Not Anti-Catholic, Just Anti-Harm

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/06/27/Not_Anti-Catholic,_Just_Anti-Harm/

There comes a point in Dan Brown’s bestselling thriller Angels and Demons, in which its protagonist, Professor Robert Langdon, in response to being queried about his faith, proclaims he is not anti-Catholic “just anti-vandalism” – in reference to a 17th century Pope’s desecration of male statuary whose phalluses were chiseled away in an act of prudery gone wild.

For some reason, this reference struck me only weeks after participating in a conference on HIV/AIDS prevention and care hosted last month by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. As a former Catholic (now Episcopalian), I struggled at many points during this two-day conference to ensure my words and deeds did not seem anti-Catholic.

The Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine of intolerance related to condoms and homosexuality, not to mention its promulgation of a patriarchal society that leaves women powerless and vulnerable, are determinants of HIV’s spread worldwide, but especially in parts of the world with low health literacy. So, like Professor Langdon, mine was a message of solidarity in our global fight against disease, but clear in an anti-harm position.

As with Professor Langdon’s re-education in the importance of faith and doctrine, the 100 or so participants of what was billed an “international study conference” were presented with back-to-back lectures showing that regardless of moral arguments over an individual's use of a condom to prevent disease, the Vatican still judges condom promotion a failure in the battle against HIV/AIDS. And at least three clerics – among them the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers – aggressively promoted their belief that the “abandonment of homosexuality” is HIV prevention.

[HockeyMom]

1. I am anticatholic

having spent 12 years as a catholic schoolgirl. Hell, just seeing how the church treated the nuns, nevermind women in general, was enough for me as a teenager. I haven't changed my mind in 50 years. If anything, they have just confirmed it over the decades.

[MNBrewer]

2. Kick, Rec, and DITTO!

I am anti-Catholic.

To be fair, I'm also anti Protestant, anti-Mormon, anti-Judiasm, anti-Buddhism, anti-Religion.

[BigDemVoter]

3. Almost afraid to say it

But I admit a bit of anti-catholicism myself.

I DO admire the Church's role in anti-poverty programs, but I am appalled by the Pope going to Africa (or wherever) and preaching against birth control.
This is irresponsible. It is criminal. It is outrageous.

Upon reviewing what I wrote, I WOULDN'T call myself anti-catholic after all. I just find that religion really plays far too dominant a role in our politics, and I don't really care what that particular religion is.

[Zorra]

4. No surprise. The history of the Catholic Church is the history of

organized enforced stupidity, generally speaking.