Robert Hampton

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3rd April 2005

Pope Idol
Posted by at 5.45pm | No responses | Uncategorised

Amidst all the tributes to the Pope for his contribution to the world (and I'm not denying that he did do a lot of good), it's good to see someone not blind to his failings and putting across a contrasting view, reminding us that it wasn't all good news:-

For anyone under 30, it’s hard to imagine the Catholic Church as anything other than an ideological monolith — intentionally insulated, closed to outsiders and incredibly hostile to gays and lesbians. After all, these are the folks who labeled us "morally disordered" and even "evil." And for that, we have John Paul II to thank.

The pinnacle (or nadir) of the John Paul II papacy has to be the notorious Halloween letter, issued in 1986, which declared gays and lesbians "disordered," "self-indulgent" individuals who "threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people." So much for pastoral outreach. Even the pope’s last major statement, his recent book, tore into homosexuality as an ideology of evil.

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