The Telegraph reports:
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, says the proposals to allow same-sex unions are “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.The Roman Catholic hierarchy never gives up in its attempts to interfere in the lives, not only of their own flock, but of everyone. I ask you: Where lies the “madness” and a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right” to be left alone to live a peaceable life with the person you choose? A same-sex marriage causes no harm to anyone, except in the fevered imaginations of people who refuse to occupy their minds with serious problems in the world, such as poverty, umemployment, wars, famine, etc., etc., etc.
The cardinal’s intervention, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, is the strongest criticism yet from any church figure of the plans, which are due to be unveiled this month by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister.
He accuses ministers of trying to “redefine reality” and change long-standing laws and traditions “at the behest of a small minority of activists”.
The RC really needs to do something about the need for their clergy to think about little other than sex. Perhaps male and inflatable dolls for everyone?
ReplyDeleteI first read the headline as meaning the cardinal planned to marry David Cameron, which I suppose would cause a clash, since David Cameron is married already.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind my quibbling, Mimi, I'm not absolutely certain the right to marry is quite as simple as the right to live a peaceable life with the person you choose - gay people have got the latter right already (more or less). But that doesn't alter the basic point you are making.
I suppose marriage also gives you the right to live unpeacably with the person you choose, if it comes to that. :)
And here BP and I are, destroying Marriage As We Know it (TM) by having a lovely saturday at dance class, cooking, and working in the garden. Amazing the sun comes up in the morning with folks like us around.
ReplyDeletePiskie, yes. They seem obsessed.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I admit I could have been clearer, but I wanted to use the cardinal's own words against him, which demonstrates the problem with ulterior motives.
And I referred to the pair living peaceably with the rest of the world.
And now I've lost your thread and my thread. Alas...
IT, I am shocked, shocked to learn of your activities today. You and BP are on a slippery slope.
ReplyDelete“grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”. And, not allowing RC priests to marry would be?
ReplyDeleteVery funny headline. Has anyone alerted Mrs. Cameron?
Sigh! RCC my favorite rant topic having endured all their tender mercies (not) while I was growing up. They like handing out vinegar soaked sponges to all the rest of us.
Each time I look at the headline, I LOL.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, the justification for their interference in the personal lives of others handed out by the old men in power in the RCC beggars belief. How can they expect us to take them seriously?
Oops! When I first glanced at the headline, I thought the cardinal was planning a same-sex marriage. Of course not!
ReplyDeleteWho buys a cow, when altar boys are free?
[Yes, I'm casting aspersions. I think the Cardinal's comments earned them. >:-/]
...to continue my bitching about the new format (restrain your enthusiasm, y'all!), I note my "Name" isn't remembered anymore (in the "Comment as" box) either. Just one more additional hassle.
JCF, I am sorry. The subscribe function is useful to a good many of us. If Blogger enables the function once again on the pop-up box format, I will use the setting again. Till then, bitch away.
ReplyDelete"poverty, umemployment, wars, famine, etc., etc., etc." - yes, well, how many encyclicals have issued from Rome on these very topics . . . and yet, these frustrated, power-hungry, dictatorial old men remain fanatically obsessed with controlling every last detail of sex and women's bodies.
ReplyDeleteHow long, O Lord, how long?
You tell 'em Mimi!
ReplyDeleteI'd take smug satisfaction in my Methodist origins, except the Methodists these days are even more bitterly divided over the gay issue than the Episcopalians or the Lutherans ever were. And right wing Methodists can be very scary.
I think that the Cardinal should have a trial marriage. Perhaps to Arch Bishop Nicholson of Westminster. Than they can keep their bickering private inside their marriage and they'll be to busy in-fighting to bother the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteRuss, despite all the lofty words in the various encyclicals, the prelates seem to pick and choose the issues to which they will pay attention.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, I am majorly pissed at the interference in basic health care matters by the RCC hierarchy here in the US and remain in a more or less constant state of low-simmering anger. Thus the RCC bishops in other countries may have to take a few licks.
UKViewer, what a brilliant suggestion!
It's kind of sad, even for one raised in hostility to the RCC, to see Rome acting like Rome yet again.
ReplyDeleteI mean, the universal right to prevent other people from marrying in a way that a bishop hates? Thomas Aquinas spent all those years thinking, for this? Archbishop Romero died for this? Guess I need to unlearn a lot of liberal and charitable ideas about people I don't agree with.
But do I really want to be more like a Catholic of the Troglodyte sect? A dilemma indeed.
Porlock, I promised myself I would not be a bitter ex-Catholic, but the heavy-handedness here in the US infuriates me and opens old wounds, so I do speak out at times. The combination of the hilarious headline and the ugly words of the cardinal put me in a mocking mood.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with being an Ex-Catholic is that you can see that what you left has become even worse than it was!
ReplyDeleteI left many years ago, and while I get on well with most RC Clergy and laity I meet at Parish level, the further they go up the greasy pole of preferment the more removed from the reality of parish life and pastoral care they seem to be.
There are some great RC Clergy out there, working hard for the Kingdom, but let down by their leadership. They can't exercise any freedom in their ministry, and turn away many who need their care due to harsh doctrinal decisions, which don't accord with the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbour as yourself.
There are some great RC Clergy out there, working hard for the Kingdom, but let down by their leadership.
ReplyDeleteUKViewer, exactly. I see the clergy in my own community, along with the laity who courageously live out the Gospel as best they can within the constraints of the church.