Friday, January 23, 2009
Bitter Pope!
The Pope has sparked controversy by giving a key address over Christmas that appeared to compare sex-reassignment surgery with the destruction of the world’s rainforests, and claiming that it “would bring about self-destruction for humans.” His speech was widely reported as an attack on homosexuals and transsexuals. In fact, he made no mention of the former, and no direct mention of the latter.
Speaking to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, Pope Benedict repeatedly mentioned gender – written versions of the speech released by the Vatican placed the word in quotation marks. He said that the Catholic Church; “speaks of human nature as ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and asks that this order is respected.”
The Pope urged the Church to defend “the nature of man against its manipulation… The human being wants to make himself on his own and to decide always and exclusively by himself about what concerns him. But, in so doing, the human being lives against the truth and against the Spirit creator.”
In a more elliptical passage the Pope said that “an ecology of man” was needed to save the human race, but he also appeared to be drawing a direct analogy between how members of the Catholic Church should be as concerned about individuals who undergo sex reassignment surgery as they are with the destruction of the world’s rainforests. “Rainforests deserve, yes, our protection but the human being - as a creature which contains a message that is not in contradiction with his freedom but is the condition of his freedom - does not deserve it less.”
Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said the Pope's remarks were “totally irresponsible and unacceptable.” She said; “When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way.”
