This cardinal could be an even worse pope than Ratzi. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana is said to be in the running to take over Ratzi's job. And this one is seriously off the beam.
But don't worry. Italian newspapers seem to think that smiling Timmy Dolan of NYC, who was deposed on Wednesday about the pedophilia scandal, has a good shot at being the next pope. Oh, wait. That would mean the fellow who honchoed the American Catholic bishops' vicious vendetta against gays could be the next pope. Hmmm...Turkson or Dolan. Doesn't seem to make much difference, does it? Interesting times ahead!
Then, the conversation turned to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal. Amanpour asked Turkson if it's possible the scandal, which swept across the U.S. and Europe over the past decade, could reach Africa.Got that? His country's dedication to oppressing gays protected it from pedophilia. As the linked HuffPo article states, "The 64-year-old Ghanaian cardinal has displayed anti-gay sentiments before, defending anti-gay legislation similar to Uganda's so-called "Kill the Gays" bill." Great. A new gay-hating pope. Even the church, as an institution, doesn't think the pedophilia scandal is the result of gays moving into the priesthood. A five-year study undertaken by the bishops discounted this possibility.
"Not in the same proportion as we have seen in Europe," Turkson said. "Probably because African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency. Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa, homosexuality, or for that matter, any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced in our society. So, that cultural 'taboo,' that tradition has been there. It's helped to keep this out."
The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off. If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the church.So let's see...gays enter the priest workforce and pedophilia is reduced. Seems simple, no? Not to this brain-challenged cardinal.
But don't worry. Italian newspapers seem to think that smiling Timmy Dolan of NYC, who was deposed on Wednesday about the pedophilia scandal, has a good shot at being the next pope. Oh, wait. That would mean the fellow who honchoed the American Catholic bishops' vicious vendetta against gays could be the next pope. Hmmm...Turkson or Dolan. Doesn't seem to make much difference, does it? Interesting times ahead!
