Just a note

People often arrive at this blog via the Amazon Kindle page for Xmas Carol. It includes a short bio of the writer (me, Keith O'Connor) and a link to this blog.

Sometimes I wonder what people think when they arrive here this way. I mean, there they were, on Amazon looking at a horror/sci-fi novel and wondering whether to buy it, and ZOMG! They're suddenly on a gay atheist blog.

So here's the thing. I am a gay man and there are churches out there who attack gay men, and consider anti-gay hatred to be a central tenet of their faith. How someone can believe that their god wants them to hate a group of people they've never met is beyond me. But Christianity in general -- and the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches in particular -- have made anti-gay animus a primary focus of their day-to-day religious practice.

Every time we gays try to achieve equality in a country, the Roman Catholic church charges in like a feral pit dog and says dreadful things about us. But all we want to do is love the person we, you know, love. How anyone comes to think that they have a right to attack us because of this is unclear. Their statements against gay people and gay marriage are literally incoherent. There's no argument there, just animus.

So I didn't choose this fight. I'm merely defending myself against hatred and discrimination. When someone keeps punching you, you fight back. Consequently, on this blog I point out all the horrible things that churches do in the name of their nonexistent gods.

Luckily, this fits well within this blog's territory because I go after anything that's batshit crazy. And religion is one of those things (along with fighting vaccinations for kids, believing the Earth is 6,000 years old, believing in ghosts, witches and demons -- and mushy thinking in general). It all gets pilloried here.

The point is that I don't attack religion without cause. I fight religion because it attacks me and mine. Nuff said.

Bruni on Roman Catholicism and women

In this morning's NYT, Frank Bruni takes exception to the pope's statement that he is "outraged" by the inequality women face in the workplace. Uh, the all-male church thinks women should be equal? Rather than say "hahaha", which isn't Bruni's style, he takes aim and shoots.

Here's just one paragraph:

Pay isn’t the primary issue when the symbolism, rituals and vocabulary of an institution exalt men over women and when challenges to that imbalance are met with the insistence that what was must always be — that habit trumps enlightenment and good sense.

I really look forward to this guy's columns. He's such a talent. (And we really really needed someone to step up after Frank Rich hid himself in a magazine that no one reads.)

Catholic church to remain hateful toward gays

Don't worry, conservatives. The hate is back!

Catholic bishops scrapped their landmark welcome to gays Saturday, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.

The bishops failed to approve even a watered-down section on ministering to homosexuals that stripped away the welcoming tone of acceptance contained in a draft document earlier in the week.

I hope Catholics learned a lesson from all this. If you don't hate gays with proper venom, you won't get into heaven. That's the rule and it's really that simple. 

Oh, and the Christian god, as understood by Roman Catholic conservatives, is a pig. That's also included in the lesson. I love stories with morals, don't you?

Bruni on the Catholic church's homophobia

I always say the same thing about Bruni's columns: that he nailed it. But he always does. Today he once again tackled the Catholic church's hypocritical attitude about same-sex marriage. Here's a link to the column and here's an excerpt:

It’s crucial to remember that in many cases in which the church has punished same-sex couples, their homosexuality and even their same-sex partnerships were widely known and tacitly condoned for some time beforehand. What changed was their interest in a civil marriage, suddenly made possible by laws that are evolving more humanely than the church is. The couples in question stepped up and made loving commitments of a kind that the church celebrates in other circumstances. For this they were spurned. It’s shameful.

Go read it all. It makes so much sense that I expect the church to drop to its knees this afternoon and beg forgiveness for their hateful actions. There is no rational excuse for the church's pogrom against gays. It's simply evil.

Catholic church wants same-sex couple to bend over for punishment

Honestly, the Roman Catholic church is disgusting. Check this out:

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Roman Catholic bishop says a central Montana parish is about evenly divided over a new priest's decision to prohibit a gay couple from receiving Communion unless they divorce, live separately and write a statement affirming that a marriage is between a man and a woman.

Yes, because that's exactly what a loving church would command two men (who are in their 70s, BTW) to do: bend over and receive a public caning. Well, okay, they didn't actually require that. But they want to 1) destroy the men's lives; 2) separate them forever; and 3) force them to admit in public that they sinned and that the church is totally, fabulously right in its insistence on limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.

Jesus would be so proud. In case you're not clear about this, the Catholic church is the sinner here and it is the one that needs to repent. Of course, why these two men want to be a part of this backwater church is unclear. Perhaps they're masochists. To each his own. But religions can't spurn their gay members, not if they want to survive.

Let's hope the men wise up and leave this particular church behind. And let's also hope that this hateful church goes the way of the dodo.

Terrorist Catholic church fires another gay teacher

If you spark terror on a regular basis, you are a terrorist. That should be simple enough to understand. The following is a quote from Kristen Ostendorf, a teacher who was fired from her job at a Minnesota Catholic high school for being a lesbian.

I’d like to be the last person to be fired for who I loved, or for the gender of the person I love. But I won’t be, probably, and the silence around it terrifies me.

Terror -- religion makes it happen every day. And on the subject of sexual orientation, the Roman Catholic church is one of the greatest terrorists.

PS: If the church lets priests marry, it'll be great fun when most of the priests announce they want to marry other men. Let the good times begin!

The "new world of Pope Francis"

The phrase in my headline is the title of an article at Spiegel Online (Der Spiegel's English-language web site). So, is it a new world? I guess it is. He seems much different from his predecessor. Mind you, he's still down with the same abortion, celibacy, and gay marriage policies. It's not a new world for gays and women. Still, he's making huge changes, and apparently some are not pleased.

The curia is currently divided into those who are concerned that the pope is overexerting himself, and those who are afraid of the new order. "The pope is still getting warmed up," says the source from the curia. "We are crouching in the trenches, and quite a few are trembling."

I guess the trembling is a good sign. But let's not forget that all Francis can offer the world is the same old fairy tale about Jesus, and the false promise of a glorious "afterlife". Religion is and always will be a magic fence surrounding nothing.

There is one odd, hopeful thing in the article. Apparently Francis appointed a prelate to check in on the Vatican Bank and report directly to him. He seems serious about cleaning up the bank. But there's concern over the prelate he's chosen for this job.

That appointment, though, could prove to be Pope Francis' first mistake. He chose Monsignore Battista Ricca, the former administrator of the Vatican guesthouse, for the job. But the magazine L'Espresso revealed last week that Ricca was transferred to the guesthouse in 2001 for disciplinary reasons, because he was allegedly living with and maintaining a homosexual relationship with a man in the nunciature of Montevideo and was beaten up in a gay bar. So does it exist after all, the "gay lobby" at the Vatican, whose members secure positions for each other? Did the curia deliberately conceal Ricca's past from the pope? These questions will have to remain unanswered for now, but the Ricca appointment could come back to haunt the pope.

Something tells me the pope knows exactly who this man is. I continue to think that the pope's got a soft spot for gay people. Call me a fool, but I do. It will be interesting to see where the gay issue lands after he's been pope for a decade.

Tell me again why churches are tax-exempt

These days, Roman Catholic churches are hotbeds of political protest. Isn't that supposed to be out of bounds? Doesn't engaging in political activities mean tax exemptions are inappropriate? I mean, I thought the granting of tax-exempt status was all about the separation of church and state. So we're going to get rid of the tax breaks now that the church has violated this pact, right? (Some re-paragraphing ahead.)

Catholic leaders across the region on Sunday railed against the part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s “women’s equality” package of bills that deals with abortion, calling it a “radical measure” that would expand the number of late-term abortions.

At the end of the homily, the church played Malone’s recording over the sound system.

“The position of the Catholic Church through every age is clear,” Malone said in the recording. “Life is sacred. Our focus is to enhance and promote the life and dignity of all human beings from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.”

How can they do this? Why doesn't the government clamp down on them and call foul? Oh, right, I forgot. Churches can do no wrong. Because this is America. U!S!A!

A seemingly non-political, female church attendee also seemed to have a problem with this onslaught of political maneuvering during mass:

“There’s little kids in there, and they’re talking about abortion,” Sontag said, calling the homily “totally inappropriate.”

Well, she got the "inappropriate" part right. Jeez.

Gay marriage triumphs despite church efforts

There's an article at the NYT today about the grand failure of the Roman Catholic church's efforts to stop gay marriage in the United States.

(BTW, I think the most amazing thing is that, to date, Catholic leaders haven't been able to provide one rational reason for their hatred of gays. This two-page article, although it quotes hateful priests left and right, provides no further understanding about the church's motivation. As far as the rational world is concerned, the church's effort to stalk and harm every gay person it encounters is based on simple meanness. It's wild that this is the case. Their nonexistent "loving god" apparently supports this behavior!)

There are a many gems in the article. Here are a few:

Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin warned Rhode Island lawmakers: "It is only with grave risk to our spiritual well-being and the common good of our society that we dare to redefine what God himself has created." The Legislature overwhelmingly voted days later to support same-sex marriage. 

[T]he archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, likened gay marriage to male breastfeeding...

Silk suggested that some Catholic leaders in the United States may be eroding their influence by "jumping up and down" to fight gay marriage despite strong public support. 

62 percent of American Catholics think same-sex marriages should be legal.

The thrust of the article is positive: despite the hatred that priests express for gay marriage, equality is winning the battle in legal chambers nation-wide. It's kinda fun. Take that, jeebus!

Catholic church mumbles about "morality"

They just can't shut up, these Catholic leaders. Let's analyze this for a bit.

In Ohio, a Catholic school (actually, two schools) fired an unmarried female teacher when she became pregnant. So now the woman is suing the diocese in federal court because that's against the law. You cannot fire a woman because she becomes pregnant.

So of course the church, having done something immoral, uses this "opportunity" to expound about morality.

The archdiocese says she was fired because artificial insemination is immoral and violates church doctrine and a contract requiring all employees to "comply with and act consistently in accordance with the stated philosophy and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church." 

Umm, do priests have to sign such a document, or do they have such a promise in their vows? After all, it's widely known that the church doesn't immediately fire a male who rapes a child. In fact, they hardly ever fire such a priest, even after he rapes scads of other kids. That's a minor thing, apparently. But when a woman -- a single filthy woman -- gets pregnant, that's the signal to haul out the heavy artillery. This illustrates the church's priorities nicely.

This is a disgusting church. They still talk about morality, even though they violate all normal senses of the concept -- regularly, often and apparently, in perpetuity. Males don't do wrong; females do. This is a Catholic concept, illustrated through the church's words and actions.

I hope they get shafted by the courts. The woman (Christa Dias) "taught computer technology and had no ministerial duties." There's absolutely no reason why the church should meddle in her private life. That the church did so is immoral.

Try telling that to these bozos. Morality, indeed. They know nothing of the concept. How can anyone be Catholic?

Luckily, this is right up Francis' alley

The Catholic archdiocese in Madrid says it needs more exorcists to help some of its faithful cope with the devil.

An archdiocese spokeswoman said Friday that Madrid only has one exorcist priest and that it is considering a plan to train more. She spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with archdiocese policy. 

"The devil exists. That's a fact," she told The Associated Press. 

As I've said on many occasions, it must be terrifying to be Catholic. Everywhere you turn, hellish creatures are plotting against you. (And isn't it odd that no one but Christians can sense this devilish activity? I guess Satan only goes after Christians -- which is great news for the rest of us who are, you know, sane.)

But don't worry, Spain. Pope Francis is on the case.

John Aravosis raises a good point

Go read this post about an African priest who was suspended by the Roman Catholic church for blowing the whistle on child abuse. Only in the RC church could such a thing occur.

Toward the conclusion of his post, Aravosis raises a good point:

If the Vatican doesn’t intervene and reinstate Anthony Musaala, we’ll know all we need to know about the new Pope.

Indeed. Let's see if popeyguy Frank puts the priest back to work. I'd like to think this will happen and that he will praise the priest, as well. But this is the Roman Catholic church. We shouldn't get our hopes up.

Bishop has no sense of morality

The leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, Mass., has been arrested on drunken driving charges in Rhode Island.

Police say Bishop Robert McManus was arrested Saturday night after a hit-and-run accident in Narragansett, R.I. 

What are you gonna do? The bible doesn't say a thing about hit-and-runs while driving drunk -- so it must be okay. I guess that's why this bishop didn't stay behind after hitting someone with his car. The story says they found him at his "vacation house". 

Roman Catholicism has nothing to do with morality. Absolutely nothing. This should be obvious to everyone by now.

Aussie priests abuse kids; bishops hide the abuse.

Al Jazeera has a story about the upcoming investigations and prosecutions of Australian priests and bishops who were involved in the sexual abuse of children. Here's an excerpt:

She then discovered another bishop’s letter, outlining a plan to cover-up the crimes of one of the most dangerous paedophile priests in the Maitland-Newcastle area, Father Denis McAlinden.

Bishop Leo Clarke wrote to McAlinden with an offer - if he agreed to be laicised or, defrocked as a priest, the church would protect him: "Your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of this process."

It's the same old story: protect the priests and the hell with the children. This one's going to end up with many priests -- and hopefully bishops -- in prison.

PS: I've added a new tag to this post. I don't know why I didn't append it to the other posts about priestly abuse. It just didn't occur to me. The tag is mortal sins.

I've awakened in an alternate universe

That must be the answer, because I saw this today:

BERLIN (AP) — German bishops have agreed that Roman Catholic-run hospitals should be allowed to prescribe the morning-after pill to rape victims to prevent conception.

A Roman Catholic hospital doing the right thing?  Surely this can't be! But wait, there's more.

The German Bishops Conference issued the ruling at a regular meeting Thursday in the western city of Trier. But it said Catholic hospitals still can't prescribe drugs that would lead to the death of an embryo.

Phew. Same universe. For a moment, I was really worried. After all, in a parallel universe I might not have an iPad.

Disgraced cardinal Mahony thinks he's a saint

Phew. This guy is amazing. Even after it was shown unequivocally that cardinal Mahony hid the sexual predation of priests in his employ, he still doesn't acknowledge that he did anything wrong. And he never ever mentions the harm done to children. That just doesn't matter to this cardinal. You see, it's all about him.

Reflecting on the matter on his personal blog Wednesday, Mahony obliquely refers to his experience a "painful and public humiliation, which is spiritually a grace-opportunity."

That's right. He sees his transgressions as a "grace-opportunity." Isn't it special that things worked out so well for his eternal soul? After saying stupid things like this all week, he capped it off with this:

In a posting to his blog Monday, Mahony wrote that his personal Lenten journey involves suffering and "never protesting misunderstandings, and never getting angry because of false accusations."

Darn those pesky "false" allegations. They're always getting in the way of true spirituality. He ends his blog post this way:

I surely need your prayers and your encouragement in my own life to handle all of my mistakes, omissions, and commissions as God asks, and as Jesus and Mary lived out:  to take in what swirls around me, to hold it, to carry it, to transform it and to give it back as grace, blessing, and gift.

Jesus and Mary, walk with us and show us how to follow you!

How's that for chutzpah? This filthy creature thinks he's a saint! That's quite a church they've got there. I'm sure all the victims of priestly abuse are thrilled that Mahony will "give it back as grace, blessing and a gift". That makes the memories of sexual abuse so much easier to bear.

Dark Catholic deeds in Ireland

Ireland has apologized for allowing the systematic abuse of women by Catholic nuns.

DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland ignored the mistreatment of thousands of women who were incarcerated within Catholic nun-operated laundries and must pay the survivors compensation, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Tuesday in an emotional state apology for the decades of abuses in the so-called Magdalene Laundries. 

"By any standards it was a cruel, pitiless Ireland, distinctly lacking in a quality of mercy," Kenny said, as dozens of former Magdalenes watched tearfully from parliament's public gallery overhead. 

(snip)

A government-commissioned report published two weeks ago found that more than 10,000 women were consigned to the laundries after being branded "fallen" women, a euphemism for prostitutes, even though virtually none of them were — and instead were products of poverty, homelessness and dysfunctional families. More than a quarter were directly referred by public officials, such as judges or truancy officers, and all spent months or years in menial labor without access to education. Most did laundry for local hotels, hospitals and prisons, while others scrubbed floors or made rosary beads for the church's profit. 

Each page of this church's history is riddled with horror. There is no light anywhere. As I told a Roman Catholic friend, "If there was a god at the heart of your church, these things wouldn't happen." But there is no god, and religion is just a fairytale. This fact makes the abuse more nightmarish, leaving only cruelty as the motivating force for depriving so many women of everything that matters in life. Every person involved in the running of this "laundry" should be imprisoned for the rest of his life.

Do you doubt that the Vatican was completely aware of what went on in this laundry? If there was still a living pope from those days, he would belong in a jail cell with the other perpetrators.

Cardinal Mahony's shady financial dealings

This story doesn't need much in the way of commentary.

LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES-Pressed to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to settle clergy sex abuse lawsuits, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony turned to one group of Catholics whose faith could not be shaken: the dead.

Under his leadership in 2007, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles quietly appropriated $115 million from a cemetery maintenance fund and used it to help pay a landmark settlement with molestation victims.

The church did not inform relatives of the deceased that it had taken the money, which amounted to 88 percent of the fund. Families of those buried in church-owned cemeteries and interred in its mausoleums have contributed to a dedicated account for the perpetual care of graves, crypts and grounds since the 1890s.

Mahony and other church officials also did not mention the cemetery fund in numerous public statements about how the archdiocese planned to cover the $660-million abuse settlement.

Does that sound really shady, or what? But Jeez, a Cardinal was in charge. So it must be aboveboard, right?

In 19 presentations to parish groups about the archdiocese's need for contributions that winter, the cardinal and his aides laid out what they done so far to pay the settlement, including selling real estate and liquidating $117 million in investments. But they did not reveal that the cemetery fund accounted for nearly all the investments liquidated.

That's quite a church they've got there. And they still think they have the right to tell people what is moral and what is not. This is a disgusting church. It has rot in its very soul. (Not that there's such a thing as a soul, of course.)

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/10/182552/cardinal-mahony-used-cemetery.html#storylink=cpy

Deaf, blind Vatican speaks

You have to love the Vatican's obtuseness. They are determined not to understand their own crimes. Today I found this in the news:

BERLIN (AP) — The Vatican's head of doctrine says critics in North America and Europe are conducting a "concerted campaign" to discredit the Catholic Church that is resulting in open attacks against priests. 

Mercy! Those poor, innocent priests! And let it be known -- this has nothing do with with priests raping children. Heaven forfend! It's happening only because of the intrinsic nastiness of North Americans and Europeans. Don't they know that every priest is holy, that they are god's representatives on Earth?

But wait, there's more!

In an interview published Saturday by Germany newspaper Die Welt, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller likened the sentiment directed toward the Church to that of the pogroms against Jews in Europe. 

Yes, it's just like what happened to six million innocent Jews. Because the priests are pure as snow. They are high-minded, holy beings who are only on this Earth to do god's work. And now this nastiness has descended upon them -- for no reason at all! Mercy! What a cruel world.

This oppressive, arrogant Vatican

Frank Bruni has a great opinion piece in the NYT this morning. The Roman Catholic church is on trial in the public square. An excerpt:

And this hubris also survives the crisis, manifest in the way that the Vatican, a gilded enclave so far removed and so frequently out of step with the rest of the world, clamps down on Catholics who challenge its rituals and rules. Much of what these dissenters raise questions about — the all-male priesthood, for example, or the commitment to celibacy that priests are required to make — aren’t indisputable edicts from God. They’re inventions of the mortals who took charge of the faith. 

The church's wall of indifference and high opinion of itself are destined to collapse. The church's arrogance and lack of accountability guarantee this outcome.