FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE VATICAN

"In an interview with La Repubblica newspaper, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico said he frequented online gay chat rooms and met with gay men as part of his work as a psychoanalyst. He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about 'those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity.'

"Vatican teaching holds that homosexual activity is a sin.

"It's all false; it was a trap. I was a victim of my own attempts to contribute to cleaning up the Church with my psychoanalyst work," La Repubblica quoted Stenico as saying."

[For the full article, see here.]

Why anyone would give any credibility to the Vatican by either providing money, or by one's mere membership in a RC Church that adheres to the Vatican policy regarding LGBT people, is a mystery to me! By so doing, one is explicitly stating that he/she agrees with the exclusion of Gay people from the life of the RC Church and from the acquisition of civil rights!

I've heard Gay Roman Catholics say that "It's my Church too," but that is lousy logic! Do you have the ability to excommunicate anyone? Do you help set the policy of the Vatican? Do you have access to any pulpit where you can preach? Do you have any ability to affirm Gay people within the life of the church that you attend if it adheres to Vatican policy regarding Gay people? Clearly not! If you are Gay and are a member of a homophobic church, you are kidding yourself if you believe that it's your church too!

Here is a man who is undoubtedly Gay who is so frightened about his sexual orientation (and, undoubtedly, his career) that he is not only denying that he is gay, but he has undoubtedly concocted a story equivalent to "The dog ate my homework" nonsense and, on top of that, he provides a gut wrenching homophobic justification for his deception.

And, the very fact that he is a "psychoanalyst" who is so homophobic is similarly gut wrenching, as I can imagine the amount of damage he has undoubtedly done to countless patients/clients who have gone to him for advice and for help. And I can imagine the tortures he has endured in his private life, given his disconnect between his life and his rhetoric, his having to hide who he is, and his living a lie and mouthing homophobic sentiments while being "a top official in the Vatican's Congregation of the Clergy."

Whenever any institution helps create this kind of deception, fear, self-loathing, and hatred it is time for all people of good will to stop and think whether they want to lend legitimacy, or give credibility, to such an institution that would hurt, damage, and demonize countless numbers of people, and whether or not Jesus would countenance such fear, damage, and homophobic values, rhetoric, and behavior!

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