Comments:

A few quotes from Ratzinger:

"It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the church's pastors wherever it occurs. ... The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in work, in action and in law."

"Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder."

_ from Ratzinger's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," 1986, as reported by National Catholic Reporter.

"Above all, we must have great respect for these people who also suffer and who want to find their own way of correct living. On the other hand, to create a legal form of a kind of homosexual marriage, in reality, does not help these people."
_ from "Cardinal Ratzinger on Laicism and Sexual Ethics," Zenit.org, Nov. 19, 2004.

Hey Aaron...

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Anywho...if you ask me, that new pope looks pretty crooked.

I think I'll add you to my links, if you don't mind.

The Roman Catholic Church has grown weak since the times of Bernini. Only traditions and great structures from the Baroque and the Renaissance stand still; but its infrastructure is falling appart quite rapidly.
Go to Venezuela and see what happens when catholics are the vast majority. You would think that the morals and ethics of this religion are applied in everyday's life; but this is far from being true.
Most people will not deny the existence of the holy trinity and the authority of the pope. They will, however, sin (under catholic values) quite frequently. But most people know that as soon as they take their weekly pill, usually on sundays, everything will be fine.
Even he who gets ready to stab a boy in exchange for his watch, will pray to god and the virgin Mary. This is the reality I come from, not the one talked about in Saint Peter's temple.

This religion lacks a strong philosophy and has not been able to adapt to today's world. They grow weaker as the different orders cannot get along or manage to define their actual role in society.

Choosing a new pope or leaving Church without a public figure makes no difference to me.

Having grown up Catholic, I never quite understood how a church that speaks alsways of loving eachother, how they could possibly condemn any group of people for loving someone else.

When I was in college I decided to get an answer and went to a priest and ask what the deal was. I didn't want philosophy, I didn't want a party line, I just wanted a down to earth explanation on why homosexuality was so bad in the eyes of the church.

The priest took a long, deep breath, looked at me, and said,

"It shouldn't be as bad as what most people make it out to be. The root problem is really quite simple and that is sex before marriage."

He went on to explain that it was really the same "sin" as as two heterosexual partners having sex before marriage, and since the church had no method or precedence of gay marriage, there was no way for homosexuals to ever be in compliance.

I can't say that I agree, but it is still the most logical answer I have ever received. We spoke for several hours that morning, and I did walk away with things to think about. He told me about many of the saints who are widely assumed to be gay, his fellow priests who do believe that anyone should be able to express love for anyone else, and together we lamented those people who for one reason or another will never be able to accept it.

With regards to your distress over the stupidity of 1.1 Billion Catholics and 62 million Americans (the number of votes Dubya recieved) I find it amazing, if not stunning, that "tolerate" and "accept" have become synonymous.

A large portion of the world may tolerate homosexuality. This does not imply they accept it. As a gay person, I tolerate that but do not accept it.

I am a gay Catholic who does not practice because Rome does not accept me, regardless of what local parishes may. But I still believe what I was taught in Catholic elementary and high school; Jesus Christ preached that we should love all mankind because we were created in God's image. The Pope may claim God sees homosexuality as a sin but the Pope is a man; fallible and subject to human bias.

No major religion in the world widely and openly accepts homosexuality, though some congregations may. It just so happens that the Roman Catholic Church, once the Holy Roman Empire mind you, has a singular person as its face to the world.

Regardless of its previous position in the world, the Catholic Church's role has only diminished because of the secularism that has entrenched itself in the developed world. This has nothing to do with the Church, but more to do with the civilized world shunning itself from God, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, or Brama.