FUCK THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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"Pope's Christmas present to gays: you're (still) a threat to human nature"

by Jordan Arseneault (originally published on 2Bmag.com)

In his December 21^st message to cardinals and the upper bureaucracy of the Catholic church, Karl Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, claims that gay marriage is part of an attempt to “manipulate” human nature, and that modern gender theory is all wrong. Merry Christmas from the Vatican!

Karl Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, the head of the most corrupt and homophobic organization on the planet, said in his speech to church officials at the Vatican today that the institution of the family is in the midst of a “crisis that threatens it to its foundations – especially in the western world.” Like a well-trained logician in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas, Ratziger outlines a series of propositions which attempt to invalidate the rights of same sex couples to marry, a constant thorn in the side of his organization, which relies on heterosexual family structures to maintain the teachings of its misogynist and homophobic system of thought and domination.

“The family [is] the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence. This is something we learn by living it with others and suffering it with others. So it became clear that the question of the family is not just about a particular social construct, but about man himself – about what he is and what it takes to be authentically human,” Ratizinger told the cardinals and other unmarried priests in the chapel known as the Clementine Hall. The irony that, in preventing same-sex couples from forming legally recognized families, his church is actually fighting the creation of families, was obviously lost on him.

He goes on to say that gay marriage is a threat to the notion of “commitment,” echoing the widespread prejudice that gay relationships are not as lasting or “real” as straight ones : “First of all there is the question of the human capacity to make a commitment or to avoid commitment. Can one bind oneself for a lifetime? Does this correspond to man’s nature? Does it not contradict his freedom and the scope of his self-realization? Does man become himself by living for himself alone and only entering into relationships with others when he can break them off again at any time? Is lifelong commitment antithetical to freedom? Is commitment also worth suffering for? Man’s refusal to make any commitment – which is becoming increasingly widespread as a result of a false understanding of freedom and self-realization as well as the desire to escape suffering – means that man remains closed in on himself and keeps his 'I' ultimately for himself, without really rising above it.” Riiiiight. So the desire of LGBT people to form lasting relationships somehow contradicts and undermines God's plan for humans to engage in lasting relationships. Fascinating!

Then comes the big whammy: gays are contributing to the loss of “essential elements of the human experience.”

“[O]nly in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child...” Sounds like Karl wants us all to be bottoms, but doesn't want us to ever find a top!

With the marked rise in support for same-sex marriage in France, Mr. Pope made a predictable shout-out to the French community, notably by quoting renowned feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Ratzinger begins by discounting: “one is not born a woman, one becomes so” (on ne naît pas femme, on le devient),” quoting the famed existential writer of Le Deuxième sexe, before offering us a primer on contemporary gender theory.

“These words lay the foundation for what is put forward today under the term 'gender' as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature, that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society. The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious.” Clear as day. What exactly would compel us to believe anything that he has to say about gender and sexuality, when his business still bans women from occupying positions of priesthood, the basic middle management position required to occupy the upper echelons of his multinational corporation?

Then comes the kicker: “When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defence of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.” Yep. All of those people who have killed and raped and pillaged in the name of “God,” they were “defending man,” while the simple and demographically marginal fact of men wanting to marry men, women wanting to marry women, and of transgender people even existing is the real threat to human nature and civilization?

Thanks, Karl. It's all clear to me now. You really do hate us. The official theological highest authority of half of the world's Christians has officially singled out gays, lesbians, and transgender people who support same-sex marriage and embrace the fluidity of gender are a threat to the human race. Let there be no mistaking who is the real threat here: the Catholic church has and will always have the upper hand on destroying and violating the human. The hierarchical, heterosexist, hypcritical ideas that Ratzinger expounds barely mask a message of hate and exclusion towards the LGBTQ people of the world that feeds into laws like Uganda's “Kill the Gays” bill, and all of the violence and exclusion that gay people face and will continue to face the world over. This Christmas, if you celebrate it, remember who loves you, and remember who doesn't. The world is apparently worse off with us in it. Happy holidays from the Vatican!