Today there was news about
remarks attributed to Pope Francis. His comments, made during a church service, were transformed into a HuffPo article, the gist of which is that the pope condemned "slave labour" in Bangladesh.
"A headline that really struck me on the day of the tragedy in
Bangladesh was 'Living on 38 euros a month'. That is what the people who
died were being paid. This is called slave labour," the pope was quoted
as saying at a private mass.
"Today in the world this slavery is
being committed against something beautiful that God has given us -- the
capacity to create, to work, to have dignity. How many brothers and
sisters find themselves in this situation!" he said.
That's nice and all -- but there is irony in the pope's words. He worries about the slavery of
denying a person dignity -- while at the same time insisting that gay people cannot be full citizens of the world, with the right to marry like anyone else. In this way, our dignity is stolen from us.
And the thief is the Roman Catholic church (among others).
In my experience,
Catholics are not good at grasping the meaning of their words. Popeyguy Frank is no different. Gays are treated like slaves in this world. If this is not the case, why do other people believe they can make critical decisions about our lives? It's as if we're pets rather than people.
There are countries that throw gays in prison. Countries are trying to pass laws which state that we must be murdered. There are public hangings of gays in Iran. Russia is presently mounting its most virulent campaign against gay people. There are laws in many countries that say you can't
speak about gay people.
That is the background against which we seek dignity -- including the right to marry. Is this really so hard to understand?
This pope is said to be a champion for the "underclass". He should start by looking under the heels of his own shoes. Perhaps he'd see us there.
