A religion just doesn’t wake up one day and change their ways. So no religion is really “dated”. They do change how they approach certain “issues” with how society changes and evolves in thinking way.
I believe and understand that the pope is telling catholics that they need to be less judgmental towards the gay community since you are born that way and that you should not be shun from church or Jesus just because of that.
Religion needs to be a place where everyone, no matter what, looks for God or inner peace.
susanz
@queerty1958: it’s not about you nor about him giving you “permission” to live your life they way you want. It’s about telling catholics to be less judgemental towards the gay community.
There are many religions have the same perspective towards gay communities as catholics, you just don’t hear it as much.