IRISH WOMAN: Oh the Pope, God love him, it’s all taken it out of him, being Pope I mean. It must be so hard on him telling us all who to hate and who’s going to hell, and covering up for all those kiddy-fiddling priests. Well, what else has he done?
Above is a short piece I submitted to this week’s Newsjack Radio Show, unfortunately they didn’t use it but it does reflex my attitude to the Pope, Benedict XVI.
I’m no fan of this Pope, if you read back in this blog you can see that, but I was as surprised as anyone by his sudden resignation. When I first heard the news I actually though it was a joke, April the first come early. Since then I’ve watched the coverage of it by our media and I’ve been sickening by so much of it, especially the BBC. They were completely uncritical of the Pope, seeming to treat his resignation as the loss of one of our greatest human beings. They showed no one who wasn’t completely supportive of the Pope; decentring voices seemed to have been banned. So much for balanced broadcasting (I did complain but my voice seems to have been completely ignored, no decent allowed).
This Pope has not been a saint, by any means, and for anyone lesbian or gay, he’s been a homophobic monster. He seems to have gone out of his way to spout his homophobia. There is no other way to describe the things he’s said about us, lesbians and gay men. He’s described being gay as a greater threat to the world the global warming (!!) and that I am evil just because my sexuality is different, yet I’ve NEVER molested a child (Unlike many of his priests). He’s also said that marriage equality will lead to the end of the world and claimed condoms cause HIV infection. Yet he doesn’t even have the moral backbone to back up what he says with any sort of evidence, surely the mark of a bigot.
His actions have also backed up his homophobic words, as if there was any shortage of them. When his bishops compare marriage equality supporters to Nazis, he remains silent (Doesn’t he remember how homophobic the Nazis where or is that conveniently forgotten now?). When the Ugandan government announced their “Kill The Gays” bill (A law that would make being gay punishable by up to death and prison sentences for anyone who doesn’t turn in someone they know to be gay) the Pope reacted with the crassest of homophobia. He blessed Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament and the person behind “Kill The Gays” bill. I was left speechless by this, wanting to kill me is seen by him as a “blessing”.
Then there has been his reaction to the scandal of children being abused by catholic priests and other members of his church. So much of his career, before he became Pope, was take-up with covering up this scandal, and this didn’t change with his reign as Pope. He’s made a few, mealy-mouthed speeches about how “sorry” he is that this scandal happened, but that’s as far as it has gone. He hasn’t used the great resources of the Vatican to stop the abuse and expose the abusers, he certainly hasn’t turned over the extensive Vatican records to the authorities to help catch these abusers, nor has he given any resources over to helping the victims of this abuse. He has blamed homosexuality for this abuse, when the evidence is the opposite, and refused to allow any discuss around the forced celibacy of priests which has added to this abuse.
Also, the recent abuse scandals in Belgium, Australian and Holland all show that there has been no change in the Catholic Church’s policy of covering up abuse at all costs.
The Pope has repeatedly spoken out against “secularism”, making it sound more organised and dangerous then Communism and Nazism combined. What organised secularism? Where’s his evidence of this? We’re never told. Though, this all sounds as sourer grapes to me. As the Catholic Church has lost power in the West so we’ve seen the exposure of its sins, especially the industrial cover-up of child abuse.
Still people talk about all the “good” this Pope has done, but what I want to know is where? I’ve seen nothing but hate and repression coming from this Pope and his church. There has been a lot of talk, especially on the BBC, about how charming and intelligent the Pope is. I’ve never seen that. All I’ve seen is his ignorant hate spilling forward at any opportunity.
So, the Pope-n-Hater will be gone by the end of the month, therefore shouldn’t I be hopeful that the next one will be an improvement? Afraid not. This Pope has appointed over half of the cardinals who’ll pick the next pope. So, more of the same is on the way.
I can hope that the whole of the Catholic Church, rotten to its core, implodes on itself. Now, that would be worth seeing.
Drew.
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