Terrorist Catholic church fires another gay teacher

If you spark terror on a regular basis, you are a terrorist. That should be simple enough to understand. The following is a quote from Kristen Ostendorf, a teacher who was fired from her job at a Minnesota Catholic high school for being a lesbian.

I’d like to be the last person to be fired for who I loved, or for the gender of the person I love. But I won’t be, probably, and the silence around it terrifies me.

Terror -- religion makes it happen every day. And on the subject of sexual orientation, the Roman Catholic church is one of the greatest terrorists.

PS: If the church lets priests marry, it'll be great fun when most of the priests announce they want to marry other men. Let the good times begin!

Pope again says atheism is fine

Okay, so he didn't put it in those words. But apparently he was asked various "theological" questions in an Italian newspaper. I really liked this answer:

To the 89-year-old Scalfari's question of whether someone without faith who commits a sin would be forgiven by the Christian God, Francis responded: "God forgives those who follow their conscience." 

That's pretty much the definition of atheism. We figure things out on our own and try to do the right thing without, you know, consulting dusty old books.

On the other hand, Ed Brayton had a post up the other day (sorry, no link) that indicated Francis talks out of both sides of his mouth on the topic of atheism. But the pope hit a high note with this remark about following one's conscience. That's the definition of morality: doing the right thing.

There's even talk today about the church putting the kibosh on priestly celibacy. Change is afoot. Now, if only he'd say there is no god. Soon, right?

New pope says surprising things

I heard a few things about the new popeyguy on the news last night. I was able to track one of them down in a HuffPo article:

But Francis...added that atheists and believers can be "precious allies" in their efforts "to defend the dignity of man, in the building of a peaceful coexistence between peoples and in the careful protection of creation."

Benedict would never say that. Never. This pope is giving a lot of people hope.

The other thing I heard on the news was something he said about priestly celibacy. I haven't been able to track down the exact quote, but in another HuffPo article I found mention of something he said in 2012, when he was merely Cardinal Bergoglio:

As for celibacy among priests, Bergoglio said that he -- "for the moment" -- was "in favor of maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons, because we have ten centuries of good experiences rather than failures." 

The article doesn't include what I heard last night on my local news. The best I can recall, it was something like this: "Priestly celibacy is a matter of discipline, not faith." Note that I put quotes around that, but am paraphrasing from memory. What I suppose this to mean is that Roman Catholicism, the religion, says nothing about priests not being allowed to marry. It's merely a church tradition, and one that was adopted in "modern" times (in the 1500s, according to some records). Thus the rule can change.

Interesting times ahead. And of course, the most interesting aspect of all this is that Benedict tried to stack the deck of Cardinals with conservative, head-in-the-sand authoritarians. Yet that hand-chosen group of cardinals seems to have chosen a breath of fresh air as pope. It's a stunning turn of events.

Married Catholic priests not so rare after all

There's an opinion piece in the NYT about celibacy and Roman Catholicism. It's written by the son of a former priest. He tells the tale of South American priests who married and remained priests. Sacre bleu!

Not only had Podesta married in 1972, he had also devoted the rest of his life to winning recognition for priests who had made similar choices, and for the women with whom they now shared their lives. Mandatory celibacy itself, Podesta suggested, was based largely on “the undervaluation of women” and the notion that men tainted by female contact should be prohibited from approaching the altar; to rectify this situation, he enlisted his wife as a concelebrant during Mass. 

I've never heard that before -- the bit about married men being tainted by women and thus unfit for altar service. But it sounds like it's right on the money. After all, that's how these "pious" men view women, as unclean creatures. This sentiment clangs through many religions, including Islam and the Jewish religion. It's sickening.

The article goes on to describe the new pope's interactions with the Podestas -- both the man and his wife -- while he was in Argentina. It seems there is a slim chance that this pope might change the church's tune on priestly celibacy. It's not a given, not by a long shot, but the article makes it seem possible. That would really be progress and would go a long way toward fixing what ails this sex-obsessed church.