Catholic bishops: Gay marriage hurts society, homosexuality no factor in priest abuse

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Catholic bishops: Gay marriage hurts society
Preliminary church report also finds homosexuality no factor in priest abuse

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33998250/ns/us_news-faith/

BALTIMORE - The nation's Roman Catholic bishops have affirmed that the church defines marriage between one man and one woman, and sex is meant for procreation.

The pastoral letter was issued Tuesday in Baltimore by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops said they are disturbed that a growing number of people view marriage as a private or individual matter, instead of an issue critical to building a healthy society.

They said in the pastoral letter that redefining marriage to allow same-sex unions would damage the common good and would ignore the proper role of husbands and wives.

Meanwhile, in a preliminary report commissioned by the bishops, a study found no evidence that gay priests were more likely to abuse children.

[Luminous Animal]

1. Gay priests just like gay lay persons are not more likely to abuse children.

[BadgerKid]

2. Earth to bishops: US society has been rejecting gender roles.

If anything, your grand vision is a means to organize society as you want it (perhaps to keep yourself in the loop) and to reinforce gender roles. It seems to many of us that ANY stable, loving relationship confers stability to the family unit and, by extension, society.

[MichiganVote]

3. Why does anyone think these clowns have any credibility at all?

They are the 'crud' of our society. They exist to pamper themselves. Deceivers, one and all.

[HuckleB]

4. Good. There will be more recovering Catholics with whom to drink.

Stupid Bishops. When will they understand that they are on the wrong side of history, and on the wrong side of the ethical and moral framework on this?

[blogslut]

5. Pedophila is a standalone disorder

It has nothing to do with homosexuality.

The Catholic Church wasted its money on that portion of research and only include pedophilia in order to conflate it with its condemnation of Gay Marriage.

[dflprincess]

9. We should probably be happy that they finally admitted that

Gay does not equal pedophile. I occasionally go over to the forums at Catholic.com to remind myself why I lapsed (ironically, a relative recommended the site in the hopes of bringing me back to the fold) and it is shocking how many of the right wing tools over there think, or claim to think, the "problem" was caused by homosexuals.

As the group over there tends to be more Catholic than the Pope, they'll probably reject the Bishops' "findings" on this. Though, no doubt, they'll stand behind the very same Bishops' threat to take food and shelter from the poor if same sex marriage becomes legal in D.C.

[Angry Dragon]

11. I go over to Catholic Answers to get a feel for what they are thinking

[dflprincess]

12. I can't do it very often

I worry about it raising my blood pressure. I was tempted to see what they thought about the threat to close down the shelters in D.C. but I thought that would kill me. I tell ya, the pre-Vatican II nuns I had for Catechism weren't as conservative as the people over there.

Did you catch Colbert's take on the D.C. threat last night?
Matthew 19:21 "If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor … Unless a couple of dudes register at the Pottery Barn, in which case, f**k the poor."

[Angry Dragon]

20. I do not have to go over there to raise my blood pressure

My blood pressure can raise right on this board. Every other post is about how some churches do not care about half of the people on this earth, they do not matter.

What I see are vocal churches trying to decide what is best for everyone. They say god is on their side. The trouble with this is that everyone looks at god in a different way. So if the churches win and totally change how this country is run then the churches will fight among themselves to see which god is followed. I do not think they see this. They don't see that most have as much to lose as the ones they are fighting against right now. I don't know if I explained myself well here.

[jenniferj]

21. Colbert is a good practising liberal Catholic...

n/t....

[Lost-in-FL]

6. DUer: Catholic bishops hurt society, priesthood a factor in homosexual abuse. nt

[LiberalFighter]

7. How can gay marriage hurt society? How many years have we had gay marriages?

A bit difficult to hurt society when gay marriages has only been legal in a few states and just for a few years.

Yet, Christians have been around for over 2,000 years and look what they have done to society.

[Arkana]

8. So they've basically gone the route of "LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU

NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH YOU DIRTY FILTHY HERETICS"

[athenasatanjesus]

10. Amazing

The one good thing I thought that would have come out from the catholic sex scandal would be a reevaluation of many of their sex and sexuality laws but I guess not.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. .

.

[David Zephyr]

13. Who gives a flying fuck what these frauds think or say.

Fuck 'em.

[tyedyeto]

15. Me thinks they doth protest too much

How many priests have abused young boys? How much has the Catholic Church spent in settling abuse claims?

A number of years ago, we all heard about altar boys being abused by priests and the out of court settlements that followed those claims. It wasn't restricted to one area. Claims seemed to be nation-wide.

But those priests weren't gay?? I guess they were just 'teaching' children what NOT to do as they became adults. 'Do as I say, not as I do' kind of teachings.

Hypocrisy at it's finest.

[Raster]

19. Most male pedophiles that abuse boys sexually identify as heterosexual.

There is NO relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. None.

[Zoeisright]

16. Certainly pedophiles aren't homosexuals.

But marriage is private. And they still haven't addressed why 'gay marriage' is going to ruin 'straight marriage'. Because there is no coherent reason, and they know it.

[Swamp Rat]

17. "YOU LIE!"

[Postman]

18. Divorce hurts society too, are they banning divorce in the Catholic Church?