Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Pope's remarks on sexuality 'will widen Anglican rift'


From the Guardian. With that hat it looks like he's working Santa's side of the street!

To the fury of homosexual groups the Pontiff said that the defence of heterosexual relationships was as important to humanity as preventing the destruction of rainforests.

In a Christmas address to prelates in the Vatican the Pope, known as God's rottweiler because of his hardline views, said that the Roman Catholic Church had a duty to "protect man from the destruction of himself". He urged respect for the "nature of the human being as man and woman".

As homosexual groups condemned the Pope, his remarks drew applause from conservative Anglican groups in Britain. They welcomed the "clarity" of the Pope's thinking which they contrasted with Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr Williams is battling to prevent a schism in the Anglican church as many of his own clergy are in openly gay relationships in defiance of church policy.

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3919612/Popes-remarks-on-sexuality-will-widen-Anglican-rift.html

1 comment:

PseudoPiskie said...

An RC friend posted the following on another list:

In 2001, B16 was still Cardinal Ratzinger, head of a Vatican office called CDF, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It's a highly placed position in the Vatican and RCC hierarchy.

He issued a letter to the world's bishops directing them to protect clergy accused of crimes, declaring the church the legitimate authority to charge, investigate, judge, and punish them; NOT the duly elected civil govt's of the host nation.

He ordered bishops not to assist in any criminal investigation, interfere in those investigations, hide evidence and send it to Rome, and not to cooperate with the legal authorities until the 10th anniversary of the victim's 18th birthday, playing the statute of limitations for all it's worth. Anyone who did not follow his orders were subject to excommunication.


I find it difficult to pay much attention to what this pope says. Unlike Jesus, he seems to be hung up on the law with little regard for the people he affects.