Unable to cope with his own gender problems, man in skirt condemns gays in the name of God (she told him to).

Discuss.

The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church.

Catholic teaching is, and always has been, against homosexuality.

Why is anyone surprised by his words? He is doing his job, preaching Catholic doctrine. Nobody is forced to believe or obey him.

People do like to pick little bit of their Holy writing to give a gloss of decency but it's never takes long for the true vile colours of dogma to seep round the edges.

The sooner we can leave superstition and ignorance behind the better.

Unfortunately as such nonsenses are engrained in young minds with threats and fear it is very difficult to dislodge it later.

This is par for the course for organized religion. What else can be expected when so many supposedly well educated 21st Century people choose to believe the insane ramblings of a few religious zealots from thousands of years ago?

The Pope once said that homosexual acts are against nature and therefore intrinsically evil. This time he says that saving humanity from homosexuality is just as important as saving the rain forests from destruction. Religion, once it starts distorting judgement to this extent is a form of insanity. Maybe the Pope should be sectioned and locked away until he is cured.

The Anglican church has on the whole tried to distance itself from this extent of bigotry, but as such has also distanced itself from the "Holy Book" that it is meant to be defending. Surely the best course of action is for us all to wake up and realise that this God of the desert, with all his bigotry, has gone way past his sell by date. We don't need him any more.

I'm not gay, but I find the Pope's words so highly offensive that it brings me close to rage. How can gay people belong to this religion? I am yet to receive any explanations. Turkeys voting for Christmas? Can anyone help?

The Catholic Church has some "quaint" olde traditions - so how this is news is beyond me.

Sounds like the "media" trying to stir up some homophonbia. Sadly some boneheads on the far right may use this as an excuse to beat up some people.

If the media left the Pope alone on doctrine ( which only applies to Pope followers ) then it would be no big deal.

Strange that when OUR Archbishop criticises the GREED of BROWN etc. it hardly gets noticed on the news which instantly pushes it to the bottom of the agenda. No debate at all about that - no offer of a live TV studio debate BROWN v ARCHBISHOP - which would have been a very interesting debate.

Consumerism is almost dead I hope - yes it may see casualties in unemployment as we all change to realising that material things are actually nice but not essential.

For too long people's mental well being has been ignored. The rise in drug dependency ( both legal and illegal ) shows how unhappy many people really are - and so by diverting resources to creating a fairer and more just society should surely be our aim.

Therefore as usual the head of the Roman Catholic Church has missed the whole point of Christianity. When Jesus came to Earth it was to bring a message of peace and love - not division and hate. Religious doctrine was something which Jesus did not approve of if it got in the way and was more important than the greatest commandment - to love one another.

If we are to progress as a species - then we need to listen harder to the words of Jesus and ignore the words of those who claim to speak for him who have lost their way in the fog of "religion".

Happy Christmas to you all whether you are Straight - Gay - Bi - unsure : I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and feel the love and joy and peace which our Creator wants us to have in our lives.

I find the entire attitude by the Pope and his flock obscene and ominous expressed as it is on this day where many pay serious attention.

It reveals the deep seated bigotry inherent in many social orders.

"A destruction of God's work"?

Nice justification for everything from murder to dishonesty to false allegations and racism.

Kill someone, say a couple of Hail Marys and go in peace.

Disgusting.

I agree with you about the ideas.

But we cant generalise about all Catholics being the same - no more so than our problem that GORDON BROWN is seen a a warmonger around the World - because he does not speak for many of us in this respect.

It is a shame that the leaders of the World both Political and Spiritual seem to be a corrupt bunch of individuals with no real care about anything but "power" and the exercising of it.......

Pretty hard to find a religion that is tolerant of such things.
Problem is that to be a sucess a religion has to gain new followers...and how can it have historically done that if it encourages people away from its own breeding programmes...marriage;)
Easy to forget that time and history has distorted the true word of the gospels...if in fact we ever had it.
The catholic church is suffering a huge decline in its membership....say no more:laugh:

Some gay people want to belong to the religion but also want to change it, which means they don't really want to belong to it.

I think it's wrong to denigrate people who choose to believe something other than what we believe. It's the worst kind of hypocracy to claim to defend freedoms and then post such criticism of others just because you disagree with them. It may be true that we cannot prove the existence of a god, but it's also true that we cannot disprove it either, so it comes down to choice. We need to tolerate the beliefs of other people. Our unbelief is no excuse for rudeness.

But there comes a point where someone's belief hurts someone else.

Just as I support anyone's right to worship Allah, I condemn someone who kills others because they think Allah wants it.

And when a man at the head of a religion curses someone because they fall in love with a person of the same gender, I believe the line has been crossed.

The Pope didn't order anyone to hurt or kill anyone. What he said was no worse than suggesting that secondary smoking is fatal. I see the reaction of some people on this forum as very disturbing.

His religion says gay marriage is a threat to humanity and is condemned by people who say that religion is a threat to humanity. Why is one better or worse than the other?

So you can dish it out, but you can't take it?

Speaking as a Cathoilc the comments from Papa Razzi do not surprise me. I am proud to be a Catholic and for many years i have thought that as a religion, Catholicism needs to change with the times. Whilst i disagree with his comments on homosexuality, i believe that with most religions you choose to acknowledge some aspects and not others.

Denise wrote:
The Pope didn't order anyone to hurt or kill anyone. What he said was no worse than suggesting that secondary smoking is fatal. I see the reaction of some people on this forum as very disturbing.

His religion says gay marriage is a threat to humanity and is condemned by people who say that religion is a threat to humanity. Why is one better or worse than the other?

So you can dish it out, but you can't take it?
Of course I can take it. Taking offence is the speciality of the religious after all.

You make two of the oddest analogies I have ever come across. As a smoker, I would not feel upset by the suggestion that that my smoke may threaten someone's health. If I were gay, I would be somewhat distressed to hear the leader of a major world religion describe me as intrinsically evil.

As for your second analogy, you may as well suggest that nobody had the right to criticize Hitler as he had as much right to say the Jews were a threat to humanity than decent people had to condemn him.

The Pope has made a hate speech. That's all there is to it.

Denise wrote:
Some gay people want to belong to the religion but also want to change it, which means they don't really want to belong to it.

I think it's wrong to denigrate people who choose to believe something other than what we believe. It's the worst kind of hypocracy to claim to defend freedoms and then post such criticism of others just because you disagree with them. It may be true that we cannot prove the existence of a god, but it's also true that we cannot disprove it either, so it comes down to choice. We need to tolerate the beliefs of other people. Our unbelief is no excuse for rudeness.
It is not wrong to denigrate utter nonsense. Why should anyone show respect for wilful ignorance, superstition and bigotry?

The "Can't disprove God" is a fallacious nonsense - can you disprove unicorns? As you cannot do you think it is fair to base laws that effect others on the existence of unicorns simply because they cannot be disproved?

Russell's teapot answers "the idea that the burden of proof lies upon the sceptic to disprove unfalsifiable claims of religions" adequately for any open-minded person.

"The burden of proof" about "unfalsifiable claims" - we're back to historical claims of abuse aren't we?

No wonder the Church is so unwilling to back innocent priests falsely accused.

I think that the existence of God is proveable on a personal level, but until you have it on a personal level it is hard to believe or understand.

that malicious smile of Pope Benedict's reminds me of Dame Edna Everage.

We have been created - hence I think that is proof enough of a creator. Whether you choose to acknowledge creation as an "accident" of gasses and atoms or the hand of "God" is a personal decision. It requires faith to believe either way.

I choose to believe in a creator God and that Jesus came to Earth in order to point us in the right direction. History has shown that if we follow the teachings of Jesus ( and he does not comment on Homosexuality at all as far as I am aware for those of you who think Jesus is concerned with that ) then life is better and there would be no war and people would live in Peace and love.

I firmly believe that Peace and Love are what would make life good for everyone regardless of income or race or even religion.

So today I choose to celebrate the Birth of Jesus ( yes I know today isnt really the day but having it at this time of year makes sense ) and wish you all a very Happy Christmas Day and I do pray that God might reveal something of him/her self to you all in the coming year.

Even I'm not mean spirited enough to rubbish Christianity on this day, so Happy Christmas, BR,(and JK and anyone else browsing on here today.)

Religious or atheist, we all need to fight for peace and love and most of all for justice and freedom in society, which is so threatened in this country right now, otherwise there is no point wishing anyone a happy new year.

My other half summed it up when he saw the headlines

"What's the evil old nazi hypocrite said now?"