Pope Benedict took an unconventional approach today to stand up to what he sees as gender-bending, saying protecting heterosexuality was as important as saving the rainforest.
(Photo: Pope Benedict addresses the Curia, 22 Dec 2008/Max Rossi)
“(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed,” the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration.“The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less.”
The Pope stressed that the Church would defend the traditional roles of “a man and woman, and to ask that this order of creation be respected”.
He turned his attention to those people who call themselves in Italian “gender” or “transgender” — a broad term that includes anyone who doesn’t identify entirely with their assigned sex and can include homosexuals, bisexuals, pansexuals and others.
“What’s often expressed and understood with the term ‘gender’, is summed up definitively in the self-emancipation of man from the created and the Creator … But in this way, he lives in opposition to truth, he lives in opposition to the Creator,” the pope said. Here’s a link to the full text in Italian and a report on it by the leading daily Corriere della Sera (also in Italian),
The New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reacted promptly, saying: “In a season in which the immorality of genocide, lawless governments, lust for money and power and the destabilization of the world’s economy are destroying the lives of hundreds of millions around the world, the Pope’s obsessive focus on gay, lesbian and trans people who simply seek the right to live and love is out of touch with what humanity needs right now from its religious leaders.”
(Photo:Gays and lesbians protest on St. Peter’s Square, 13 Jan 2007/Dario Pignatelli)
What do you think of Benedict’s idea of an “ecology of man”?
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What is he going to do with all the clearly non-heterosexual people in the Church then?
- Posted by nickHi folks, I think Benedict was merely pointing out, gently many people are concerned about the environment , but that moral issues are important, even in our day. Certain groups have popular, even powerful lobbies and it is up to us to let everyone know that their views are in the minority.
- Posted by Barbara IrwinAs well we need to recall the heterosexuality is the norm and is natural, since it may result in reproducing the next generation.
thanks for the advice owen,but no i am not scared ,not in the least.nietzsche wrote books to confuse people like your self,and at the end his life died in an asylum ,screaming because he was scared of the prospect that the god he had denied all his life, might exist. why am i so convinced? because one night 20years ago he showed up in my bedroom,and made him self known to me,simple as that.never had studied books about him,but over 20years he has changed my personality. when things go wrong down the road and if you get desperate, which people do, don,t despair there is door that might be opened to you.god bless.
- Posted by brian leeto be honest, I tend not to worry about how I die, you shouldn’t be religious because your scared of how you friends died. also, it is known that people who believe that they have no control over their fate and that it is decided for them tend to be more pessimitic, study a books on personality and you’ll find that out.
- Posted by Owenyes owen we all have our own opinion,i held the same views as you. jesus said to the deciples”you have been GIVEN the knowledge to understand the mystries of god”.so probably will continue to live your life with out this understanding.sadly the people i have known who had the same philosophy as you din,t die to well,or with the same conviction,sorry perhaps you suggest i am trying to frighten you” eat drink and be merry”.
- Posted by brian leeAt the end of the day, no matter what the Pope said, religion is just a book of fictional stories, there is no God, no Saviour and no Heaven and Hell. We live in a highly advanced society in which we no longer need religion as we did in the past when people were scared into joining the Church by horror stories of Hell. Religion is nothing more than a nice story, and Christianity is merely born from Paganism e.g. the Devil’s pitchfork originated from Poesidon’s trident.
- Posted by OwenIt’s time to move on from old-fashioned religious beliefs that have no place in our world today.
There is a lot of comment on what God thinks in the comments - anyone actually got this from the horse’s mouth? Your belief is not evidence.
- Posted by NR