Monday, November 29, 2010

AUTHORITARIAN ≠ AUTHORITATIVE – June 27, 2009 | Pope described as …"so averse to anything intellectual that everyone has to play dense and ignorant to gain his favor"-- The Trial of Galileo - by Douglas O. Linder (2002) | Benedict XVI UNSUBSTANTIATED Antigay Teachings




Well-informed Conscience
Any good Catholic knows that they are to follow their conscience, however, that is a well-informed conscience. No one is allowed to blindly follow anyone. Each individual is responsible for his or her actions. No one is allowed to say "I was just following orders." This excuse was not acceptable at the Nuremberg trials of the military and political leaders of Nazi Germany, what is known as Superior Orders (often known as the Nuremberg Defense or Lawful Orders).

The Policy Context of International Crimes
2009
Herbert C. Kelman
Harvard University

Genocide, mass killing, torture, ethnic cleansing, and other gross violations of human rights are defined as war crimes or crimes against humanity under international law. To develop an adequate explanation of such actions, which is the task of social psychology, and an adequate legal response to them, which is the task of international law, requires going beyond the characteristics of individual perpetrators or even of the situations in which these practices take place. It requires close examination of the political system and of the policy process in which these actions are embedded and that provide the larger context for them.

Crimes of obedience

As a first step in this examination, we must define the special nature of the crimes under consideration. Some instances of such crimes may well constitute “ordinary” crimes—that is, crimes committed in violation of the expectations and instructions of authority. Participation in massacre, torture, or ethnic cleansing would be an ordinary crime in this sense if it were carried out by individual perpetrators on their own initiative and in disregard of the policies and orders of the authorities under which they function. Even a crime committed in the context of an authorized activity—such as a military operation or interrogation of prisoners—could be treated as an ordinary crime if the perpetrator went beyond legally permissible limits: if, for example, a soldier on a reconnaissance mission indiscriminately shot civilians, or if an interrogator used means of pressure in excess of what the rules permitted.

The essence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, however, is that they are not ordinary crimes, but crimes of obedience: crimes that take place, not in opposition to the authorities, but under explicit instructions from the authorities to engage in these acts, or in an environment in which such acts are implicitly sponsored, expected, or at least tolerated by the authorities…

When does an ordinary crime become a crime of obedience?... To be sure, those who commit these crimes with enthusiasm and initiative are more culpable, from a legal and moral point of view, than those who commit them reluctantly in response to explicit orders. However, whether the action is caused or merely justified by explicit or implicit orders from superiors, it can be described as a crime of obedience, on the presumption that it would not have taken place without authorization.

Recognizing these actions as crimes of obedience immediately directs our attention to the other side of the coin: to the crimes of authority that invariably accompany crimes of obedience. For every subordinate who performs criminal acts under official orders or with the encouragement or toleration of the authorities, there is a superior—or typically an entire hierarchy of superiors—who issue the orders and who formulate the policies that require or permit these acts. Higher-level superiors may in fact not have issued specific orders to engage in these criminal acts, but they are the ones who formulate the policies, create the atmosphere, and establish the framework within which officials at intermediate levels of the hierarchy translate general policy directives into specific orders and actions on the ground.

The fact that crimes of obedience take place within a hierarchical structure makes it especially difficult to pinpoint responsibility for them. Subordinates deny responsibility by reference to superior orders. Superiors are often able to deny responsibility because they are various steps removed from the actions themselves and can claim that the initiative was taken at a lower level or that their instructions were misunderstood. The top leadership is protected by the difficulty in establishing causal links between the general atmosphere and policy directives they convey and the practices designed and carried out at lower levels of the hierarchy…

The important question in determining responsibility is not “who is responsible?” —the actor or the authority—but “who is responsible for what?” When the question is framed that way, it becomes clear that both ought to be held responsible. The actors themselves are properly held responsible for the actions they perform and the harm they cause, even if they are acting under superior orders. Since the adoption of the Nuremberg Principles after World War II, which have been incorporated into the military codes of all Western states, superior orders cannot be used as an absolute defense for criminal actions on the part of subordinates
Read complete paper:
Herbert C. Kelman



CHAPTER ONE

THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
ARTICLE 6
MORAL CONSCIENCE

II. THE FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE
1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject Authoritative teachings.

1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt, and feelings of complacency, born of human weakness and faults. The education of the conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of heart.

1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path,54 we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the Authoritative teaching of the Church.55 Catechism of the Catholic Church


Definitions

AUTHORITARIAN
1. favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom: authoritarian principles; authoritarian attitudes.

2. of or pertaining to a governmental or political system, principle, or practice in which individual freedom is held as completely subordinate to the power or authority of the state, centered either in one person or a small group that is not constitutionally accountable to the people.

3. exercising complete or almost complete control over the will of another or of others: an authoritarian parent.


AUTHORITATIVE
1. having due authority; having the sanction or weight of authority: an authoritative opinion.

2. substantiated or supported by documentary evidence and accepted by most authorities in a field: an authoritative edition of Shakespeare; an authoritative treatment of a subject.

3.having an air of authority; accustomed to exercising authority; positive; peremptory; dictatorial: said with an authoritative air.


Authoritarian parenting

The parent is demanding but not responsive.
Authoritarian parenting, also called strict, is characterized by high expectations of conformity and compliance to parental rules and directions, while allowing little open dialogue between parent and child. "Authoritarian parenting is a restrictive, punitive style in which parents exhort the child to follow their directions and to respect their work and effort." Authoritarian parents expect much of their child but generally do not explain the reasoning for the rules or boundaries. Authoritarian parents are less responsive to their children’s needs, and are more likely to spank a child rather than discuss the problem.

Children with this type of parenting may have less social competence as the parent generally tells the child what to do instead of allowing the child to choose by him or herself. Nonetheless, researchers have found that in some cultures and ethnic groups, aspects of authoritarian style may be associated with more positive child outcomes than Baumrind expects. "Aspects of traditional Asian child-rearing practices are often continued by Asian American families. In some cases, these practices have been described as authoritarian." Often if the demands pushed too forcefully upon the child, the child will break down, rebel, or run away.


Authoritative parenting

The parent is demanding and responsive.
Authoritative parenting, also called balanced parenting, is characterized by a child-centered approach that holds high expectations of maturity. Authoritative parents can understand their children’s feelings and teach them how to regulate them. They often help them to find appropriate outlets to solve problems. "Authoritative parenting encourages children to be independent but still places limits and controls on their actions." "Extensive verbal give-and-take is allowed, and parents are warm and nurturant toward the child." Authoritative parents are not usually as controlling, allowing the child to explore more freely, thus having them make their own decisions based upon their own reasoning.

Authoritative parents set limits and demand maturity, but when punishing a child, the parent will explain his or her motive for their punishment. "Their punishments are measured and consistent in discipline, not harsh or arbitrary. Parents will set clear standards for their children, monitor limits that they set, and also allow children to develop autonomy. They also expect mature, independent, and age-appropriate behavior of children." They are attentive to their children’s needs and concerns, and will typically forgive and teach instead of punishing if a child falls short. This is supposed to result in children having a higher self esteem and independence because of the democratic give-take nature of the authoritative parenting style. This is the most recommended style of parenting by child-rearing experts.


Classroom Management Styles
ISU Physics Teacher Education Program
(updated 11/10/08)

According to Baumrind (1971), the authoritative style encourages independence, is warm and nurturing, control occurs along with explanation, and adolescents are permitted to express their views. The authoritative approach is the best form of classroom management style because it is the one most closely associated with appropriate student behaviors.

The authoritative style is characterized by behavioral principles, high expectations of appropriate behavior, clear statements about why certain behaviors are acceptable and others not acceptable, and warm student-teacher relationships.

The authoritarian style tends to be characterized by numerous behavioral regulations, is often seen as punitive and restrictive, and students have neither a say in their management, nor are they seen to need explanations; the teacher's character is sometimes perceived as being cold, even punishing.

Authoritarian in an adjective.  It means
tyrannical
domineering
dictator-like

Authoritative is an adjective.  It means 
knowledgeable
competent
possessing due or acknowledged authority


AUTHORITATIVE LEADERSHIP, 
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENT 2008
Stephen Dinham and Catherine Scott

Abstract
There is a vast body of research confirming the important influence of the classroom teacher on student achievement (see Hattie, 2002, 2003, 2007; Mulford, 2006; Rowe, 2003).

A key issue then, is that of how the quality of teaching and learning within individual classrooms can be influenced and improved.

Based upon findings from a range of research projects investigating aspects of quality teaching, we believe that two key, related influences on classroom achievement are educational leadership and teachers’ professional learning. This paper concentrates mainly on the former (see Dinham, 2007b for more on the latter).
Educational leadership, like teaching and life generally, is heavily dependent upon relationships. There are two fundamental dimensions to relationships: responsiveness and demandingness (Baumrind, 1991).

This paper considers the two dimensions in the contexts of parenting, where these were first proposed, and then teaching and educational leadership, where we believe the typology has equally valid and valuable application.

A postscript considers how responsiveness and demandingness may have shaped and can explain educational change since the early 1960s.

Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 3-6 September 2008
Stephen Dinham and Catherine Scott
(Australian Council for Educational Research)
(Swinburne University of Technology)

Related Articles:

Related Links:

Different Styles of Classroom Management

The Authoritarian Personality


AUTHORITARIAN ≠ AUTHORITATIVE

The section above from the Catechism of the Catholic Church clarifies the responsibility of each individual to actively educate him or herself in the life long process of maintaining a well-informed conscience. A key principle in the Catechism is the understanding of the authoritative teachings of the Church. Authoritative authority is based on “substantiated or supported by documentary evidence and accepted by most authorities in a field: an authoritative edition of Shakespeare; an authoritative treatment of a subject.” This is a major difference from authoritarian authority “favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom: authoritarian principles; authoritarian attitudes.”

Benedict XVI is an authoritarian leader, which goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church. Benedict XVI history of homosexual activity is an authoritarian approach, he demands complete obedience to his teaching on homosexuality, though his teaching is not “substantiated or supported by documentary evidence and accepted by most authorities in a field.” With all due respect, Benedict XVI describes homosexual orientation using terms as “intrinsically evil,” “intrinsically disordered,” “condemnation of homosexuality,” "deep-seated," "objectively disordered," or to “sublimate one’s sexuality” none of which are substantiated or based on any accepted authorities in the entire world. This makes Benedict XVI and all those who blindly follow him who publicly speak against homosexual orientation totally liable for the psychological and physical harm they cause to millions of children and adults. Benedict XVI and all who blindly follow his teaching on homosexuality are being unfaithful and disobedient to Catholic teachings. A true Catholic, a follower of Jesus Christ, requires that every individual be personally responsible to put in the effort of acquiring a well-informed conscience on homosexuality and human sexuality. By not doing this and then speaking against homosexuality is a grievous sin against God and all of humanity. "They are blind guides of the blind and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit" Matt:15:14. What makes this sin worst is that it harms millions of children. Jesus was most clear about the importance of children, so before anyone speaks out publicly against homosexuals be sure, be very sure you have done and are continually doing your homework thoroughly studying both the science and biblical understanding of homosexuality. Photo more

GAY YOUTH SUICIDE | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups – Negligence Protecting (1) Children & (2) LGBT Children | Family of Rutgers suicide victim lends name to bill – November 19, 2010 – CNN

All the priests and sister mentioned in the posting THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2009 Benedict XVI Continuous History of Homosexual Activity, a partial list these people stood up long before I did and Benedict XVI silenced them. With all due respect, Benedict XVI silencing them was a form of evil! Evil defined as the absence of truth and love. It is evil because it indiscriminately and significantly harms for life and kills innocent adults and children worldwide! What was the crime of these educated religious people? Was it because they spoke the truth about human sexuality at the risk of their lives? What was in it for them to risk their lives? Why wasn't there any open public discussions on the principles questioned by Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, so that we all could have all learned the truth about human sexuality? Why were these priests and sister accused, judged, convicted and sentenced all in secret and then removed from ministry, to silence them? Why? Think of all the millions of people who would not have had to suffer, if these people were allowed to speak the truth about human sexuality. Think of how many lives would been saved (Prayers for Bobby 2009) and the needless violence that could have been prevented. How was it that Benedict XVI has allowed to carry on this implicit form of deadly violence more deadly than explicit violence and no one was there to stop him?!? It is criminal that Benedict XVI spent his life silencing these people with the truth and prolonged human suffering under the disguise of religion. How long are we going ot allow this kind of violence to continue, while Kids Are Being Hurt!?! I thought that the truth was not to be hidden under a bushel basket or put under a bowl but to be place where all could see it.

Benedict XVI Continuous History of Homosexual Activity, a partial list
Benedict XVI = Ratzinger


New pope on homosexuality: "Intrinsic moral evil"
April 20, 2005

In July 1999 the National Catholic Reporter delineated what was already a staunchly antigay stance posited by Cardinal Jospeh Ratzinger of Germany, who was elected Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday. At the time, Ratzinger had imposed a lifetime ban on pastoral work by pro-gay Salvatorian Fr. Robert Nugent and School Sister of Notre Dame Jeannine Gramick. [New Ways Ministry] The move was just the latest step in an effort by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to prevent evolution in church teaching toward acceptance of openly gay and lesbian people, the paper reported. Here is the Reporter's review of key moments:

May 1984: Ratzinger orders the imprimatur lifted from Sexual Morality by Fr. Philip S. Keane, published in 1977 by Paulist Press. Keane argues that homosexual conduct cannot be understood as "absolutely immoral."



September 1986: Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen in Seattle announces that he has transferred final authority in five areas, including the pastoral care of gays, to Auxiliary Bishop Donald Wuerl in accord with Vatican instructions. The action follows a written critique by Ratzinger, citing, among other flaws, Hunthausen's decision in 1983 to permit a Mass for Dignity, a Catholic gay group, in his cathedral.



October 1986: Ratzinger publishes a document titled "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons." The letter warns of "deceitful propaganda" from pro-homosexual groups. It instructs bishops not to accept groups that "seek to undermine the teaching of the church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely." The letter refers to homosexual orientation as an "intrinsic moral evil." In the wake of the letter, many Catholic bishops bar Dignity from using church facilities.



October 1986: Acting on instructions from Ratzinger, the head of the Jesuit order informs Jesuit Fr. John McNeill that he must either abandon pastoral ministry with gays or be expelled from the order. McNeill chooses not to give up his work. McNeill had been silenced by the Vatican in 1977 for his book The Church and the Homosexual, which argued that stable homosexual relationships should be judged by the same moral criteria as heterosexual relationships. The book was originally published with the permission of McNeill's Jesuit superiors.



November 1986: Ratzinger directs Bishop Matthew Clark of the Rochester, N.Y., diocese to remove the imprimatur from Parents Talk Love: The Catholic Family Handbook About Sexuality, written by a written by a priest and a high school teacher. According to the priest, Ratzinger objects to the lack of a clear condemnation of homosexual conduct.



January 1987: After prolonged debate, the Catholic University of America fires Fr. Charles Curran, a moral theologian known for his dissent from official church teaching on sexual ethics. On homosexuality, Curran has written: "Homosexual acts in the context of a loving relationship that strives for permanency can in a certain sense be objectively morally acceptable."

December 1988: Dominican Fr. Matthew Fox is silenced by Ratzinger, citing his failure to condemn homosexuality, among a host of other issues. Fox is expelled from the Dominican order in 1992.



February 1992: Canadian theologian Fr. Andrew Guindon is notified that he is under investigation by the doctrinal congregation for his book The Sexual Creators. Ratzinger demands that he clarify his views on homosexuality, birth control, and premarital sex. Ratzinger's 13-page critique is published in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.



July 1992: Ratzinger sends a letter to the U.S. bishops supporting legal discrimination against gays in certain areas: adoption rights, the hiring of gays as teachers or coaches, and the prohibition of gays in the military. In such situations, Ratzinger writes, "It is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account."



November 1992: The new Catechism of the Catholic Church is published. Though the text acknowledges that homosexual persons "do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial" and forbids any disrespect or failure of compassion for gays, the Catechism repeats the position that the homosexual orientation is "intrinsically disordered."



December 1996: Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the doctrinal congregation, publishes an article in L'Osservatore Romano asserting that certain church teachings must be considered infallible even in the absence of a formal declaration to that effect. The bans on homosexuality and contraception are among the teachings mentioned by Bertone.

February 1997: Following a warning to the Society of St. Paul from Ratzinger, the Vatican imposes a new leader on the order. The Paulines' flagship publication, Famiglia Cristiana, published an article in 1996 suggesting that parents should not force their moral views on a gay child. Bishop Antonio Buoncristiani is appointed the society's temporary leader and charged with ensuring that Pauline publications better reflect church teaching.

July 1998: The Committee on Marriage and Family of the U.S. bishops' conference reissues its letter to parents of homosexuals, "Always Our Children," after making several changes demanded by Ratzinger. They include referring to homosexuality as a "deep-seated" rather than "fundamental" dimension of personality; suggesting that homosexual acts by adolescents may not indicate a homosexual orientation; adding a footnote describing homosexuality as "objectively disordered"; and deleting a passage that encourages use of terms such as "homosexual, gay, and lesbian" from the pulpit in order to "give people permission" to discuss homosexuality.



September 1998: Clark removes Fr. James Callan from his position as pastor of Rochester's Corpus Christi Parish. Callan asserts that Clark is acting under pressure from Ratzinger. Among other things, Callan is criticized for blessing Same-sex unions.

December 1998: Ratzinger, other curial officials, and a group of Australian bishops put out a document citing problems in the Australian church resulting from a "worldwide crisis of faith." Among other deviations, the document cites a moral view in which "heterosexuality and homosexuality come to be seen as simply two morally equivalent variations."


Reprinted with permission of the Advocate.com News

JK Rowling speaks about her work at Amnesty International London and the violence of power and the retaliation for speaking out for justice. Harvard Commencement Speech June 5, 2008 19095

THREATS, SILENCE, HARM AND DISPOSAL of Catholic Personnel Supportive of LGBT Adults and Children - Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Directives To Hierarchy


Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) had been silencing and removing priests, sisters and religious since 1987, who were bringing the truth about homosexuality out into the open in the Roman Catholic Church. Father Robert Nugent, SDS, and Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND are the cofounders of New Ways Ministry. They were silenced by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) 7 months after I came out in March 1997 after attending their Fourth National New Ways Ministry Symposium held in Pittsburgh, PA. The two were slienced for their writings on homosexuality. Their work with LGBT people is described the New Ways Ministry website (Excerpt printed below)


that “…Like its name and its co-founders, the vision and philosophy of this group was solidly Catholic…Their work as "bridge-builders" found them reaching out, in one direction, to gay and lesbian people, and, in the other direction, to people working within the Church and Church structures .
.. Primarily educational in mission, New Ways Ministry quickly established itself in the U.S. Catholic community as a national resource center and clearinghouse for information and materials on the topic of homosexuality as it impacts religious issues…

In 1997, our twentieth anniversary year was a banner year for the ministry. In March, we sponsored the Fourth National Symposium, entitled "The Church Teaching/Teaching the Church: A National Dialogue on Lesbian/Gay Issues and Catholicism." Over 650 Catholic leaders and pastoral ministers gathered in Pittsburgh for a weekend-long in-depth and extensive discussion of topics ranging from same-sex marriage, family relationships, civil rights, homophobia, heterosexism, pastoral care, and lesbian nuns.
 At that meeting, Bishop Gumbleton made another historic statement: he called on all gay and lesbian Church workers--"including priests and bishops "--to come out of the closet and acknowledge their sexual orientation. Little by little, awareness of gay and lesbian Church personnel is becoming a reality in Catholicism.




May 31, 1999 Concerning

Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Father Robert Nugent, SDS, have been engaged in pastoral activities directed toward homosexual persons for more than twenty years. In 1977, they founded the organisation New Ways Ministry within territory of the Archdiocese of Washington in order to promote "justice and reconciliation between lesbian and gay Catholics and the wider Catholic community". They are the authors of the book Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church (Mystic: Twenty-Third Publications, 1992) and editors of the volume Voices of Hope: A Collection of Positive Catholic Writings on Gay and Lesbian Issues (New York: Center for Homophobia Education, 1995).

From the beginning, in presenting the Church's teaching on homosexuality, Father Nugent and Sister Gramick have continually called central elements of that teaching into question. For this reason, in 1984, James Cardinal Hickey, the Archbishop of Washington, following the failure of a number of attempts at clarification, informed them that they could no longer undertake their activities in that Archdiocese. At the same time, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life ordered them to separate themselves totally and completely from New Ways Ministry, adding that they were not to exercise any apostolate without faithfully presenting the Church's teaching regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts. Despite this action by the Holy See, Father Nugent and Sister Gramick continued their involvement in activities organised by New Ways Ministry, though removing themselves from leadership positions. They also continued to maintain and promote ambiguous positions on homosexuality and explicitly criticised documents of the Church's Magisterium on this issue. Because of their statements and activities, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life received numerous complaints and urgent requests for clarification from Bishops and others in the United States of America. It was clear that the activities of Sister Gramick and Father Nugent were causing difficulties in not a few Dioceses and that they were continuing to present the teaching of the Church as one possible option among others and as open to fundamental change.

In 1988, the Holy See established a Commission under the Presidency of Adam Cardinal Maida to study and evaluate their public statements and activities and to determine whether these were faithful to Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

After the publication of Building Bridges, the investigation of the Commission focused primarily on this book, which summarised their activities and thinking. In 1994, the Commission issued its findings, which were communicated to the two authors. When their responses to these findings were received, the Commission formulated its final Recommendations and forwarded them to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life. While not overlooking the presence of some positive aspects in the apostolate of Father Nugent and Sister Gramick, the Commission found serious deficiencies in their writings and pastoral activities, which were incompatible with the fullness of Christian morality. The Commission, therefore, recommended disciplinary measures, including the publication of some form of Notification, in order to counteract and repair the harmful confusion caused by the errors and ambiguities in their publications and activities.

As the problems presented by the two authors were primarily of a doctrinal nature, in 1995, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life transferred the entire case to the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. At this point, with the hope that Father Nugent and Sister Gramick would be willing to express their assent to Catholic teaching on homosexuality and to correct the errors in their writings, the Congregation undertook another attempt at resolution by inviting them to respond unequivocally to certain questions regarding their position on the morality of homosexual acts and on the homosexual inclination.

Their responses, dated February 22, 1996, were not sufficiently clear to dispel the serious ambiguities of their position. In these, Sister Gramick and Father Nugent demonstrated a clear conceptual understanding of the Church's teaching on homosexuality, but refrained from professing any adherence to that teaching. Furthermore, the publication, in 1995, of their book Voices of Hope: A Collection of Positive Catholic Writings on Gay and Lesbian Issues had made it clear that there was no change in their opposition to fundamental elements of the Church's teaching.

Given the fact that certain of the statements of Father Nugent and Sister Gramick were clearly incompatible with the teaching of the Church and that the wide dissemination of these errors through their publications and pastoral activities was becoming an increasing source of concern for Bishops in the United States of America, the Congregation decided that the case should be resolved according to the procedure outlined in its Regulations for Doctrinal Examination (chapter 4).

In the Ordinary Session of October 8, 1997, the Cardinals and Bishops who make up the Congregation judged that the statements of Father Nugent and Sister Gramick, which had been identified through the above-mentioned procedure of the Regulations for Doctrinal Examination, were in fact erroneous and dangerous.

After the Holy Father had approved the formal contestatio of the authors, the above-mentioned erroneous statements were presented to them through their respective Superiors General. Each was asked to respond to the contestatio personally and independently from the other, to allow them the greatest freedom in expressing their individual positions.

In February 1998, the two Superiors General forwarded the responses to the Congregation. In the Ordinary Sessions of May 6 and May 20, 1998, the Members of the Congregation carefully evaluated the responses, after having received the opinions of members of the Episcopate of the United States and of experts in the field of moral theology.

The Members of the Congregation were unanimous in their decision that the responses of the two, while containing certain positive elements, were unacceptable. In each case, Father Nugent and Sister Gramick had sought to justify the publication of their books and neither had expressed personal adherence to the Church's teaching on homosexuality in sufficiently unequivocal terms. Thus, it was decided that they should be asked to formulate a public declaration, which would be submitted to the judgement of the Congregation. In this declaration they were asked to express their interior assent to the teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality and to acknowledge that the two above-mentioned books contained errors.

The two declarations which arrived in August 1998 were examined by the Congregation in the Ordinary Session of October 21, 1998. Once again, they were not sufficient to resolve the problems associated with their writings and pastoral activities. Sister Gramick, while expressing her love for the Church, simply refused to express any assent whatsoever to the teaching of the Church on homosexuality. Father Nugent was more responsive, but not unequivocal in his statement of interior assent to the teaching of the Church. It was decided by the Members of the Congregation, therefore, that Father Nugent should be given yet another opportunity to express unequivocal assent. For this reason, the Congregation formulated a declaration of assent and, with its letter of December 15, 1998, forwarded it to Father Nugent, through his Superior General, for his acceptance.

His response, dated January 25, 1999, showed that this attempt had not met with success. Father Nugent would not sign the declaration he had received and responded by formulating an alternative text which modified the Congregation's declaration on certain important points. In particular, he would not state that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and he added a section which calls into question the definitive and unchangeable nature of Catholic doctrine in this area.

Given the failure of the repeated attempts of the Church's legitimate authorities to resolve the problems presented by the writings and pastoral activities of the two authors, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is obliged to declare for the good of the Catholic faithful that the positions advanced by Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination are doctrinally unacceptable because they do not faithfully convey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church in this area. Father Nugent and Sister Gramick have often stated that they seek, in keeping with the Church's teaching, to treat homosexual persons "with respect, compassion and sensitivity". However, the promotion of errors and ambiguities is not consistent with a Christian attitude of true respect and compassion: persons who are struggling with homosexuality no less than any others have the right to receive the authentic teaching of the Church from those who minister to them.

The ambiguities and errors of the approach of Father Nugent and Sister Gramick have caused confusion among the Catholic people and have harmed the community of the Church. For these reasons, Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Father Robert Nugent, SDS, are permanently prohibited from any pastoral work involving homosexual persons and are ineligible, for an undetermined period, for any office in their respective religious institutes.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience of May 14, 1999, granted to the undersigned Secretary, approved the present Notification, adopted in the Ordinary Session of this Congregation, and ordered its publication.

+ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect 
+ Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., Archbishop emeritus of Vercelli, Secretary Voices of Hope: A Collection of Positive Catholic Writings on Gay and Lesbian Issues (New York: Center for Homophobia Education, 1995) ix.
Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Agendi ratio in Doctrinarum examine, art. 23-27: AAS 89 (1997), 834
Cf. Gn 19 1-11; Lv 18:22; 20:13; 1 Cor 6:9; Rom 1:18-32; 1 Tim 1:10; Catechism of the Catholic Church 2357-2359, 2396; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Persona humana 8: AAS 68 (1976), 84-85; Letter Homosexualitatis problema: AAS 79 (1987), 543-554. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2358.


New Ways Ministry Symposium - Pastor "Comes Out" 
March 1997
Holy Family Parish - Sparta, Michigan USA
October 24, 2008

Revised December 8, 2009

Welcome to the
THALAMUS CENTER
EARLY CHILDHOOD PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
GROWING UP GAY
My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, ordained in 1979, in Grand Rapids, Michigan (below is the list of parishes where I served). I was pastor of Holy Family Parish, Sparta, Michigan USA and in March of 1997, I attended the New Ways Ministry Symposium, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Dr. Richard Isay, Psychoanalyst and Professor of Psychiatry of Cornell University Medical School, gave the keynote address. I was absolutely stunned just how closely I was able to personally identify with Dr. Isay’s description of the different stages of early childhood psychological development and the harm caused to children by the influence of harsh anti-gay societal and religious norms who grow up to be gay. From clinical studies, adult gay men remember feeling "different" at young as 4 and 5 years of age. This feeling "different" was identified as the natural experience of a child's sexual orientation, whether heterosexual or homosexual.

However, unlike a heterosexual male child’s natural expressions of his sexual orientation at 4 or 5 years of age, which is met with the understanding approval of the parents and his family that is support by social norms, quite the opposite is experienced by a homosexual male child’s natural expressions of his sexual orientation, at the same age. The rejection of a gay child at 4 and 5 years of age is greatly influenced by antigay religious teachings, societal norms of the parents and family, the social environment of this child. This rejection of a gay male child is a form of child abuse. The degree of trauma experienced by this gay male child caused by the feeling of being rejected by another human being because of the his natural expressions wanting to love and be loved, depends on the severity of the different forms of child abuse used on him to express this rejection. Child abuse has many different forms, emotional, physical, neglect, medical, mental and sexual. Child abuse is a crime that has life-long effects that will forever change a young child's life.

The disapproval of the parents of their child's behavioral expressions in early childhood that are not gender specific with the dictates of social and religious norms is a rejection of their gay child, which is not seen as child abuse, but rather as true parental love sanctioned by their religion. This is the insidious, deceptive nature of this kind of child abuse. One of the many ramifications experienced later in life from this type of child abuse is that it would seem to teach a child how to be mean and hurtful to other human beings and that it is socially acceptable to do so. It was at the New Ways Ministry Symposium, March 1997, as I explain in more detail below that I felt a strong moral obligation, as any decent human being would and most especially being a priest to draw public attention to this form of child abuse that is allowed to continue blindly around the world under the disguise of religious fervor.

At this time I was forty-seven years old when I began to realize just how harmful and destructive anti-gay religious norms were during my whole life as well as to other gay people. The harm that is caused by the anti-gay religious norms, as early as 4 and 5 years of age, is being filled with a self-hatred that needlessly lasts throughout a person's life. The effects of this self-hatred is different for everyone, generally causing a person to isolate, avoid intimacy, numerous lost opportunities to succeed, and the list goes on and on.

Before the New Ways Ministry Symposium, March 1997, ended, a newspaper reporter Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked me, if she could use my name in a press article related to the Symposium. I felt quite taken back by this reporter's request realizing that this would publicly "out" me, as a gay priest. At the time, I was still in the process of "coming out" to myself and felt that I still had so much yet to learn. I had seriously been educating myself on the true facts about sexual orientation issues, as related to the bible, as well as, biological and psychological aspects. For the previous 3 to 4 years, before I attended this New Ways Ministry Symposium, March 1997, I had religiously attended many LGBT related seminars, lectures, genders studies presentations at the American Psychological Associations (APA) National Conventions, PFLAG Detroit and PFLAG Ann Arbor meetings, enrolled in two "coming out" courses at Affirmations, Ferndale, MI, attending mass at Dignity Detroit and involved in the LGBT Office at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Though I had previously "come out" to my family and many of friends, the thought that I would ever "come out" publicly had never enter my mind. It simply was something that I never would have ever planned on doing on my own.

However, I felt morally obligated to say "yes" and stand up for children, especially, as a priest. I knew, too much to remain silent. In my mind, if I did remain silent, I honestly could not even see myself ever celebrating mass in church, again. Because, I would be in direct opposition of the very meaning of mass, which is about Christ's love for all people, most particularly for very young children. I also knew that if I did not give this news reporter the permission to use my name, I would never be able to live with myself knowing that I did nothing, "absolutely nothing" to speak out in some way to stop this kind of psychological harm caused to millions of innocent children for generations to come. I came out to my parishioners, at Holy Family Parish, Sparta, Michigan, shortly after I attended the New Ways Ministry Symposium, in March 1997, as reported in the news media, particularly in The Grand Rapids Press. (Press articles from “The Grand Rapids Press” Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 29, 1997, June 28, 1997, October 8, 2005 and May 27, 2006.) After I came out, I was bombarded by many inquires why I felt such an urgency to "come out" publicly to my parishioners. My answer was…

If you see a 2-year-old child playing on the train tracks of an oncoming speeding train you don't think about anything else but to grab the kid to safety! Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

I could not see any child having to go through all the needless pain and suffering that I went through. I came out to my parishioners in defense of very young children who grow up to be gay. For anyone to remain silent on this issue is to collude with the massive harm and violence caused to very young children.
Written by:
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Read more:


“Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices - Kids Are Being Hurt!!! (Sequential Order of Reactions)” November 28, 2010


1 * 9 * 9 * 7 - for - C H I L D R E N


March 1997 - Fr, Marty Kurylowicz “Comes out” to his parishioners to draw public attention to the harm caused to children as young as 4 and 5 years of age who grow up to be gay, by the influence of harsh anti-gay societal and religious norms, after attending New Ways Ministry Symposium, Pittsburg PA

June 1997 Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) authorized that Fr. Kurylowicz’s 2 terms of Sabbatical leave time be denied. Fr. Kurylowicz is to submit to conversion therapy, a reeducation on sexual orientation. Any future assignments in his Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA were in question. Fr. Kurylowicz requested time off to study at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; time was approved, however, regular priest salary ended and no educational funding given, though he received a letter from the Office of the Bishop of the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA that stated that Fr. Kurylowicz is “a priest in good standing.”

August 14, 1997, APA - Resolution on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation - Adopted by the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives

August 5, 2009 - APA appointed the six-member Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation in 2007 to review and update APA's 1997 resolution, "Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation," and to generate a report. APA was concerned about ongoing efforts to promote the notion that sexual orientation can be changed through psychotherapy or approaches that mischaracterize homosexuality as a mental disorder.

September 10, 1997 ... Always Our Children – document by the United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops

October 1, 1997, Bishops Urge Parents of Homosexuals to Accept Their Children, Themselves, Church Teaching on Human Dignity By the US Catholic Bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family Life released Always Our Children.

October 1, 1997, Bishops: Parents, love your gay children - By David Briggs, Associated Press writer
NEW YORK -- U.S. Catholic bishops are advising parents of gay children to put love and support for their sons and daughters before church doctrine that condemns homosexual activity.

October 8, 1997, Cardinal Ratzinger, judged that the statements on homosexuality made by Father Nugent and Sister Gramick, [cofounders of - New Ways Ministry] through the procedure of the Regulations for Doctrinal Examination, were in fact erroneous and dangerous.

June 1998, “Always Our Children” - revised by Cardinal RatzingerAlways Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers, NCCB Committee on Marriage and Family, Third Printing, Revised, June 1998

July 1, 1998 DignityUSA Washington, DCDignityUSA is Disappointed and Saddened By US Catholic Bishops' Dilution of "Always Our Children" Message


There are many such documents issued by Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzenger) that need to be brought out into the light for people to realize how arbitrary, out of touch they are with the accepted research and contrived in their sentencing process of academics and scholars, lacking clarity of documentation and the explanations of the facts. Innocent people have had their lives destroyed by these shams of justice inquisitions. By Benedict XVI silencing these people from freely expressing their work based on the facts about homosexual orientation caused others like myself to suffer needlessly trying to conform to the Vatican's antigay teachings, which then were taught that homosexual tendencies could be changed. It is these kinds of acts that are crimes against humanity that have to be identified and stopped and the people who orchestrate these crimes need to be held libel for their actions.

No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you.
Luke 11: 33- 36


The Catholic Church is about truth following the example of Jesus, who stood for truth and love and in the end Jesus died for truth. Benedict XVI then Cardinal Ratzinger, in secret retaliated against these courageous religious people by removing them from their ministry. Why??? How was Benedict XVI allowed to do this??? How is it that no one questioned or demanded a public explanation of his actions, in order stop Benedict XVI from falsely accusing innocent priests and sisters without a fair open trial? On what truthful facts did Benedict XVI base his reasoning for silencing these people? After, Benedict XVI was allowed to silence these religious people; Benedict XVI offered no teachings explaining the truth about homosexual orientation. Silence! I owe my life to these people for speaking the truth about human sexuality and if they were allowed to continued they would have save me nearly 20 years of my life suffering from clinical depression, which has been proven and backed by all the major medical and mental health associations, internationally that this depression was directly related to my faithful belief in the erroneous antigay teachings of the Vatican. At least, cigarettes companies have been made to place a warning on their product, to protect the public health of millions of people. How is that the Vatican is not made to do the same regarding their antigay teachings, which has been proven to cause severe life-long harmful effects to people and incites others to use violence against people.


Who is in charged in the Catholic Church that allows these kinds of crimes against humanity, by the Vatican to continue uncheck, i.e. the decades of ongoing sexual abuse to children??? There is something seriously wrong in the Catholic Church that it cannot even protect children, which Jesus stressed is most important. With all due respect, there is something wrong that no one spoke up, so many millions of Catholics colluded by their silence or indifference with ongoing child sexual abuse and with Benedict XVI silencing truthful priests and sisters about human sexuality, which he did in secret. The number of priests and sisters was very small, who risked their lives speaking up for the truth about human sexuality. Maybe what Jesus said is right that it is very few people who make it into heaven, certainly not the self-righteous.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
 Matthew 7:13-15

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
 Matthew 7:21

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Matthew 6: 22-23


US Catholic Bishops threaten the moral 'fabric of society' and the sanctity of Gay marriages – November 20. 2010 - Revised November 23, 2009

A pastoral letter agreed at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting November 2009, was formed without the input from a large number of qualified professionals and a significant number of a diverse cross section of members of the laity. It is like the US Catholic Bishop gathering together to do open heart surgeries, however, not a surgeon in sight or any medical personnel to assist. If they proceed to do open heart surgeries on innocent unsuspecting individuals, they would be charged with committing crimes against humanity, like the Nazis were at the Nuremberg Trials[Photo]. The professionals allowed at the their meeting were the researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Homosexuality no factor in abusive priests
by Rachel Zoll,
November 17, 2010 – Associated Press
Puerto Rico Daily Sun

BALTIMORE (AP) — A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops on the roots of the clergy sex abuse scandal found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.

The full report by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won't be completed until the end of next year. But the authors said that their evidence to date found no data indicating that homosexuality was a predictor of abuse.

"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith of John Jay College, in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now."

The question has been raised repeatedly within and outside the church because the overwhelming majority of known victims were boys. As part of the church's response to the crisis, the Vatican ordered a review of all U.S. seminaries that, among other issues, looked for any "evidence of homosexuality" in the schools.

Yet, many experts on sex offenders reject any link between sexual orientation and committing abuse. Karen Terry, a John Jay researcher, said it was important to distinguish between sexual identity and behavior, and to look at who the offender had access to when seeking victims.
Read complete report:


Praise for report on gay priests and sex abuse
by Daniel Burke,
November 20, 2009 – National Catholic Reporter

BALTIMORE -- Gay Catholics and victims of clergy sexual abuse are hailing preliminary results of a study commissioned by U.S. Catholic bishops that says gay priests are no more likely than straight clergy to sexually abuse minors.

Still, some bishops gathered here Nov. 16-18 for their semi-annual meeting said it is premature to say whether the church leaders who had asserted such a link were wrong.

Researchers from New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice on Tuesday (Nov. 17) presented initial findings from their multi-year study of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in some 14,000 claims of abuse and cost the U.S. Catholic Church about $2.6 billion in settlements since 1950…

In a presentation to the bishops Nov. 17, Margaret Smith of John Jay said: "What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse. At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now."

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the gay Catholic group DignityUSA, called the report "very welcome news for gay people, gay priests, and our families and friends."

She said the John Jay report confirms other studies in concluding that sexual orientation is not connected to pedophilia or other sex crimes. "We hope that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church will finally accept this finding, since it has been borne out through their own study," Duddy-Burke said…

"I wouldn't put a lot of credence in it," said Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

After the abuse crisis rocked the church in 2002, Nienstedt helped lead a Vatican investigation of U.S. seminaries aimed at rooting out homosexuality, and served on a committee that drew up new sex abuse prevention policies for U.S. dioceses. He has also written that homosexual orientation is the result of childhood trauma. [unsubstantiated]

Smith and her co-author, Karen Terry, stressed Nov. 17 that access to young boys, rather than a homosexual orientation, was largely responsible for the high percentage of male abuse cases. "It's important to separate the sexual identity and the behavior," Terry said. "Someone can commit sexual acts that might be of a homosexual nature but not have a homosexual identity."

Still, Nienstedt said "a priest has to be accessible to all his people, and someone with a strong same-sex attraction would not be good to have in the pastoral care of people."

In 2005, the Vatican issued new guidelines barring men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from the priesthood. Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Ill., asked Smith and Terry Nov. 17 whether homosexuality should continue to be a factor in excluding some clergy candidates.

"If that exclusion were based on the fact that that person would be more probable than any other candidate to abuse, we do not find that at this time," Smith responded…

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said that "the fixation on gay priests" as the cause of the sex scandal "is part of a long litany of simplistic, wrong-headed solutions and scape-goating," by the Catholic hierarchy.

"Sadly, many Catholics have already reached that conclusion though, due to the bishops' spin," Clohessy said. "The real issue continues to be the bishops' bad behavior."
Read complete report:

400,000 Anti-gay marriage DVDs - $1 million Nienstedt - Minnesota October 29, 2010 - RELIGION & ETHICS PBS – video (NP)


“If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.” 
Emile Zola

What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. 
Luke 12:3

Bishops having this kind of judgment makes it difficult to give any credence to the US Catholic Bishops Conference. And yet these bishops issue pronouncements that are not valid are dangerous and harmful to people. I would think that they would submit themselves to higher testings standards then drug companies do before a new drug is put on the market. They act like the hierarchy who condemned Galileo. Benedict XVI and his hierarchy do not feel the need to explain their pronouncements or to be subjected to any form of questionings or open debate. And yet their prime propose is to teach given to them by Christ, which is quite different from their being authoritarian in their approach. An authoritarian approach gives no explanations about anything, it is not about teaching. Photo



Galileo 
facing the Roman Inquisition - Read more
  

 Biblical quotes used to Condemn Galileo

Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New International Version)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, anhurries back to where it rises.
Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again. 

1 Chronicles 16:30 (New International Version)
30 Tremble before him, all the earth! 
The world is firmly established; icannot be moved.
1 Chronicles 16:30 (New American Standard Bible)

30 Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved

Psalm 93:1 (New International Version)
1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; 
 the LORD is robed in majesty 
 and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
Psalm 93:1 (New American Standard Bible)
1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved

Psalm 96:10 (New International Version)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." 
 The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; 
 he will judge the peoples with equity.
Psalm 96:10 (New American Standard Bible)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity." 

Psalm 104:5 (New International Version)
5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Psalm 104:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever.
Read more:


Pontifical Academy of Sciences ...had direct discussions with John Paul but” – not with Benedict XVI … refuses to discuss controversial topics such as contraception… November 5, 2010 – FoxNews.com


Gay Marriage & Galileo: Pope described as …"so averse to anything intellectual that everyone has to play dense and ignorant to gain his favor"-- The Trial of Galileo
by Douglas O. Linder (2002)
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY (UMKC) SCHOOL OF LAW

Excerpts:

In the 1633 trial of Galileo Galilei, two worlds come into cosmic conflict. Galileo's world of science and humanism collides with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church. The result is a tragedy that marks both the end of Galileo's liberty and the end of the Italian Renaissance…

…Skeptics countered with the "common sense" notion that the earth they stood on appeared not to move at all--much less at the speed required to fully rotate every twenty-four hours while spinning around the sun. …

Overall, the condemnation was hardly convincing. Giorgio de Santillana, author of The Crime of Galileo, wrote of Caccini's testimony: "The whole deposition is such an interminable mass of twists and innuendoes and double talk that a summary does no justice to it."…

When depositions in the Galileo matter concluded, the Commissary-General forwarded two propositions of Galileo to eleven theologians (called "Qualifiers") for their evaluation: (1) The Sun is the center of the world and immovable of local motion, and (2) The Earth is not the center of the world, nor immovable, but moves according to the whole of itself, also with a diurnal motion. Four days later, on February 23, 1616, the Qualifiers unanimously declared both propositions to be "foolish and absurd" and "formally heretical." Less than two weeks later, Pope Paul V--described by the Florentine ambassador as "so averse to anything intellectual that everyone has to play dense and ignorant to gain his favor"--endorsed the theologian's conclusions…

The Trial of 1633
Galileo's admonition stopped the Copernican movement dead in its tracks. For Galileo, his admonition marked the beginning of a period of silence…and adjusted to a world which elevated mindless conformism over scientific understanding…
Read complete paper:
Famous Trials. 
 
Trial of Galileo Galilei  - 1633
by Douglas Linder(c) 2002 

Douglas O. Linder
Elmer Powell Peer Professor of Law
University of Missouri- K. C. School of Law

Related links:

Vatican Science Panel Told By Pope [John Paul II]: Galileo Was Right
November 1, 1992 – The New York Times

Faith can never conflict with reason
- Pope John Paul II -
"The 'Galileo case' teaches us that different branches of knowledge call for different methods, each of which brings out various aspects of reality"

Reconciling Old Lovers:
John Paul on Science and Faith
By Michael Sherwin, O.P.

Galileo protest halts pope's [Benedict XVI] visit
January 15, 2008 
Cable News Network (CNN)

The case against Vatican power
Geoffrey Robertson 
September 8, 2010 
New Statesman

The Vatican thirst for power divides Christianity and damages Catholicism
By Fr. Hans Kung 
October 27, 2009 – The Guardian

“…Benedict XVI’s battle against science, Islam and cultural pluralism, threatens to turn the European clock back to a pre-Enlightenment era…”
by Hatim Salih – April 8, 2007 –
The Washington Post

NO EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THESE [homosexual] STEREOTYPES
Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling
California Prop 8. August 4, 2010
Related Links:

[Unsubstantiated] --- RELIGIOUS BELIEFS that gay and lesbian relationships are SINFUL or INFERIOR to heterosexual relationships HARM gays and lesbians.
Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling
California Prop 8. August 4, 2010




Watching the Episcopal and Lutheran Churches conduct their general meetings this past summer 2009, they were truly catholic. Catholic meaning universal, they were more inclusive of the people who attended. Women played just as important of a role as did the men, this alone is a most basic reassuring aspect of their pronouncements. This is an authoritative approach, one that Christ insisted on of his disciples. The most glaring and obvious invalidation of the Roman Catholic Church general meeting of the US bishops is the absence of women.

Here again the Benedict XVI and his hierarchy can no more used the bible for their reason for the absence of women, than they could to insist that it is the sun that revolves around the earth. And again, there is no explanations given or any open debate allowed regarding the absence of women. This is not catholic. It is not of Christ. This too is harmful to all children and for everyone, because they are playing with only half a deck of cards. The fact that many people go along with this, fits with what Christ said about the blind leading the blind, they will all end up in a ditch. There is no sin in wanting an open and full debate on all issues with input from everyone, we would all learn so much more. However, under Benedict XVI and as Cardinal Ratzinger all opposing viewpoints from theologians have been silenced or removed. There is no free of the press under Benedict XVI for the past some 30 years that is a sin. Benedict XVI and his hierarchy must not be convinced that they have the truth, if they are so afraid it will not stand up to the strongest opposition.

Benedict XVI 2005 Removes All Scientists of John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was a real conservative, meaning someone who holds out for truth even if it challenges his or her long established beliefs. Pope John Paul II was loved by millions, I believe because he was courageous in facing truth and wasn't afraid to admit when he learned that he was wrong. The issues of the ordination of women and renouncing all the unsubstantiated antigay teachings would have followed in time because his foundation was built on truth. In 1992, he apologized publicly to Galileo stating that the Church was wrong for condemning Galileo that Galileo was right. In 2000, his health declining, he made public apologies for the past horrific sins of Church's past. He was able to make these public apologies because he did not rely his own knowledge to make decisions, but sought out knowledge from a diverse group of professionals. Pope John Paul II insisted on scientists being a part of all major committees in the Vatican, who then were all dismissed by Benedict XVI after he became pope, April 2005. John Paul II knew that gay priests were not the cause of the child sexual abuse cases, because the facts were clear then, as they are now. John Paul II did not let faith and science ever be separated, as Benedict XVI continually allows, which makes him seriously harmful, especially to children. Equally harmful to children is the blind obedience of many members of the laity, especially on the part of professionals, which is irresponsible and inexcusable. All will be held responsible by Christ, as he warns in the Gospels. One cannot remain Catholic and remain in darkness.


New Catholic Sex Abuse Findings: Gay Priests Are Not the Problem
by David Gibson
November 18, 2009 - Politics Daily
BALTIMORE -- For much of the past decade it has been an article of faith for many, bolstered by the testimony of thousands of victims, that the Catholic priesthood is a haven for child molesters and that the Catholic bishops have been particularly guilty of covering up for those abusers.

But preliminary results from a sweeping study of sexual abuse in the priesthood show that the Catholic Church has been much like the rest of society in terms of the incidence of abuse and the response by its institutional leaders.

The data, which was presented to the U.S. hierarchy on the second day of their annual meeting here, also appears to contradict the widely held view that homosexuals in the priesthood were largely responsible for the abuse.

"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith, a researcher from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, which is conducting an independent study of sexual abuse in the priesthood from 1950 up to 2002. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse."

… The sexual abuse scandal that erupted in January 2002 in Boston and spread across the country led to what is considered the greatest crisis in the history of American Catholicism, and the role of gay priests in the abuse scandal has been a topic of heated debate inside and outside the church. The belief that gay men were inordinately inclined to be abusers was one reason the Vatican issued a controversial document in 2005 barring homosexuals from the priesthood.
Read complete article:


The data, which was presented to the U.S. hierarchy on the second day of their annual meeting here, also appears to contradict the widely held view that homosexuals in the priesthood were largely responsible for the abuse.

US Conference of Catholic Bishops were hoping that their 2 million dollar research study of gay priests sexual behavior would vindicate themselves, the hierarchy from being charged with criminal neglect in their care of children, which they were proven to be “particularly guilty of covering up for those abusers. The research study indicates that gay priests were not the problem. The problem was the irresponsible leadership of the hierarchy. They should be held accountable and charged as such.

A very important aspect that needs to be studied thoroughly by the laity is our church history is regarding how a person becomes a bishop. Bishops are supposed to be elected by the people, not the Pope. This is why I referred to the Roman Catholic hierarchy as Benedict XVI's hierarchy; they are not representatives of the people. When was the last time you voted for a bishop. The particulars of electing a bishop are better explained by scholars.

All the windows of the Vatican need to be opened for public scrutiny. The Vatican needs to be transparent, especially with the decades of cover-ups of the child sexual abuse cases and intimidation of the victims by the hierarchy. Our present pope and his hierarchy bring out all the problems and abuses that come from the change in how bishops are elected. There are no checks and balances in the Roman Catholic hierarchy and that is why the child sexual abuse cases were allowed to continue by the hierarchy for decades, along with 100's of other forms of abuses. The American hierarchy is also protected by the USA civil laws regarding the separation of Church and State. Millions of innocent children's lives are harmed by our neglect to protect them, by allowing the hierarchy to be appointed by the Pope. The way one becomes a bishop I am told is by "not making waves." This is not an example of Christ, who made waves continually. The laity's ignorance is also responsible for all the child sexual abuse cases. Read and study! Save the "hot air" we will have plenty of it, if we do not begin protecting children, now.
Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz


Church in worst credibility crisis since Reformation, theologian tells bishops
by HANS KÜNG,
April 16, 2010 – The Irish Times

Pope Benedict has made worse just about everything that is wrong with the Roman Catholic Church and is directly responsible for engineering the global cover-up of child rape perpetrated by priests, according to this open letter to all Catholic bishops.


Pope Benedict XVI seems to be increasingly cut off from the vast majority of church members who pay less and less heed to Rome and, at best, identify themselves only with their local parish and bishop.

I know that many of you are pained by this situation. In his anti-conciliar policy, the pope receives the full support of the Roman Curia. The Curia does its best to stifle criticism in the episcopate and in the church as a whole and to discredit critics with all the means at its disposal. With a return to pomp and spectacle catching the attention of the media, the reactionary forces in Rome have attempted to present us with a strong church fronted by an absolutistic “Vicar of Christ” who combines the church’s legislative, executive and judicial powers in his hands alone. But Benedict’s policy of restoration has failed. All of his spectacular appearances, demonstrative journeys and public statements have failed to influence the opinions of most Catholics on controversial issues. This is especially true regarding matters of sexual morality. Even the papal youth meetings, attended above all by conservative-charismatic groups, have failed to hold back the steady drain of those leaving the church or to attract more vocations to the priesthood.

You in particular, as bishops, have reason for deep sorrow: Tens of thousands of priests have resigned their office since the Second Vatican Council, for the most part because of the celibacy rule. Vocations to the priesthood, but also to religious orders, sisterhoods and lay brotherhoods are down – not just quantitatively but qualitatively. Resignation and frustration are spreading rapidly among both the clergy and the active laity. Many feel that they have been left in the lurch with their personal needs, and many are in deep distress over the state of the church. In many of your dioceses, it is the same story: increasingly empty churches, empty seminaries and empty rectories. In many countries, due to the lack of priests, more and more parishes are being merged, often against the will of their members, into ever larger “pastoral units,” in which the few surviving pastors are completely overtaxed. This is church reform in pretense rather than fact!

And now, on top of these many crises comes a scandal crying out to heaven – the revelation of the clerical abuse of thousands of children and adolescents, first in the United States, then in Ireland and now in Germany and other countries. And to make matters worse, the handling of these cases has given rise to an unprecedented leadership crisis and a collapse of trust in church leadership.

There is no denying the fact that the worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics was engineered by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger (1981-2005). During the reign of Pope John Paul II, that congregation had already taken charge of all such cases under oath of strictest silence. Ratzinger himself, on May 18th, 2001, sent a solemn document to all the bishops dealing with severe crimes ( “epistula de delictis gravioribus” ), in which cases of abuse were sealed under the “secretum pontificium” , the violation of which could entail grave ecclesiastical penalties. With good reason, therefore, many people have expected a personal mea culpa on the part of the former prefect and current pope. Instead, the pope passed up the opportunity afforded by Holy Week: On Easter Sunday, he had his innocence proclaimed “urbi et orbi” by the dean of the College of Cardinals…
Read complete open letter:


Ignorance, Arrogance, Indifference - Propaganda - BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS

Crimes Against Humanity” BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS | “Clergy Abuse Victims Rally At Vatican” 
by Sylvia Poggioli, 
November 1, 2010 – National Public Radio NPR (NP)

“Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices - Kids Are Being Hurt!!! (Sequential Order of Reactions)” November 28, 2010

Like NERO "Fiddled While Rome Burned" Persecuting Christians – BENEDICT XVI Fiddles Use of Condoms While Millions Dying From Aids – Carelessly Playing with People’s Lives – Cover-ups Child Sexual Abuse

Benedict XVI’s Condoms - PURPOSELY VAGUE - Nov. 2010 - Yet Another Desperate Smokescreen | Pope Benedict's Gang -- Too Big to Fail? – by Rick Ayers – April 6, 2010 – The Huffington Post

No “Checks and Balances or Accountability" Vatican -> WATERGATE and KATRINA (AGAIN)? Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
April 29, 2010
  
THREATS, SILENCE, HARM AND DISPOSAL of Catholic Personnel Supportive of LGBT Adults and Children - Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Directives To Hierarchy

Crimes Against Humanity” BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS | “Clergy Abuse Victims Rally At Vatican” 
by Sylvia Poggioli, November 1, 2010 – National Public Radio NPR (NP)

GAY YOUTH SUICIDE | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups – Negligence Protecting (1) Children & (2) LGBT Children | Family of Rutgers suicide victim lends name to bill – November 19, 2010 – CNN

Benedict XVI - INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA
"It [homosexuality] remains something that is against the Nature that God originally willed.” - UNSUBSTANTIATED ANTIGAY STATEMENT – Selective Attention – Dissociation – Process of Projection - permits EXTERNALIZATION of unconscious conflicts - rejecting own unacceptable urges by rejecting lesbians and gay men (who symbolize those urges) without consciously recognizing the urges as own. - PLANK & SPECK - Luke 6:40-42 & GALILEO

400,000 Anti-gay marriage DVDs - $1 million Nienstedt - Minnesota October 29, 2010 - RELIGION & ETHICS PBS – video (NP)

HOMOPHOBIC ORGANIZATION  
Part 2: 'I Hope that the Church Will at Last Confront the Issue of Homophobia' | Dream Turns Into Nightmare | Senior Theologian In The Catholic Church
November 22, 2010
Spiegel International

WIDESPREAD HOMOPHOBIA in the Catholic Church | Theologian says much of clergy is gay – by Derek Scally, November 22, 2010 – The Irish Times

"ANGELS IN AMERICA" - Benedict XVI & Hierarchy – “No Angels In The Vatican” - Ignorance about human sexuality is extremely harmful to children.

“Priest banned from writing" 
It Is Okay To Be Irish – But Just Don’t Act On It!?! – 
– by Patsy Mcgarry,
November 13, 2010 – The Irish Times

GAY YOUTH CATHOLIC SILENCING | The student newspaper editorial Benilde-St. Margaret's doesn't want you to see - By David Brauer, November 15, 2010 – MinnPost.com

Dehumanization – “The Lucifer Effect” by Philip Zimbardo (2007) | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS & Implicit Child Abuse of LGBT Children


Healing Requires Revealing: 
How the Church is Failing Abuse Survivors
by Kim Michele Richardson,
November 26, 2010 – The Huffington Post

While the current headlines reflect advanced thinking by the Roman Catholic Church on topics such as condoms and the 'new princes' elections, I read little on the Vatican's response to the issue of sexually abusive clergy during Pope Benedict XVI's historic meeting of worldwide bishops and cardinals last week.



The Pontiff surely realizes that the Church cannot advance while dragging these crimes and the mayhem of conspiracies behind it. Nor can it redirect our attention by disavowing what it has done.

The opportunity for accountability, resolution and a promise for the protection of vulnerable children is now. If this chance for doggedness and truthfulness is lost, then so crumbles another pillar of civilization and hope. And if the Church is unwilling, then perhaps it is justice that it should pay with whatever is left of its integrity.

Pope Benedict XVI needs to set the stage with the full disclosure of his own record of cover-up and mishandling of the clergy abuse cases under his authority before his ascension to the Vatican's highest seat. Barbara Blaine, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said last week, "Before any hopes get raised, let's remember that it's likely that every man in the room next week has ignored and concealed clergy sex crimes or is doing so right now. The prospects of substantial reform happening next week are therefore pretty slim."

If justice is to be met and satisfied and the Roman Catholic Church is to begin the long-needed healing process for the thousands of victims and survivors globally, the Church must also invite government officials, prosecutors and law enforcement officials into these meetings. The men who concealed these most heinous crimes and those involved in silencing the victims of abuse should not be allowed to solve and absolve alone. Just as guilty as the perpetrators -- the nuns and priests who raped and robbed innocent children, and who've left them forever locked in torments of their childhoods -- are those who hid and allowed decades of predatory Catholic Clergy abuse.
Read complete report:


Smokescreens 
for 
BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS


“What the Pope Knew”
Gary Tuchman,
September 25, 2010,
CNN & CNN International
(Investigative documentary)
video
Read more/related links:
  
Priest says he was pressurised into taking blame for pope 
– by PADDY AGNEW, DEREK SCALLY and PATSY McGARRY
4/19/10 
– The Irish Times – read more

Priest says he was bullied into taking fall for Pope in abuse scandal 
- The Local – 4/18/10
Germany’s News In English – read more

Ratzinger & Vatican 
“They did as much as they had at each point in time given the public outcry, and no more.” 
Katrin Bennhold – 4/27/10
The New York Times – read more

“…the church must … end its campaign to block the weak and the vulnerable from receiving help to deal with the consequences of criminal sexual abuse.” 
By Lawrence Lessig – 4/26/10
The New York Times – read more

Hurricane Katrina - Nancy Pelosi - Washington, DC – 2005
Accountability 
Benedict XVI Child Sexual Abuse

Who Can Mock This Church?
By Nicholas D. Kristof
May 1, 2010
The New York Times


Catholic Church sex abuse documents made public
By Gillian Flaccus,
Associated Press, October 25, 2010 - Salon

10,000 pages of litigation-related paperwork reveal the Diocese of San Diego's disturbing history

Nearly 10,000 pages of previously sealed Catholic church documents have been made public and showed that the Diocese of San Diego long knew about abusive priests, some of whom were shuffled from parish to parish despite credible complaints against them.

After a three-year legal battle over the diocese's internal records, a retired San Diego Superior Court judge ruled late Friday that they could be made public. Attorneys for 144 people claiming sex abuse made the papers public Sunday.

The records are from the personnel files of 48 priests who were either credibly accused or convicted of sexual abuse or were named in a civil lawsuit. They include a decades-old case in which a priest under police investigation was allowed to leave the U.S. after the diocese intervened…
Read more:


New Rules Affirm Pope Benedict's Stance Against Gays
By Daniel Williams,
October 8, 2005 – The Washington Post

ROME, Oct. 8 -- In the first five months of Pope Benedict XVI's reign, stern opposition to homosexuality in and outside the Roman Catholic Church has quickly become a prime public message for the Vatican.

The new pontiff plans to issue guidelines that attempt to inhibit homosexuals from entering seminaries to train for the priesthood. Church inspectors have embarked on a tour of U.S. seminaries and, according to their working papers, are tasked to ask: "Is there evidence of homosexuality in the seminary? (This question must be answered.)"

Benedict also has energetically fought legal recognition of homosexual couples.

For the church and for Benedict, taking a public stance on homosexuality is not unusual. Church observers have noted that for the quarter-century before becoming pope, Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, served as the Vatican's chief enforcer of orthodoxy, drafting official positions regarding homosexuality.

"No doctrinal chief has ever written and spoken about homosexuality as extensively as Ratzinger has, because homosexuals have never had the freedom to organize and demand recognition they enjoy today," wrote author John L. Allen Jr. in a biography of Benedict, published before he became pope.

His papacy's early focus on homosexuality is a reaction to outside events, some analysts have said: the spread of so-called civil unions or marriage rights to same-sex couples, and the disclosure of sexual abuse by priests. Vatican officials have largely blamed the abuse on homosexuality…

Some bishops note that the church already has prohibitions on homosexuals from entering the priesthood and suggest that a restatement will only make the church look intolerant, Vatican officials say…
Read complete report:


Professor's view: 
Witch hunt for gay priests off base 
when target 
should be child abusers 
By: Iver Bogen, 
University of Minnesota Duluth - Duluth News Tribune

Pope Benedict XVI in August 2005 ordered an investigation of America’s 229 Catholic seminaries in order to eliminate gay seminarians. The week of Sept. 27, Vatican investigators began the “witch-hunt” at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. The question posed to the students: “Are you, or have you ever been, a homosexual?” 

The investigation was reminiscent of the house arrest of Galileo in his home near Florence from 1633 until his death in 1642 for espousing the Copernican heliocentric view of the universe. The church does not suffer “heretical” thinking well and is extremely slow in altering its doctrines to be consistent with scientific progress as well as changes in cultural mores regarding acceptable human behaviors… photo

… It is my belief the Catholic Church’s focus on gay priests is merely a strategy for affixing blame and is consistent with its historical antipathy toward homosexuality and same-sex behaviors. However, research in the area of child sexual abuse suggests that pedophilic intrusions occur preponderantly with heterosexual males rather than gay men. It is not one’s orientation that is predictive of pedophilia. According to Dr. Nathaniel McConaghy, “The man who offends against prepubertal or immediately postpubertal boys is typically not sexually interested in older men or women.”

Being immature psycho-sexually, these men find themselves responding sexually to other males who also are immature. One’s orientation is not predictive of pedophilia. Read complete article - By: Iver Bogen, University of Minnesota Duluth - Duluth News Tribune


Gay Marriage - WITCH HUNTS ->The Crucible (1996) -> McCarthyism 1940’s -1950’s, -> Benedict XVI 2005


"Impending rules on gay priests create Catholic divide"
by Charles Honey – October 8, 2005
The Grand Rapids Press

When the Rev. Martin Kurylowicz came out to his Sparta parish eight years ago, he said he had struggled for years with his homosexuality.

The Catholic priest says the struggle would be made harder for many others if the Vatican issues new rules that reportedly would ban gays from becoming priests… 

…"I sizzled when I read it," said Kurylowicz, 55. "It's very hurtful, is what it is. In this day and age, there's no reason for it. It sends a message that there's something wrong with gays."

Kurylowicz said he spoke out then to raise awareness of violence against gays and teach others homosexuality is not a choice but an inborn trait. Church leaders still don't understand that and contribute to gays' poor self-esteem, he said…

…"Kids as young as 4 or 5 know they're different," said Kurylowicz, a psychotherapist… "They grow up with this pervasive guilt, which sabotages their growth and motivation." The result is thousands of dollars in therapy to accept their natural orientation, he said, adding, "Does the Vatican want to take that on, like the tobacco industry had to take on for the damage it caused consumers? "…
Read complete article: 
by Charles Honey - Religion Editor 
The Grand Rapids Press – Archives


Why Bother About Homosexuals?
Homophobia and Sexual Politics in 
Nazi Germany (2002)
by Geoffrey J. Giles
Why should the Nazis bother about homosexuals? After all, some of the most loyal supporters of the Nazi movement were homosexual, and Hitler refused to condemn the sexual preference of Ernst Röhm, even after it featured prominently in the opposition’s campaign against the Nazis in 1931. Tolerance for homosexuals had increased in Germany during the first three decades of the twentieth century to the extent that an open gay culture flourished in cities such as Berlin in the 1920s, and parliament seemed well on the way to abolishing §175, the clause of the penal code dealing with homosexual offenses.2 So why bother about them? First, because Nazi opposition to this emancipation sought to appeal to the conservative backlash that the Nazis wished to co-opt.


Watergate 1973
Ripping Open An Incredible Scandal

(TIME, April 30, 1973) -- The denials, the evasions, the secretiveness, and, yes, the lies, all had failed. The Watergate case was breaking wide open. A 10-month campaign by some of the highest past and present officials of the Nixon Administration to cover up their involvement was crumbling. Read more - CNN TIME Photo Nixon 


Roman Catholic - hierarchy child sexual abuse 
cover-ups
ordered by Benedict XVI
to avoid public outrage & criminal charges
- falsely accused gay priests - WATERGATE?

No “Checks and Balances” 

A major problem with the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church is that there are no “checks and balances.” When the necessary “checks and balances” are not in place to protect any organization, it leaves “not making waves” the rule that governs the hierarchy and opens the way to many devastating mistakes harmful to everyone and allows corruption to grow.

The following statements are harsh statements, but unfortunately they are heavily documented. (1) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy failed to protect children from child sexual abuse for decades. (2) They mistreated and intimidated the victims and their families who came to report the child sexual abuse, in order to cover up publicity of any child sexual abuse. (3) They failed to protect children by repeatedly reassigning the child sexual abusers to assignments where children would be present. (4) When the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children became public, globally, in 2002 they shifted the blame wrongfully onto gay priests. Photo 

Read complete report: 
Child Protection Service of the Archdiocese of Dublin http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PB09000504

 (5) By falsely, against known research to the contrary, blaming gay priests they implicated the entire LGBT community and how they are fighting against Marriage Equality. When the scientific facts known for decades about human sexuality have been discounted with no substantiated facts given to explain why, it causes many questions whether Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s fight against Marriage Equality is more a fight to maintained the cover-up of the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children? Benedict XVI and his hierarchy need to clearly offer substantiated reasons why they are against Marriage Equality. This statement needs to be spelled out in great detail and follow Pope John Paul II’s test of truth of not separating science and religion. Photo Nixon 

(6) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous public propaganda against homosexuality encourages public intolerance towards LGBTQ&I adults and children. They continue to do this even though this summer 2 major Christian denominations approved LGBT singled and partnered people for all forms of ordained ministries. (7) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous promulgation of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings that are harmful to children in their early childhood psychological developmental years, harm that is crippling throughout their lives. They have continued this even after the beginning of the year, 2009, the Family Acceptance Project research studies had shown the negative effects caused to youths, when their sexual orientation is not accepted, having health problems, suicidal ideation, etc. They ignore all the major medical, psychiatric, psychological and social workers national and international professional associations regarding their findings regarding human sexuality and sexual orientation. WHEN DO WE START PROTECTING CHILDREN?!?!

Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz


July 2010 

President of the United States
United States Congress
United States Supreme Court
50 United States Governors 

Dear -- --------, 

My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Grand Rapids Michigan ordained June 16, 1979. 

In March 1997, after attending a National Symposium of the New Ways Ministry that was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I learned that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different. This feeling "different" is only identified in their adult years as being gay. However, the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms -- in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings -- are severe and last throughout a child’s lifetime. The harmful effects are not isolated only to these children who grow up to be gay, but also affect their families, siblings, friends and anyone whom they might consider special in their lives. They are a prescribed societal sentence of implicit isolation, which place at risk of suicide so many innocent adolescents and young adults. They stifle an enormous amount of human potential in the world that otherwise could be put to use for finding cures for diseases, offering better ways of maintaining peace among people and improving the quality of life for everyone in the world.
Gay Marriage - “SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE” Does Not Give Churches Or Benedict XVI - The Freedom To Abuse Children or Adults. July 2010 - By Fr. Marty Kurylowicz http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/gay-marriage-separation-between-church.html


GAY YOUTH SUICIDE | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups – Negligence Protecting (1) Children & (2) LGBT Children | Family of Rutgers suicide victim lends name to bill – November 19, 2010 – CNN


Protecting Children from the Church's Abuse Of Power
by William F. McMurry
November 19, 2010 – The Huffington Post

The world continues to watch with genuine interest as the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church parades masks of contrition before the media, in an effort to convince the faithful that the Church has turned the corner on the clergy sexual abuse crisis. On Nov. 19, a gathering of Cardinals from every corner of the Church's influence will convene in Rome at the request of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI. This meeting of Cardinals will include a discussion about the Vatican's response to sexually abusive priests…

This week, as the most powerful officials of the most politically influential religious organization in the world gather to discuss the Church's response to the priest sexual abuse scandal, the stark contrast between those with power and those with none could not be more profound. The Church continues to operate in complete secrecy, without any governmental oversight or accountability. This confluence reminds me of Lord Acton's most famous quote regarding the corruption inherent in power. Most readers will know this oft-quoted phrase, but few, if any, will know that Lord Acton was speaking of the Pope when he wrote the following in a letter to Mandell Creighton in 1887:

“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did not wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”

Until the governments of our world wrestle the power over children away from religious organizations operating in secrecy and without accountability, justice will remain an elusive butterfly.
Read complete report:


Crimes Against Humanity” BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS | “Clergy Abuse Victims Rally At Vatican” - by Sylvia Poggioli, November 1, 2010 – National Public Radio NPR (NP)


Is Pope Benedict Guilty of Accessory to Rape After The Fact?
October 14, 2010 - I-Newswire

According to the Preacher Bureau of Investigation Pope Benedict has a lot of explaining to do.



In the US Judicial System there exists a felony charge called Accessory after the Fact. A suspect in the United States can be charged with this offense if he knowingly shelters or aids a criminal after they have committed a crime. Another serious felony charge in the United States is Child Endangerment which equates to placing a child in a potentially harmful situation through negligence or misconduct. 



Pope Benedict has come under a tremendous amount of criticism because of his handling of cases that involved Priests who raped children. Pope Benedict in his role as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which deals with sex abuse cases is accused of moving pedophile priests from one Diocese to the next in order to conceal child rapists. As Prefect of this division of the Vatican, it was his sole responsibility to discipline Priests accused of raping children.
Read more:


The Lucifer Effect:
Understanding
How Good People Turn 
     Evil





By Philip Zimbardo - Stanford University







“Rather than providing a religious analysis, however, I offer a psychological account of how ordinary people sometimes turn evil and commit unspeakable acts.”

The Power of Norms and Groups on Individuals:
(Candid Camera "Face The Rear")





Neurotic, hysterical, schizophrenic: 
the psychology of Hitler
By Charles Bremner,
April 3, 2005 – Times Online

ADOLF HITLER was a narcissistic bully in thrall to a dominant father and with a neurosis about women, according to a newly disclosed psychological analysis drawn up for US intelligence during the Second World War. Photo

Based on the theories and language of the time, the 1943 evaluation by Dr Henry Murray, director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, accurately forecast Hitler’s suicide in his bunker in 1945.

Drawing from an array of wartime sources, Murray’s 240-page typewritten report depicted Hitler as a feminine boy who was obsequious towards superiors and displayed homosexual tendencies. His sense of grievance over his own humiliation led to his cruelty and policy of mass slaughter.

The profile was commissioned by General “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA. One of only 30 copies was found recently by Cornell University in its Nuremberg Trials archive and put on its law school internet site. 
Read more:


Know thyself – Plato  John Paul II

This above all: to thine own self be true, 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man. - William Shakespeare

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. - Luke 6:40-42

Ricky Martin on Coming out and Coming Into His Own 
- By Nekesa Mumbi Moody AP, 
November 3, 2010 – ABC News


"What, am I gonna teach them how to lie?”
Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin reveals he ‘cried like a baby’ after coming out
– November 2, 2010 – PinkNews.co.uk

Ricky Martin has told Oprah Winfrey about the moment he decided to announce he was gay.

The Puerto Rican star posted a message on his website declaring himself to be a “fortunate gay man” but says he broke down in tears afterwards.

He said: “When I realised, okay, I just pressed send, whoo… I was alone.

“I was in my studio alone for a minute. My assistant walked in and I just started crying like a little baby. I started crying.”

The 38-year-old said he decided to be open about his sexuality to set a good example to his twin sons, Valentine and Matteo, two.

He said: “I couldn’t take it anymore, it was too painful.

“But I guess the most important thing is my children… When I was holding them in my arms I was like, ‘What, am I gonna teach them how to lie?’ Whoa, that is my blessing right there. Then, when I was holding my children I said, ‘Okay, it’s time to tell the world’.”
Read more:

Ricky Martin cried 'like a baby' after revealing his sexuality
– November 2, 2010
CNN.com


Pope Benedict to Beatify a 
Gay Saint?
 A Conservative Icon? Maybe Both
by David Gibson – September 18, 2010
Politics Daily

…"It is not good for a Pope to live 20 years," Newman once wrote of the long-lived Pius IX. "It is an anomaly and bears no good fruit; he becomes a god, has no one to contradict him, does not know facts, and does cruel things without meaning it."

Such frank talk about the failings of the hierarchy tended to make Newman a champion of liberal Catholics -- a courageous man who wrote about the "development of doctrine" in the church at a time when the Vatican was projecting an image of unceasing continuity. He also disagreed strongly with the church's adoption of the doctrine of papal infallibility, and famously wrote that if pressed, he would drink "to Conscience first and the Pope afterwards." Photo 

…Complicating all the interpretations is the fact that Newman had an extraordinarily close relationship with another English Catholic, Father Ambrose St. John, who had died in 1875, leaving Newman bereft -- and giving today's gay Christians an icon of their own.

"I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than mine," Newman wrote at the time of his friend's death. "From the first he loved me with an intensity of love which was unaccountable." And elsewhere: "As far as this world was concerned I was his first and last."


Sexual orientation - Internalized Homophobia - 
“Auschwitz – Benedict XVI - Christmas 2008 -A flashback far more severe than in Brokeback Mountain” 
GAY TEENAGE SUICIDE - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz 
Attachment Theory Photo
Nothing in life is more precious than the intimate relationships we have with love ones. Healthy love relationships delight us give us confidence to take on challenges and support us in difficult times. Photo
  

Gay marriage -> Restoring 
"Hope of Love" 
To Children In Early Childhood -> Marriage Equality
March 23, 2010 – by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Marriage Equality, like Galileo, is the truth about the facts of growing up gay. Marriage Equality will not become a reality until people learn that its most vital purpose is that it restores the “hope of love” to children in early childhood – essential to their development and well-being for life. Without Marriage Equality we teach children how to hate love and how to be mean and indifferent to people as adults. With all due respect, without Marriage Equality we would teach them in much the same way as has been shown by Benedict XVI and the hierarchy, especially in their lack of care and protection of children for decades.


 Galileo 
facing the Roman Inquisition - Read more
  

 Biblical quotes used to Condemn Galileo

Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New International Version)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, anhurries back to where it rises.
Ecclesiastes 1:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again. 

1 Chronicles 16:30 (New International Version)
30 Tremble before him, all the earth! 
The world is firmly established; icannot be moved.
1 Chronicles 16:30 (New American Standard Bible)

30 Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved

Psalm 93:1 (New International Version)
1 The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; 
 the LORD is robed in majesty 
 and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
Psalm 93:1 (New American Standard Bible)
1 The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved

Psalm 96:10 (New International Version)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." 
 The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; 
 he will judge the peoples with equity.
Psalm 96:10 (New American Standard Bible)
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity." 

Psalm 104:5 (New International Version)
5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Psalm 104:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it will not totter forever and ever.
Read more:


The Thalamus Center project is about
Protecting Children by education about Human Sexuality.

There is a scene in an old TV series called “All in the Family” where Edith Bunker is experiencing menopause and she does not know what is happening to her. Edith’s daughter Gloria is explaining to her the symptoms of menopause. Edith feels bad that her daughter has to tell her about menopause. Photo

Edith expresses her frustration and sadness about her lifetime lack of knowledge about human sexuality.

“When I was a young girl, I didn’t’ know what every young girl should know. Now, I‘m going to be an old lady, and I don’t know what every old lady should know.” Edith Bunker – video clip
“All in the Family - Edith’s problem (TV episode 1972 #2.15)”

Edith is not alone even today. Much of the opposition to same sex marriage is likely to a great degree related to feelings and confusion about many aspects of human sexuality exactly like Edith, on the part of millions of people, for women as well as for men, everyone. However, Ignorance about human sexuality is extremely harmful to children.
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz



“Someday,
maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of
all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”

…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.  Photo
Matthew 18:6

Protect children and the entire world will be safe.

Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.

Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

Angels In America 
[Official HBO Trailer]

I'm His Child
Zella Jackson Price



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