Friday, February 7, 2014

Same old Vatican

It seems the Vatican is not pleased about being chastised by the United Nations. AP has the details.
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican struck back Friday at a U.N. human rights committee that issued a scathing report on sex abuse by priests, accusing it of straying beyond its mandate and discrediting the U.N. as a whole by adopting the "prejudiced" positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.
Ahem. So, let me get this straight. Pointing out the church's monstrous moral failings is the equivalent of being "prejudiced" against Catholicism? Well, there's a handly primer for you. The Vatican implies that the church cannot be criticized in any form or fashion. Ever. (This reminds me of Israel's penchant for calling everything it dislikes "anti-Semitism". I guess the church took a page from Netanyahu.) 

Here's more from the article:
[The UN report] called for the Holy See to use its moral authority to condemn discrimination against homosexual children, or children raised by same-sex couples.

In his statement Friday, Lombardi said by entering into such matters, the committee "appears to have gone beyond its competence and interfered in the moral and doctrinal positions of the Catholic Church."
Seems like a fairly innocent request by the UN. How hard could it be for the church to condemn discrimination against gay kids? A moral church would have no problem complying with such a request, right?

But what a colossally deaf response this elicited from the big V. Apparently, stopping the church's systematic harassment of gay kids would directly contradict their "moral and doctrinal positions". I mean, seriously, these people are evil. How can they use the term "moral" like that? Don't they know what the word means? But it seems they truly want to keep driving gay kids to suicide. Because it's godly to harm children -- if they're gay or girls, anyway. This church is morally disordered.

As if to solidify this impression, we get an additional paragraph that makes the Vatican position exceedingly clear:
The areas of the committee's report that most piqued the Holy See were those concerning girls' access to reproductive health care and the need to protect gay children and children in same-sex households from being discriminated against. Those issues are key parts of the treaty, but they also touch on core doctrinal teachings of the Catholic Church.
Hating gay children in a way that drives them to suicide is a Catholic virtue. And preventing girls' access to reproductive health care is also a strong Catholic virtue. The Vatican actually took the time to make this clear to the world. It's godly to hate gay kids.

And note that one of the main hate-mongers is still issuing the marching orders at the Vatican. The church's despicable words were spoken by longtime Vatican mouthpiece, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. He has been a consistently vicious voice against gay people for a very long time. That Pope Francis allowed this guy to continue to speak for the Vatican is anything but a hopeful sign.

The article ends this way:
Despite the Vatican's objections, [Lombardi] said the Holy See was nevertheless committed to working for the good of all children via the U.N. treaty.
Indeed. They're going to "continue" to work for "the good of all children". It's just amazing. Tone-deaf, committed to hatred of gays of all ages, and impervious to criticism -- that's the Roman Catholic church under Pope Francis. Same as it ever was.