Where The Immovable Lobbies The Intransigent

I don't really know whether to laugh or cry about the Vatican's rumoured intervention in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

But seriously, given the rigid adherence to dogma that Pope Benedict XVI has demonstrated - even when there's concrete evidence that calls the dogma into question - doesn't it seem a trifle ridiculous to be intervening in a case in Iran which is based on religious law that is just as rooted in the intransigence of a few to consider reason in the first place?

Really - what kind of logic arrives at stoning someone to death for supposed adultery? ... and is that logic any different than the reasoning that demands that only men be priests and calls GLBT people "objectively disordered"?

Assuming the Vatican even opens such a conversation with Iran, I can only imagine the laughter of the Ayatollahs who control the puppet strings of power behind the scenes after the phone call.

(That said, I consider the sentence on Ms. Ashtiani's head barbaric and a ridiculous overreaction to the situation in the first place)

Dear Vatican: Nobody Was Asking For Your Approval

What is it with the Vatican these days. It seems like every second day some nitwit there opens their yap and demonstrates that they have no idea what they are about.

Today's gem is more faux outrage over a movie. This time, the prequel to Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code", "Angels and Demons".

The Vatican's official newspaper, Avvenire, ran a story Friday saying the Roman Catholic Church "cannot approve" of such a film.

And on Saturday, Turin daily La Stampa reported the Vatican will soon be calling for a boycott of the Ron Howard-directed film.

Ummm...note for the reality impaired: It's a movie based on a piece of fiction. What's the problem? Oh wait - let me guess - it offends your interpretation of your own favourite bit of fiction.

The Vatican has described the prequel as "an offence against God."

They're Just Obsessed

I see that the Vatican is at it again - once more declaring GLBT people and their relationships invalid:

Society is organized around the relationship of the couple that is formed by a man and a woman. They find each other in conjugal life and in family life. In this sense, the couple and the family enter into the sphere of social life, and because of this, of civil law. The relationship between two persons of the same sex is not the same as the relationship of a couple that is based on the sexual difference. These two situations depend on structures that are not of the same nature. The homosexual relationship does not enter into this social sphere.

What absolute nonsense. There can be no question but that GLBT relationships enter the 'social sphere' - reasoning societies do not demand that their GLBT citizens live in complete isolation from the greater body of society, and therefore, their relationships unquestionably do enter into the social sphere, and that of civil law (which, ironically, is precisely what the SGM marriage debate has been about since day one - legal equality).

But, the rantings of the Vatican become even more insane:

egislators make an anthropological error when they want to socially organize homosexuality. They run the risk of provoking an intellectual confusion, as well as confusion of identity and relationships.

Ah yes, the old canard that GLBT people are 'confused' somehow. Yes, in the Vatican's collective mind (headed by Pope Ratz these days), if you are GLBT it is really just a delusion on your part. (Remember what I said before about the Pope declaring the narratives of GLBT people invalid - seems to me that this reinforces my perception of what the Pope said in his pre-Christmas speech to the Curia.

While I do not object to the notion that family is a common good in human civilization, I think it is folly to claim that there is "one true" family, and that all others should be subject to legal inequalities and systemic discrimination.

It should not be forgotten that confusion frequently favors insecurity, unstable relationships and violence, when legislators don't respect the fundamental sense of human relationships. The family is a common good of humanity that is not at the free disposition of legislators to respond to the subjective and problematic demands of today.

Yes, but acknowledging that GLBT people do form long lasting, stable families; and by a dozen different paths, there are children being raised in GLBT families all the time. If we are going to talk about insecure and unstable relationships, would someone care to explain to me why it is so many marriages break down, or one of the partners starts philandering about behind their spouse's back? I might consider some validity to the Vatican's remarks here if it wasn't for the fact that straight marriages aren't exactly wonderfully stable environments either - so to suppose that GLBT relationships deserve second class status based on such an assertion is ridiculous.

The cardinal simply underlined that homosexuality does not contribute favorably to the organization of individuals and of society. The exercise of homosexuality does not reflect the truth of friendship. Friendship is inherent to the human condition in that it offers relationships of proximity, help and cooperation, in a courteous and amiable climate. Friendship should be lived chastely.

That's because, like a heterosexual relationship, a homosexual partner relationship goes beyond the relatively pragmatic bounds of a 'platonic friendship'. To think that there is any material difference in the emotional bonds in a romantic relationship whether its participants are heterosexual or homosexual is quite ridiculous.

To assume that homosexual relationships are simply a "twisted friendship" is deeply insulting to the GLBT community as a whole, for it insinuates that members of that community are unaware of their feelings, or that they are distorted.

The Church maintains its preoccupation of welcoming and accompanying homosexual persons. Every person that has difficulties to live their sexuality properly is called to find Christ and to live, consequently, in accord with the demands of liberty and responsibility of faith, hope and charity.

Blah...blah...blah. Let me give you clowns a hint: there's an old saying: "You'll attract more flies with honey than vinegar". Start treating GLBT people as human beings instead of freaks who you'd prefer to hide in the cupboard and you might discover there's a whole class of very human people there - people who are surprisingly self-aware, articulate, and that form real, loving relationships.

When it comes to the GLBT of this world, it is quite clear that the Vatican is serving up quite a vile form of vinegar.

Quick, Call Lucifer!

We need a temperature check in Hell ... someone in the Vatican said something I agree with:

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, made his comments in an interview in the Italian online newspaper Il Sussidiario.net.

"Defenceless populations are always the ones who pay. Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp", Martino, whose informal title is Vatican "justice minister", was quoted as saying.