Press Release
"THERAPIES" TO CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATION
LACK MEDICAL JUSTIFICATION
AND
THREATEN HEALTH
Washington, D.C., 17 May 2012 (PAHO/WHO) — Services that purport to "cure" people with non-heterosexual sexual orientation lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a position statement launched on 17 May, the International Day against Homophobia. The statement calls on governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to expose these practices and to promote respect for diversity.
Twenty two years ago, on May 17, the World Health Assembly removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders when it approved a new version of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10).
"Since homosexuality is not a disorder or a disease, it does not require a cure. There is no medical indication for changing sexual orientation," said PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago. Practices known as "reparative therapy" or "conversion therapy" represent "a serious threat to the health and well-being—even the lives—of affected people."
The PAHO statement notes that there is a professional consensus that homosexuality is a natural variation of human sexuality and cannot be regarded as a pathological condition. However, several United Nations bodies have confirmed the existence of "therapists" and "clinics" that promote treatment intended to change the sexual orientation of non-heterosexual people.
The document notes that no rigorous scientific studies demonstrate any efficacy of efforts to change sexual orientation. However, there are many testimonies about the severe harm to mental and physical health that such "services" can cause. Repression of sexual orientation has been associated with feelings of guilt and shame, depression, anxiety, and even suicide.
As an aggravating factor, there have been a growing number of reports about degrading treatments, and physical and sexual harassment under the guise of such "therapies," which are often provided illicitly. In some cases, adolescents have been subjected to such interventions involuntarily and even deprived of their liberty, sometimes kept in isolation for several months.
"These practices are unjustifiable and should be denounced and subject to sanctions and penalties under national legislation," said Dr. Roses. "These supposed conversion therapies constitute a violation of the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are protected by international and regional agreements."
To address the problem, PAHO makes a series of recommendations for governments, academic institutions, professional associations, the media, and civil society, including:
· “Conversion” or “reparative” therapies and the clinics offering them should be denounced and subject to adequate sanctions.
· Public institutions responsible for training health professionals should include courses on human sexuality and sexual health in their curricula, with a focus on respect for diversity and the elimination of attitudes of pathologization, rejection, and hate toward non-heterosexual persons.
· Professional associations should disseminate documents and resolutions by national and international institutions and agencies that call for the de-psychopathologization of sexual diversity and the prevention of interventions aimed at changing sexual orientation.
· In the media, homophobia in any of its manifestations and expressed by any person should be exposed as a public health problem and a threat to human dignity and human rights.
· Civil society organizations can develop mechanisms of civil vigilance to detect violations of the human rights of non-heterosexual persons and report them to the relevant authorities. They can also help to identify and report people and institutions involved in the administration of “reparative” or “conversion therapies.”
PAHO, which celebrates its 110th anniversary this year, is the oldest public health organization in the world. It works with its member countries to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the Americas. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.
Read more:
World Health Organization
“CURES” FOR AN ILLNESS THAT DOES NOT EXIST
Purported therapies aimed at changing sexual orientation lack medical justification and are ethically unacceptable
"REPARATIVE THERAPY" or "CONVERSION THERAPY"
Reported violations of personal integrity and other human rights
As an aggravating factor, “conversion therapies” have to be considered threats to the right to personal autonomy and to personal integrity. There are several testimonies from adolescents who have been subject to “reparative” interventions against their will, many times at their families’ initiative. In some cases, the victims were interned and deprived of their liberty, sometimes to the extent of being kept in isolation during several months.6 The testimonies provide accounts of degrading treatment, extreme humiliation, physical violence, aversive conditioning through electric shock or emetic substances, and even sexual harassment and attempts of “reparative rape,” especially in the case of lesbian women. Such interventions violate the dignity and human rights of the affected persons, independently of the fact that their “therapeutic” effect is nil or even counterproductive. In these cases, the right to health has not been protected as demanded by the regional and international obligations established through the Protocol of San Salvador and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Read complete position statement - May 17, 2012
Spitzer Issues Apology for Study Supporting REPARATIVE THERAPY - 6/15/12 - Robert Spitzer, M.D. - has now RENOUNCED the findings that “REPARATIVE THERAPY” could help gay people change their sexual orientation
Psychiatry Giant Sorry for Backing GAY ‘CURE’ – 5/18/12
Spitzer's Apology Changes 'Ex-Gay' Debate – 5/21/12 – NPR -- …CONAN: Do you think homosexuality is a choice? SPITZER: Is a choice? No, for sure, that's the one thing I have no doubt about, it's no choice. CONAN: And in a distinguished career, this has been, I guess, an unfortunate last chapter. SPITZER: Well, it's unfortunate in one sense, but I feel very relieved and very grateful to the many people who have told me or written to the New York Times that I Did The Right Thing, and I think I did.
GAY CONVERSION THERAPY DEVASTATED MY FAMILY - CHANA WILSON – 6/25/12 - REPARATIVE THERAPY, which attempts to make gay people straight, is not just futile -- It often causes serious harm, including increased depression, self-hatred, and even suicide. It can devastate not just a gay individual, but entire families…
Gay Baby Boomers Waiting for More Apologies - Jeffrey Sharlach – 6/01/12
Facing the Truth About Reparative Therapy and America's War on Gay Teens - Tomas Mournian – 5/22/12 …The reparative therapy described in "Hiding Out" and my later related reportage chronicled torture practices that were coercive and, in many ways, the same as what was happening in the Iraqi torture sites. Reparative therapy or torture? Humiliation, isolation, extreme physical positions, and forced confessions were as common at Teen Help (a now-defunct umbrella organization that referred parents to reparative-therapy facilities that has been exposed on WWASPS Survivors Network) as at Abu Ghraib…
California Senate Votes To Ban Gay ‘Conversion’ Therapy – 5/30/12
The Lies and Dangers of Reparative Therapy – HRC - May 2012
Many right-wing religious groups promote the concept that an individual can change his or her sexual orientation, either through prayer or other religious efforts, or through so-called "reparative" or "conversion" therapy. The limited research on such efforts has disproven their efficacy, and also has indicated that they can be affirmatively harmful. Beyond studies focused solely on reparative therapy, broader research clearly demonstrates the significant harm that societal prejudice and family rejection has on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, particularly youth. Furthermore, there is significant anecdotal evidence of harm to LGBT people resulting from attempts to change their sexual orientation. Based on this body of evidence, every major medical and mental health organization in the United States has issued a statement condemning the use of reparative therapy…
Research on the Impacts of Reparative Therapy, Harms Caused by
Societal Prejudice
Organizational Positions on Reparative Therapy
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Counseling Association
American Medical Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
American School Counselor Association
National Association of Social Workers
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO): Regional Office of the World Health Organization
REPARATIVE THERAPY
WHISTLEBLOWING to protect gay children from the Severity of Antigay Social & Religious Norms - FLEES – Hostile Working Environment Incapacitating Retaliation - NOW – Vatican Twist Flees to Refusing to Return – to remove from Clerical State - Gay Priest is Defenseless has No Civil Protection
This posting was sent out as a US group mailing prior to posting it here on the Thalamus Center.
Removing my Clerical State
Presently June 2012, my Bishop Hurley of the Grand Rapids Diocese is seeking to remove my clerical state and even suggested that I voluntary seek this change. I am a priest and the fact that I am is the reason I felt morality responsible to “come out” for the protection of gay children growing up by making helping to make the public aware of the documented evidence of the life time harm that is caused to children who grow up gay and who are living in antigay social environments.
One of the major sources that significantly is responsible for creating antigay social environment is the Vatican antigay teaching, which are in fact unsubstantiated, because they are not supported by scripture scholars or by science.
For the Vatican this once again is the same problem they got into regarding Galileo, which nearly 400 years later, Pope John Paul II said the Vatican was wrong and Galileo obviously was right. Only, this time millions of very young children globally are at risk who are not able to protect themselves and are being harm for life being raised in antigay social environments. The Vatican for the sake of these children around the world needs to immediately renounce all their antigay teachings, because they are not based on truth. They are all unsubstantiated. Photo
One of the major sources that significantly is responsible for creating antigay social environment is the Vatican antigay teaching, which are in fact unsubstantiated, because they are not supported by scripture scholars or by science.
The Reason - for removing my
CLERICAL STATE
Bishop Hurley states is my
REFUSAL TO RETURN to the Diocese
Not True - In 1997
I was being Forced Out by Vatican’s Hostile Treatment
The Vatican’s directive was a hostile threat I felt to force or to scare me so that out of fear I would flee to leave the priesthood voluntary. I believe this was their plan or at least it seemed to be so. However, it was because I was a priest and that it was my duty as priest to be willing to die for others, especially children. I knew very well that I had done no wrong. (1) There was ample research and clinical documentation, as well as, my personal experience and extensive observations of LGBT students, adults, communities, and PFLAG parents that overwhelming supported the fact of the life time harm that is caused to children growing up gay raised in antigay social environments. (2) The Vatican’s antigay teachings are unsubstantiated because they are not supported by scripture scholars or by science. They are fraudulent because of the life threatening harm and violence they perpetuate, globally. It is a case like the Vatican condemning Galileo, which Pope John Paul II agreed and apologized for the Vatican’s wrongdoing.
There was no reason for me to leave the priesthood personally or otherwise and to do would be running out on children, who are not able to protect themselves. It would mean failing to continue standing up for the truth, which IS the core foundation of being a priest. It was and still is my life.
The Key Reason for Leaving Diocese
PERSONAL SAFETY
Escape Vatican’s Relentless Hostile Discrimination
However, I asked of instead of being sent away to be reeducated on my homosexuality and sexual orientation, if I could study psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, if I paid for it. The Vatican in the same mean-spirited and hostile manner granted me an educational leave of absence that was left opened ended. In addition, this also meant I would have to give up my regular monthly priest salary that included room and board. It was clear that the Vatican by their demonstrated hostility towards me that they did not want me anymore and that they truly wanted me to leave. I left the Diocese of Grand Rapids because I was no longer safe; in fact it was out of fear for my life that I left. I was so surprised by their hostility, which never ended and it is back again, today 2012, with great even greater force.
The hostility continued even after I left the Diocese June 1997 though not during the years that Pope John Paul II was alive. I began thinking that after 8 years I had appeased the Vatican, I was financially supporting myself and my educational costs though just barely. I was faithfully continuing my studying psychology as my finances allowed pursuing advance degrees. I was involved in community mental health clinical work during the week and saying masses at parishes that need help on the weekends and major feast days.
However, the Hostility resumed in full force almost immediately after Benedict XVI became pope April 2005. Benedict XVI began to wrongly without evidence to publically attack gay priests endlessly attempting to shift the blame for decades of child sexual abuse cover-ups onto the issue of homosexuality. This was especially true because he was the person in charge for decades and the blame for the cover-ups was falling directly on him. Bishop Hurley was appointed bishop of the Grand Rapids Diocese in June 2005. Bishop Hurley and Benedict XVI though as Cardinal Ratzinger had been collaborating working together on antigay issues since 1987. When Hurley became bishop of Grand Rapids MI the hostility towards me resumed with the forever misleading and twisting of the facts in order to attack me publically and discredit me and seriously harm my reputation. This is likely because of the 1997 News Media coverage of my “coming out” as a gay Catholic priest and it was even noted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as being “unprecedented” as reported in The Grand Rapids Press. This would be especially true, now 2012 because the majority of Catholics support gay marriage, possibly more people are being responsible individually acquiring a well informed conscience and can plainly see that the Vatican’s antigay teachings are truly unsubstantiated and that they are life threatening to very young growing up gay around the world.
However, since 2005, to the present my reputation has been attacked severely several times harming my careers, making impossible to support myself, which has destroyed me completely financially – losing everything, my residence to foreclosure, my car, and all my savings.
I think that it would be quite easy for people to blame me for my problems that is, if it weren’t for the never-ending scandals: (1) of Benedict XVI 30 years of global child sexual cover-ups, (2) more recently the Vatileaks revealing the character assassinations, forged documents, secrecy, etc., (3) the Vatican Bank Scandals, the lack of transparency, publishing psychological documents of ousted ex-bank president because of his threatening evidence of even deeper corruption inside the Vatican and (4) the Vatican’s continuous public attacks on USA politicians who support gay marriage.
WRONG MAILING ADDRESSES
Bishop Hurley’s HOSTILE Treatment
Ongoing
Letters Regarding Removal of Clerical State
In June 2012, this same hostility through misleading information twisting the facts that began his present attempts to remove my clerical state. I explain this more in detail below. Just to mention here his letters to me regarding his removing me from my clerical state have all been addressed to the wrong mailing address, however, I have been receiving all other Diocesan mail for the past 2 years at my correct mailing address. Still in his letter to me dated July 31, 2012, he states, since I failed to respond to his first letter of June 29, 2012 (which I never received because had it sent to a wrong mailing address) therefore he has begun the process of removing my clerical state. He also, states that it is because of my refusal to return to the Diocese that has lead to having my clerical state removed. In 1997, they want me out of the Diocese making it clear that I was not safe staying nor should I expect fair treatment should I return. However, now 2012 they have twisted it around for the public that I refused to come back. Hurley used this same twist in May 2006 notifying me that I was no longer given permission to say mass publically, which is reported in The Grand Rapids Press.
Below is a copy of his letter July 31, 2012 sent to the wrong mailing address.
No Civil or Whistleblower Protection for
Gay Priests or any Priest
KILLING THE SECRECY only Hope
As a Gay Catholic Priest – I have no civil protection my bishop and the Vatican knows this. “Separation of Church and State” and the Vatican Diplomatic Immunity protect them from civil intervention. The only recourse, if anyone is listening and understands the relationship and life of a Roman Catholic priest, that I have or any priest has is to go public, do not keep the secrecy. Going public is absolutely no guarantee of receiving any help or support. The only hope this has is one of knowledge helping people become more aware of the secrecy of the Vatican’s corruption, especially these days and likely for the past 30 years. There is an identifiable manner in the way I have been treated since I came out 1997 that is similar to the 30 years of ongoing cover-ups of the Vatican, which has been exposed in part from the Vatileaks and the Vatican Bank Scandals. In particular, the opposition to the Vatican (unwanted or threatening personnel including secular persons) are ousted, documents are forged, misleading information is given, attacks are made on their reputations to destroy their credibility, and publically facts are always twisted to make the Vatican appear as the victim or the ones in the right.
Below is the letter sent to dated July 31, 2012 and my letter sent to Bishop Hurley.
Click on to enlarge
August 2, 2012
Most Reverend Walter A. Hurley
Bishop of Grand Rapids
Dear Bishop,
I have not received any letter from your office dated June 29, 2012, because as you indicated in your letter dated July 31, 2012 it was sent to the wrong address. This seems like a deliberate attempt to make sure I did not receive this letter of yours dated June 29, 2012 and therefore you could state I did not respond to your directives.
The one and only letter that I did receive from your office was dated July 31, 2012 and it was sent to 682 Deer Street, Plymouth, Michigan, which is not my mailing address. It is surprising that I have been receiving all the diocesan mail for the past 2 years addressed to me at my correct mailing address.
It is interesting that your previous letters mailed to me in the past have been (1) notarized and (2) sent by certified mail so that you would have proof that I received your letter. If you followed this same procedure of yours and there is no reason to think that you would not, considering the extreme importance of the contents that you refer was in your letter dated June 29, 2012 then you would have proof that I did not receive it. This would be true; unless of course you did not intend that I should receive your letter dated June 29, 2012 so that you could speed up the process to alter my clerical state and falsely claim that I did not respond in the allotted time of 15 days. If this was indeed your intention your actions could rightly be called deceitful and ruthless.
It is equally puzzling as you indicated in your letter to me dated July 31, 2012 that I failed to respond to you in the 15 days set down in your letter to me dated June 29, 2012 (which I did not receive), if you believe you sent this letter of June 29, 2012 to my correct address, why then would send your second letter dated July 31, 2012 to a different address that is not my mailing address? Unless, of course, again, you did not intend me to receive your second letter dated July 31, 2012. Then you would have been able to alter my clerical state without my ever knowing you had, until I would be quite surprised to be informed that my health care insurance had been discontinued. Later I would learn that I had no legal recourse because I did not respond to any of your letters, which I never received. In the Archdiocese of Detroit it has been stated among many who had legal dealings with you including attorneys that you are known to have ample precedents for being - deceitful and ruthless.
However, I am indeed deeply surprised by the contents in your letter dated July 31, 2012 and I can emphatically assure you that I have absolutely no intention whatever to give up my clerical state. It was because I took seriously my duty as a priest and stood up for the factual truth about sexual orientation by “coming out” to my parishioners in March 1997 for the safety and well being of children, as young as 4 and 5 years of age, as documented in the Grand Rapids Press at that time and because I did so the Vatican has continuously been mistreating me. My present situation for the past 15 years is entirely due to the hostile working environment imposed on me created by the threat that was made on my well-being, indeed my life that came from the bishop’s office May 1997, which were the Vatican’s directives ordering me to be sent away on a sabbatical for several months to be reeducated regarding sexual orientation, an intensive form of reparative therapy, also known as conversion therapy. It is a psychotherapy attempt to change a person’s homosexuality that is based on the debunked concept that homosexuality is a mental disorder in the 1970’s by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. Soon other national associations from both the medical and mental health professionals from their own independent research data followed suit. Since, then there is more than ample clinical documentation and research data that continued to assert through the 1980’s and 1990’s right up to 1997 that homosexual orientation is a natural part of human development and that any attempt to try to alter or change a person’s homosexuality was considered unethical because of the severe life threatening harm that was found could harm a person more.
The only type of mental problems that were found to be associated with homosexuals were those caused by the stress from being raised in hostile anti-gay social environments living under the constant possibility of encountering violent life threatening physical attacks, e.g. those created by the Vatican’s unsubstantiated anti-teachings, the unsubstantiated public remarks made about homosexuality by such clerics as Archbishop Tartaglia, along with Dolan, Nienstedt, Bertone, George and many many others including Benedict XVI.
The reason why I was to be subjected to the unethical practice of thos intense reparative therapy of being reeducated about the homosexual orientation that was ordered by the Vatican was because in March 1997, at the age of 47 years old I came out to my parishioners at Holy Family Parish, Sparta, Michigan to help stop the violence against gay people, most especially to children as young as 4 and 5 years old who grow up to be gay. The fact that I was a priest I felt not only morally obligated but that it was my duty as a priest to be willing to even sacrifice my life for the safety and well-being of children. As you know though you may have forgotten is true reason and meaning for being a priest. However, in truth I always hoped that that card would never fall into my lap, but fall it did and I believed that how a person responds in this kind of situation would define that person’s whole existence. There is no escape.
“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.” (The above is taken from a letter that I wrote and sent July 2010 to the President of the United State, Vice President of the United States, United States Congress, United States Supreme Court Justices, United States Department of Justice, 50 United States Governors and to a great number of attorneys, journalists, news reporters, and organizations. I wrote this letter to bring to light that the idea of “Separation Between Church and State” does not give churches or Benedict XVI the freedom to abuse children or adults.)
The Vatican’s antigay teachings are unsubstantiated, because they are not based on truth either from the bible or science. This is same mistake the Vatican made concerning Galileo by condemning him as a heretic. In 1992, Pope John Paul II made a public apology to Galileo nearly 400 years later stating that Galileo was right and the Vatican was wrong.
My “coming out” to my parishioners March 1997 as reported in The Grand Rapids Press was successful. There was no exodus of parishioners from my parish and there was not any drop in our regular weekly or monthly building fund collections. In addition, as reported in the Grand Rapids Press the spokesperson for the United Stated Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that my “coming out” as a priest was unprecedented. This fact was quite sad indeed because there should have been hundreds of others before me. What was significantly unique about my “coming out” was the fact the I did it for the safety and well-being of very young children, 4 and 5 years of age who grow up to be gay.
It is most interesting to note that in August 1997, the United Stated Conference of Catholic Bishops came out with the very first positive document on homosexuality that focused on the importance of caring for children who are growing up gay called “Always Our Children.” However, in October 1997 Cardinal Ratzinger now Benedict XVI had sanctioned the co-founders of the New Ways Ministry. Moreover, in 1998, Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI had altered the United Stated Conference of Catholic Bishops document “Always Our Children” making it less positive.
It was also conveyed to me at that same time in the bishop’s office May 1997 that my life was in danger of being seriously harmed, but never did I think that that violence would becoming from the Vatican. This was conveyed to me knowing full well the serious harm of reparative therapy, when I asked if I paid for my own sabbatical to study psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan would I be granted permission to go. I was granted an educational leave of absence, however, this was only granted to me if I was willing to forfeit my regular monthly priest salary, including finding and paying for my own living arrangements. I was given this permission just 2 weeks before I was scheduled to leave. It seemed an unnecessary cruel delay that deliberately prevented me from making any timely arrangements, i.e. finding work to support me financially, finding a place to live, and to workout a course of study in order to be able to begin my sabbatical on time. Because of this I had experienced many unnecessary setbacks. Considering all the above and what I was told I did not feel it would be safe for me to stay in the diocese.
Although, it was not until October 2005 that I once again felt morally obligated and that it was my duty as a priest again to protect the well-being of children to give my response based factual data, when I was asked by a Grand Rapids Press news reporter for my comments on the newly elected pope April 2005, Benedict XVI, regarding his new rules regarding gay priests.
Impending rules on gay priests create Catholic divide
– The Grand Rapids Press, October 8, 2005
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…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? "…
The recent Vatileaks and the Vatican Bank scandals has brought into the light the harm and life threatening deceptive antics of the Vatican i.e. character assassinations, leaking forged documents from Vatican against Dino Boffo the Vatican ousted Catholic editor. The Vatican published a confidential psychological document concerning the mental health of the Vatican's recently ousted bank chief. It was reported that it appeared to be aimed at further discrediting and humiliating the Vatican bank's ex-president for fear of the publication of his “secret dossier” believed to contain irrefutable evidence regarding money laundering, tax-evasive and Vatican’s financial transactions between many surprising people i.e. politicians, the mafia, all hidden behind the Vatican’s lack of transparency.
The Vatican’s leaking psychological documentation to discredit and to destroy the reputation of the Vatican bank's ex-president turned informant has a déjà vu quality to it that remains me of May 2006 when you publically disclosed to the news media – The Grand Rapids Press - the confidential psychological documentation related to me in order to discredit and to further humiliate me. However, your deliberate public disclosure backfired for you because it was all the psychological documentation that is the evidence that reveals the severe life long harmful effects caused to a child who out of blind obedience, including the child’s parents and family believes as true the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. This is a most severe form of child abuse because it is hidden, not overtly visible, an implicit form of child abuse – that appears safe, acceptable, even loving, which makes it even more severe, because of this disguise. Research has shown that it has life long harmful devastating effects even life threatening to children, globally. As more research becomes available and it becomes widely known by the public the Vatican will once again on an even greater scale then with the child sexual abuse cover-ups - held responsible for their criminal negligence towards children. Because there is more than ample research data at the present to warrant the Vatican’s immediate renouncement of all their unsubstantiated anti-gay teachings, which applies to all of their antigay teachings.
Ever since August 2003, people attending masses where I was the celebrant have told me that they noticed that someone they did not recognize was taking notes during my homilies, as if to be spying on me. I paid little attention to this at the time. However, since then there have been many attempts to discredit my reputation. They have been effective, causing for me the loss of many of my strong friendships, causing me severe harm financially and causing great stress that is now impacting my physical health. Your recent misaddressed important letters to me regarding my clerical state is once again one of many attempts to discredit me. The Vatileaks and Vatican Banks scandals have shown these are not the exceptions but more like the common practice of the culture inside of the Vatican. The Vatican’s diplomatic immunity has greatly enabled the Vatican to continue their culture of deceptive antics hidden in the lack of transparency and guarded secrecy, except now for the Vatican Bank. The Vatican is not answerable to any civil court and it is seems conceivable they could literally get away with any injustice short of murder. Therefore for my safety and the safety of children, I am left with no other option but to make public all your dealings with me. This letter is being sent, as like the with my letter above dated July 2010, to a great number of individuals in government, in the news media, attorneys, appropriate organizations, etc. though not exactly the same addressees, as above but to many new people, as well.
In addition, I am sending you several copies of this letter individually addressed to you, so that there will be no attempt to say that you haven’t received this letter from me.
I would appreciate a copy of your first letter to me dated June 29, 2012, which I did not receive, because you sent it to the wrong address. My correct mailing address: XXX
To quote a phase: “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last have you left no sense of decency?”
Sincerely,
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Background Information:
1997 “Coming Out” Focus on Science & Bible
PROTECTING - CHILDREN Growing up Gay - Lifetime harm caused by
Ignorant Antigay Social & Religious Norms
1997 – FOCUSING ON CHILDREN was a dramatic focus shift from public focus of homosexuality exclusively limited to adult sexual behavior
(a) Caused an Immediate Resonating almost calming effect with people
engaging deep interest eliciting serious pertinent questions
(b) – Nullifies Unsubstantiated Traditional Immorality of Homosexuality,
e.g. Vatican Antigay teachings,
(c) Major Threat to blindly accepted, unchallenged, ignorant – antigay social
& religious norms
*****************************
(1) Research - Antigay religious norms – life threatening to children -
as young as 4 and 5 years of age
My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, I came out March 1997 to my parishioners at Holy Family Parish, Sparta MI to draw public attention to help protect children, as young as 4 and 5 years of age who grow up to be gay – from the life long harmful effects and for many life threatening effects of being raised in antigay social environments made up of ignorant antigay social norms that are primarily influenced by unsubstantiated religious norms, e.g. the Vatican unsubstantiated antigay teaching, a major world religion. The Vatican antigay teachings are unsubstantiated, because they are not based on facts from either the bible or science.
(2) Scripture scholars - Bible does not condemn homosexuality
(3) Science research – homosexuality – natural human development
The bible does not condemn homosexuality anymore than the bible condemns Galileo. There are many passages in the bible that clearly state that the earth does not move, instead the sun moves. However, Galileo explained that it was the exact opposite, the sun does not move and the earth rotates round the sun. The Vatican condemned Galileo as heretic and placed Galileo under house arrest for 9 years. Nearly 400 years later, Pope John Paul II in 1992, stated that the Vatican was wrong and that Galileo was right. In 1997, from science through research and clinical studies of both the major medical and mental health associations it is overwhelmingly accepted that homosexual orientation is a natural part of human development.
(4) Facts - Science & Bible - Nullify all the Vatican antigay teachings
These facts alone nullify all the Vatican antigay teachings because like Galileo they are not based on credible facts from a variety of many different disciplines of study and research. Therefore it is imperative the Vatican immediately renounces all their antigay teachings because they are unsubstantiated and cause severe harm to very young children growing up gay around the world. The Vatican and in particular Benedict XVI will not face the truth about homosexual orientation and has relentlessly and obsessively after being elected pope - publically spoke against homosexuality - simply and arbitrarily discrediting any and all credible scientific facts regarding the truth about homosexuality. This behavior of Benedict XVI - begs the question, why? This is even more puzzling that being a great intellectual academic scholar and author of many books, he has not been able to give any details or credible documentation to explain his reasoning about homosexuality. Publically, this is a glaring discrepancy because at his intellectual level he expounds on numerous subjects, but with the frequency that he touches on more than any other that is the defining subject of his papacy, homosexuality he has the least to say about.
This was not the case with Pope John Paul II. As pope John Paul said little to nothing on the subject homosexuality because there was ample research data continuously forthcoming from science and scripture scholars suggesting a new understanding regarding homosexuality, sexual orientation, human psychological development, etc. John Paul II, as we know, believed the truth would be found with faith and science working together to come up with answers. It is noted that John Paul frequently met with the scientists at the Vatican, at least once a week to discuss issues of the day. The committee at the Vatican on the topic of homosexuality was made up of theologians and scientists, as was the case for many committees at the Vatican, at the insistence of John Paul. This was not the case when Benedict XVI became pope, almost immediately all the scientists were dismissed from all the committees in the Vatican and only theologians remained. Sources within the Vatican at the time were shocked and noticeably worried about the future credibility their work because the balance for the search for truth was thrown off giving a very one-sided view on issues, which is not objective truth - truth was lost. This is clearly seen in Benedict XVI’s and the hierarchy’s public statements on homosexuality. This appears to be the same mistake that the Vatican made when the pope then condemned Galileo. And as we know John Paul II apologized to Galileo stating the he was right and that the Vatican and the pope were wrong.
(5) Children 4 and 5 years of age – know “different” - Well Before
“Age of Reason”
Nullify Immorality of Homosexuality
When I came out in March 1997 the focus was on the fact that very young children, as young as 4 and 5 years of age knew in some fundamental way that they were “different” not gay, only later in life would they identify this being different as being gay. This point alone was highly significant because it threw the Vatican focus of homosexuality off of being entirely focused on adult homosexuals and moved it onto children in early childhood psychological developmental years. This switch in the focus immediately, almost in lightening speed, resolves major key issues regarding the morality of homosexuality, because this places our understanding of homosexuality, sexual orientation out of the adult world and places almost at the beginning of life - into the very early years of human development - well before the “age of reason” therefore; (1) homosexuality cannot be considered a conscious and willful choice to commit a terrible intrinsically disordered and evil act, (2) if not a choice, no sin is involved, (3) there is no adult sexual acts of any kind involved at this very young age in a child’s life, (4) sexual orientation at this stage is about the natural development of human attachment essential for survival and growth of a human being, and (5) human attachments are about “loving another and being loved by another” there is nothing intrinsically disordered or evil about love. These facts alone nullify, renounce all the Vatican antigay teachings as unsubstantiated and instead they are labeled as being severely harmful to the lives of children in their early childhood years, something on the order of the ancient practice of “foot binding.” These are research facts over years of study that were available in 1997 and have continued to develop through the years.
This is why my “coming out” 1997 was not a big issue about me personally. Because my reason and focus for “coming out” was on the vital importance of explaining the research data about sexual orientation existing in early childhood, in order to stop the severe harm caused to the children growing up gay by the ignorance of antigay statements that create hostile and violent antigay social environments that threaten a child’s very existence. After I came out the focus was off me and almost immediately forgotten, as I remembered back then to Holy Family Parish, Sparta, MI, when I began to explain to my parishioners these research facts. It did not take much, if any, convincing people because almost immediately they began to identify these facts in what seemed to be a flooding of specific past episodes and memories from their own personal individual lives, about kids they knew and grew up with, about themselves, their children, etc., etc. It was like it brought into focus much confusion in their past lives that seemed at first unsettling, but left them with a better sense of calm and a new more secure understanding about themselves that made sense that answered many old forever nagging unanswered questions – and left them with much less anger. And the fact that I came out was almost forgotten, their questions were not about me but about many various aspects of sexual orientation and early childhood psychological development.
I held for the next 7 to 8 following weeks, 3 classes a week on the topic of sexual orientation, each class running for 2 hours. The classes were open to all parishioners though registering before attendance was required (simply by calling the parish office) in order to limit the classes to only 20 people in each class for the sake of confidentially and we run as many classes along as people wanted to attend. Every class was filled and the classes lasted nearly 8 weeks.
After I came out the parish did not fall apart. There was no great exodus. The weekly and building fund collections did not drop. Maybe we seemed closer more united on a deeper level. I was schedule to be transferred before I came out in March 1997, my 12-year term, as pastor, at Holy Family Parish ended at the end of June of 1997. I must say it was much harder than I realized leaving that parish, so much so that even the thought of going back for a visit seemed unbearable - the joy of seeing everyone again would be great – but leaving them all again seemed unbearable. I think that something wonderful happened there maybe in a very small but significant way we helped to change the world for the better, especially for children. That’s a good thing!
The Major Problem “Coming Out” 1997 not Parishioners –
Was The Vatican
The major problem I faced in 1997 was not from the parishioners – it was from of all places the Vatican. It was 4 years prior to my “coming out” I had been enrolled at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI taking one class a semester, including the spring/summer semester, in psychology. I did this all while I was still being a pastor at Holy Family Parish in Sparta, MI commuting twice a week to Ann Arbor. I had to give-up all my free time and watching TV to study at the U of M. And believe me TV cannot compare to the excitement of learning, at the U of M. It was at the University of Michigan that I studied the research data about sexual orientation, psychological human development, etc., as well as, at attending the yearly American Psychological Association conventions and attending regular meetings at PFLAG, Affirmations, Ferndale, MI and workshops/lectures sponsored by the U of M LGBT Office. My point is that I truly professionally studied the issues of sexual orientation thoroughly and was very well versed on much of the latest research data. Now after “coming out” to my parishioners and teaching 8 weeks of classes on sexual orientation - it was reported as being quite successful handling and educating people on the issue of sexual orientation.
I met with my bishop (which was not the present bishop Hurley) in May 1997 to hear the directives that were coming from the Vatican. I was, at first, quite shock, later I was even to the point of being somewhat frightened after hearing that I was to be sent away for several months (the location not having been disclosed) to be reeducated about sexual orientation and homosexuality. This was equivalent to reparative therapy, which is based on the concept that was debunked in the 1970’s by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association that homosexuality was a mental disorder. Reparative therapy’s main objective is to attempt through intensive psychotherapy to change a person’s homosexuality. It was and is considered unethical because it has never been proven effective, instead it posed more serious, even dangerous threats to the psychological well-being of the person, even placing for some at even greater risk of attempting suicide. It has been noted that the mental disorders associated with homosexuals are primary those due to the stress of not being accepted, of being ridiculed and being under constant vigilance of being attacked verbally or physically and at times violently. It has been amply and duly noted that homosexuals who grow up in safe accepting social environments, experience no more mental disorders than their heterosexual counterparts.
Reeducated on Homosexuality - Reparative therapy
Reparative therapy by 1997 still had no evidence scientifically that proved it worked, in fact it was found to be harmful and it was being considered unethical and unsafe. The fact that the Vatican was unaware or dismissive of ample research data regarding homosexuality was deplorable, because the Catholic Faith is all about truth. Since, 1973, the term “homosexuality” was removed from the list mental and emotional disorders by American Psychiatric Association stating that sexual orientation is not a disorder; therefore, it does not need to be cured. The American Psychological Association stated. In 1990 that scientific evidence shows that reparative therapy does not work and that it can do more harm than good. “In 1991, Gerald Davison, a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, argued that conversion therapy (is the same as reparative therapy) is ethically improper and that its existence only confirms professional and societal biases against homosexuality.” In 1993, the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, "The psychosocial problems of gay and lesbian adolescents are primarily the result of societal stigma, hostility, hatred and isolation." In 1996, the National Association of Social Workers adopted a policy statement on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual issues. “…Sexual orientation conversion therapies assume that homosexual orientation is both pathological and freely chosen. No data demonstrate that reparative or conversion therapies are effective, and in fact they may be harmful.”
Therefore, Vatican’s directive was such a drastic contrast drop from the height of the intellectual level I was operating out of that (explained above) this news from the Vatican was startling – it was an unimaginable gigantic leap back in time passing even beyond the dark ages intellectually. While in my bishop’s office I did not say much at the time, I only wished that some of my colleagues from the APA, the U of M and news media could have heard this directive coming from the Vatican. I honestly could not even imagine what a sabbatical for several months on reeducating someone on homosexuality and sexual orientation would be like. It seemed like unnecessarily cruel and unusual treatment of all places by the Vatican.
My two earned sabbaticals including the funding were all canceled, which I was hoping to use up before accepting a new parish assignment. My possible future assignments in the Diocese of Grand Rapids that were offered to me before I came out were all eliminated. In a matter of one meeting, months after I came out and the news media hype had died down, my whole status in the Grand Rapids Diocese was gone. I no longer felt safe in the Grand Rapids Diocese, only the anxious pressure about what would happen next. At 47 years old, for me it seemed to be the beginning of the end.
Needlessly Already Spending a LIFETIME and Enormous Expense in Ineffective Reparative Therapy
Vatican directives were to send me back
No Civil Laws to Protect Gay Priests – From - Vatican Hostile & Inhuman Treatment
The thought of my being sent away to be reeducated about homosexuality and sexual orientation was disturbing to me on two counts: (1) it was then as it is now considered by the vast majority of professionals from both the medical and mental health fields as ineffective and dangerous to the individual well-being and (2) it seemed a most unnecessary and extremely cruel even inhumane ordeal for a place like the Vatican to be ordering a priest or anyone to submit to. It was for me even more unsetting, because I had already spent well over some 20 years trying through psychotherapy to reeducate myself on my being a homosexual – in attempts to be heterosexual. I learned only too well, at the age of 47, from the grueling experience of those past some 20 years in my deep earnest commitment faithfully believing what I had been told that reeducation/reparative therapy would work but it most assuredly does not. It had only compounded my depression in addition knowing I wasted those some 20 years for absolutely nothing. Even more unsetting was the fact when I learned that this was not my own personal bias, but that major medical and mental health associations agreed.
It was after further study and then learning the research facts that sexual orientation begins in early childhood, which struck me like bolt of lightening that March 1997 at the New Ways Ministry National Symposium listening to Dr. Richard Isay’s (just recently deceased) opening address explaining that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different and that it is only as adults do they realize that being different was in fact being gay – that it all became the relentless motivating force that led to the moral obligation, as a Catholic priest to “come out” for the protection and well-being all children growing up gay. In good conscience I could not remain silent – I knew too much from my own personal experience to allow children suffer what I went through.
Character Assassination – Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
Being Punished and Humiliated For Being Faithfully Following
Vatican’s Unsubstantiated Antigay teachings
In a breach of confidentially the present bishop of Grand Rapids Walter Hurley (who had been working closely with then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI discriminating against gays as far back as 1987) disclosed to a news reporter from the Grand Rapids Press, May 2006, in an attempt that seemed to further discredit my reputation, the huge sum of money spent on my psychotherapy. However, this breach of confidentiality of Bishop Hurley backfired on him, because this huge sum would have been completely non-existence, as the documentation will prove, if I never had been raised in a Catholic antigay social environment that stressed the Vatican antigay teachings that are unsubstantiated. Also, this huge sum of money would have been greatly reduced, to far less than even 10% if I sought psychotherapy treatment outside of Catholic mental health agencies. The Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings have been proven to continuously perpetuate psychological harm. It took me an enormously long time to find this out – nearly enduring 4 decades of psychological harm because I blindly obeyed and believed them to be true and I can say emphatically that they are not true, but instead they are extremely harmful and even life threatening. I can say this after working endlessly acquiring a well-informed conscience based years of prayer, the needless years spent in psychotherapy and when I decided to no longer to follow blindly but on a postgraduate level of university academic studies to search for the truth, I found that the Vatican’s antigay teachings are unsubstantiated – instead they are life threatening.
Bishop Hurley Disclosure of Gay Priest Reparative Therapy
Psychological Expenses
CHARACTER ASSASSINATION – Vatican’ MO
Vatican Published Psychological Documentation of Ex-Bank President
It is interesting to note that Hurley’s confidentially disclosure of my psychological expenses appears to be the regular modus operandi of the Vatican. Because it is quite similar to the recent Vatican Bank scandal – where the Vatican published the psychological documentation of their ex bank president, which it is believed was meant to further discredit him because of threatening inside information he is believed to have would expose even more serious corruption in the Vatican.
Vatican’s - Vindictive Hostile Retaliation
In my letter above I explained I did not go away to be reeducated about my homosexuality and sexual orientation. I asked permission to study psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI – if I paid for it on my own, however, to do so I was told that I had to give up my regular priestly salary and find my own living arrangements including paying for it myself. But it must be explained that a priest salary is considerably lower because room and board is included. This presented an additional hardship for me. However, I thought given such a life threatening order by the Vatican - to be sent away to be reeducated on homosexuality and sexual orientation was so extreme – Needless to say, I was worried if I stayed – what other inhumane atrocities would I be subjected to. I guess you could say I was fleeing for my life. To get me to leave the priesthood was likely what the Vatican was attempting to force me to do. Again, the whole reason why I came out was because “I was a priest.” It is a priest’s duty to be willing to lay down his life for others, at least that is the theology of priesthood. True I had always hope the living up to that duty would not directly fall into my lap – but it did. I gave up everything I had to be a faithful priest – I realize that this does not mean much to many people – they can barely understand the concept, except for parents. And now Benedict XVI and Bishop Hurley simply want me to give up my clerical state, so much so that Hurley sent these important letters to me for my response but he sent them to the wrong addresses that are not my mailing addresses, even though I receive all other diocesan mail at my correct address. If wasn’t the recent Vatileaks and Vatican Bank scandals and Benedict XVI’s 30 years of child sexual cover-ups – people would be willing to give Hurley the benefit of the doubt – but in indeed we now know that this kind of deception is this rule of the Vatican and not the exception. I have absolutely no recourse – the only recourse I have if I still have it - is to make this all public and kill the secrecy of the Vatican – in hopes that people’s awareness will in some way reform the Vatican – make the protection of children the highest priority.
Gay Marriage – Truth Wins – Benedict XVI - Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely – Inevitable Chaos – Regression – VATILEAKS - Manufacturing Smokescreen? - Conceal Culpability | Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups, VATICAN BANK Transparency vs. Money Laundering, Character Assassination, Silencing Social Justice | Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
This posting was sent out as a US group mailing prior to posting it here on the Thalamus Center.
We cannot selfishly tramper with human life without causing great harm and destruction that will eventually come back to claim our lives and all those who supported us, including all those who through their silence, or ignorance or apathy colluded with us.
Vatican’s Diplomatic Immunity
No one in the Vatican can go around hurting people – especially children globally and expect to get away with it. The Vatican for most people is considered a place of goodness and love, of truth and honesty or at least a place where it should exist. One by one, over the last 30 some years, globally people have been disillusioned to find that the Vatican quite the opposite of God’s goodness and love. It has greatly eroded the high esteem and regard that people once had for the Vatican. What people have discovered that those in the Vatican are able to get away with their continuous dishonestly and violence, because of their diplomatic immunity. It is the over use of their diplomatic immunity that the scandal of the decades of the child sexual abuse cover-ups are kept alive and festering, because the truth remain unresolved.
Benedict XVI’s Global Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups
Benedict XVI’s unending obsessive attempts to shift the blame for the child sexual abuse onto gay priests, thereby implicitly implicating all homosexuals, has been futile, because it has been effectively demonstrated that he does not have the global authoritative backing of science or scripture scholars and theologians. It therefore invalidates Benedict XVI insistence that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and no longer can it be considered authentic Church teachings, because it is not based in truth. The Vatican antigay teachings are unsubstantiated just like it was for Galileo. In fact, such erroneous antigay teachings has been proven to perpetuated social environments that cause life threatening psychological harm and including for many physical violence to children as young as 4 and 5 years old who grow up to be gay and are raised in these hostile antigay social environments, globally. Such devastating harm kills tremendous amounts of human potential and motivation globally that could otherwise be used to find cures for illnesses, helping to promote and make peace in the world and overall creating a better world for all in which to live. All the Vatican’s antigay teachings need for the safety and the future well-being of innocent children globally, they need to be renounced.
Letters sent out by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - July 2010 to:
President of the United States
Vice President of the United States
United States Congress
United States Supreme Court
United States Department of Justice
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
The authoritative substantiated facts referred to above equally negates Benedict XVI’s obsessive condemnation of gay marriage. Instead it clearly focuses in on Benedict XVI’s homophobia, as well as, that of the many of hierarchy. And like with so many public figures who outwardly continuously to fiercely condemned homosexuality they were found to be involved sexually in homosexual relationships, the same was found to be true about the Vatican.
Vatican gay sex scandal reaching into Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring MALE PROSTITUTES for a Benedict XVI GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING – March 4, 2010
Well-informed Conscience & Gay Marriage
Most Catholics cannot in good conscience blindly follow Benedict XVI in his obsessive condemnation of gay marriage, mainly because he has absolutely no substantiated facts to support his position. Catholic Church teachings need to be based upon truth and Catholics know that they are responsible to acquire a well-informed conscience before acting. In the USA, Catholics governors, along with local and national politicians have taken great risk to courageously champion the cause of gay marriage. In June 2011, New York State led by Governor Andrew Cuomo, in spite of the Vatican’s attempts to publically attack his character and Archbishop Dolan’s attempts to pressure and threaten him with the lost of the Catholic vote, Gov. Cuomo managed to get the support to have gay marriage legalized. In 2012, Washington State and Maryland both led by catholic governors moved to legalize gay marriage. Finally, in May 2012, USA Vice president Joe Biden publically announced his support for gay marriage. Shortly afterwards, in a most surprising unprecedented act, USA President Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage. President Obama was also pressured and threatened by the US Catholic Bishops and the Vatican not to support gay marriage. President Obama moved to support and protect religious freedom in the USA but not tyranny in religion.
Benedict XVI Lost Credibility
- Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups -
& Fox News PR
Benedict XVI and the hierarchy have lost credibility due to their continuous secrecy about their responsibility for the cover-ups of the child sexual abuse globally and their constant attempts to explicitly and implicitly against known authoritative data to shift the blame onto gay priests. After 30 years, of the misuse of power, silencing catholic social justice, in particular the authoritative research on homosexual orientation as being a part of normal human development that it is found in all of nature, and the continuous cover-ups of the child sexual abuse, as well as, the “character assassinations” of those who challenge, oppose, or threaten to expose the truth, Benedict XVI’s chickens globally have been coming home to roost. It seems in desperation, Benedict XVI instead, as he has instructed the faithful to do, to turn to Jesus Christ in prayer and the Holy Eucharist for help and guidance regarding the many scandals plaguing him – he turns to Fox News PR for help and guidance.
Truth does not need any help from the Fox News network PR. It is only if someone is not sincere in telling the truth that help from Jesus Christ would be useless, instead would need the opposite kind of help, maybe Fox News PR. A state of the art way of spinning the truth using doublespeak tactics to focus attention as far a way from the truth so as to hide it, if not bury it.
How the Catholic Church could end its sex scandal – March 26, 2010
The Vatican has dealt with the sexual abuse scandals as other institutions would. It should be relying on its Christian values.
…It has worried about its image. It has worried about itself as an institution and about protecting its leaders from public scandal. In so doing, it has made millions of Catholics righteously furious and aggravated every one of its problems.
So instead of going away, the scandal keeps coming back - lately, in a form that seems to challenge Pope Benedict XVI himself. It was sickening to read Thursday's New York Times story reporting that Vatican officials "did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church."
In Germany, the pope's home country, more than 300 victims have come forward in recent weeks, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose party has Catholic roots, called the scandal "a major challenge for our society."
…The church needs to show it understands the flaws of its own internal culture by examining its own conscience, its own practices, its own reflexes when faced with challenge. As the church rightly teaches, acknowledging the true nature of our sin is the one and only path to redemption and forgiveness…
Benedict XVI has already established substantial precedents of giving vague often mixed messages, which makes it difficult to believe what he says as true. Benedict XVI hiring the Fox News PR is consistent with Benedict XVI past behavior being more concern for the public image of the institution of the church, than for the well-being of the adults and children in the Church. However, now it seems that his reputation alone is the main concern, because all child sexual cover-ups lead to him, as the evidence presented indicates. “This is about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church” - 12/2/09 CSMonitor.com
“…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.” - A Better Chance at Justice for Abuse Victims – 4/26/10
Vatican Letter to Irish Bishops on Sex Abuse: A 'Smoking Gun' in Conspiracy?
by David Gibson, January 19, 2011 – Politics Daily
Vatican Letter Warned Bishops on Abuse Policy
By Laurie Goodstein, January 18, 2011 - The New York Times
Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican? - August 6, 2003
Secret Document Told Bishops To Conceal Allegations Against Priests
CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales has uncovered a church document kept secret for 40 years…
The confidential Vatican document, obtained by CBS News, lays out a church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests - anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church…
Pope [Benedict XVI} 'obstructed' sex abuse inquiry - April 24, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI faced claims last night he had 'obstructed justice' after it emerged he issued an order ensuring the church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret.
The order was made in a confidential letter, obtained by The Observer, which was sent to every Catholic bishop in May 2001.
It asserted the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood. The letter was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as John Paul II's successor last week.
Vatican letter “Jan. 31, 1997” told Ireland's Catholic bishops NOT to report child abuse – January 18, 2011
Fox News Reporter Hired as Vatican Media Adviser – 62412 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/world/europe/vatican-hires-fox-news-correspondent-as-media-adviser.html?_r=1
God’s fierce Rottweiler – Benedict XVI – Goes Undercover?
Facing 30 years Criminal Accountability
Public Image Makeover Begins – Weak & Poor Administrator
Hires Fox News PR
Since before Christmas 2011, there has been a very subtle shift in the way Benedict XVI had been portrayed in the news, i.e. the use of a cane. There has been very small references made to Benedict XVI advancement in age. These subtle references to his age reached a crescendo just before he leaves on vacation for the summer in July 2012. In a matter of six months Benedict XVI reputation as God’s fierce Rottweiler for the past 30 years has dwindled to quite the opposite. It all seems somehow professionally staged in the news media – an attempt to indirectly give a reason to pardon, to absolve Benedict XVI of his past 30 years questionable behavior and/or an attempt to rewrite the past 30 years exonerating Benedict XVI of any and all wrongdoing – mainly by focusing on his age, his weak leadership abilities and his devotion to his intellectual pursuits. This has a déjà vu feeling to it. This type of orchestration appears to be the work of superior expertise in PR work. It is a news media spin – that seems faster than the speed of light, seamless, which is frightening, because it is the darkest kind of evil, a total disregard for goodness and love. It is the kind of selfish tampering with human life that will ultimately destroy all human life. We cannot selfishly tramper with human life without causing great harm and destruction that will eventually come back to claim our lives and all those who supported us, including all those who through their silence, or ignorance or apathy colluded with us. It reeks of obscure dishonesty, lacking transparency and believability, because the harm to millions of children is to be all forgotten, they just do not matter. In part the déjà vu quality it has dates back to 2010 in the news media that recalls Benedict XVI as Archbishop Ratzinger, his child sexual abuse scandal 1980 in Munich.
Benedict XVI for the past 3 or 4 months has stopped making public addresses against gay marriage; it would seem that it was meant to help mitigate the public perception of his homophobia. Ireland, June 2012, Benedict XVI refers to the cause of the child sexual abuse as a mystery, however, stated that it is not at the administration level. Benedict XVI uses the word mystery is quite odd, maybe he no longer feels safe to implicitly imply publically that homosexuality as the cause, because of the public growing knowledge and understanding of the authoritative data stating that there is no connection, as may be indicated by the global overwhelming public shift to support gay marriage. Also, it seems as global support increases for gay marriage so does the global public realization that the accountability for the global child sexual abuse cover-ups lies solely at the administrative level, i.e. Benedict XVI and the hierarchy.
Pope: Irish clergy child sex abuse a 'mystery' – 6/17/12
While there have been demands from Irish rank-and-file Catholics, including those who suffered abuse from clergy, for accountability from church hierarchy, Benedict's answer as to why the abuse occurred dealt with the spiritual and not the administrative level.
Benedict XVI’s Makeover Continues
Vatileaks & Vatican Bank “Lack of Transparency”
Al Capone, the notorious USA gangster was able to elude being caught by the police for any of his numerous violent crimes. Mr. Capone was brought down and finally captured for tax evasion. Benedict XVI has been able for decades to elude all civil persecution for the numerous global allegations as to his ordering the child sexual abuse cover-ups. However, Benedict XVI is stopped short in any attempt to try to elude the oversight of the international financial sector, regarding the Vatican banking methods. Here the Vatican Banking procedures are investigated and criminal activities are exposed. It seems that this may be the epicenter that shook the very foundation of Benedict XVI’s world and ignited the need to manufacture a smokescreen, i.e. the Vatileaks? Money talks and in more ways than expected.
The Vatican Bank: The Most Secret Bank In the World – Forbes - 6/24/12
…In today’s interconnected financial world, instituting measures to mitigate abuse of the international financial sector is part of the cost of doing business…While the Vatican answers to a higher calling, the EU, FATF and MONEYVAL should insist that its earthly responsibilities are equally important.
The Vatileaks & Vatican Bank “Lack of Transparency” seem somehow related, however, there is so much smoke, confusion and complications that it all seems so tiresome to even follow. It may have been designed this way to discourage any close inspection and keep the truth from being revealed. It has been expressed several times in the news media to be like a Whounit mystery.
In particular, the Vatileaks seems to have the feel of “The Clocks” a novel by Agatha Christi 1963, about a murder mystery that is built upon complication upon complication; evidence that is given is totally circumstantial that builds and builds designed to deliberately obscure the truth, and frame an innocent person. The twist begins with the murdered victim’s body being left at a blind person’s apartment, which there is no reason for it to be left there. It was a setup meant to confuse the police, to add confusion upon confusion, complication upon complication.
Benedict XVI - 30 Vatican years in most powerful positions
Now in Vatileaks - portrayed - as a weakling
Eliciting Public Sympathy???
When the smoke is cleared Benedict XVI seems to come out winning, though meticulously orchestrated to give the appearance of a weak leader, even feeble minded, he seems to be exonerated from any wrongdoing and eliciting public sympathy. Benedict XVI seems is then pictured riding off, free as a bird, into the sunset for his long summer vacation, leaving the Vatican still burning from the Vatileaks scandals behind him.
Benedict XVI appears to be deliberately portrayed as a mild mannered weak old academic unconcerned about administrative operations. However, this makes no sense given the fact that Benedict XVI has been in the second highest powerful position just under the Pope John Paul II for 25 years, until he became pope for the past 7 years.
Vatileaks – Motive Unclear
A number of news reporter make mention that the motivation for the Vatileaks remains unclear. Through all the smoke what is clear (1) is that there are no private documents published belonging to Benedict XVI or any cardinal. (2) The Vatican has issued a statement stating that the documents are authentic. (3) Italian journalist, Nuzzi, states, “There is not a single word in the book against the pontiff." (4) Benedict XVI is exonerated from any wrongdoing concerning Dino Boffo – the Italian editor of a Catholic newspaper and the false documents that were release from the Vatican in a deliberate attempt to destroy his reputation and credibility. However, the Vatican apologized for leaking a letter concerning Vatican bank's ex-president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, from his psychologist regarding the status of his mental health, which the reporter stated that it appeared aimed at further discrediting and humiliating the Vatican ex-president. Leaking psychological documentation to discredit and to destroy the reputation of a informant – this also has a déjà vu quality to it: May 2006 Grand Rapids, Bishop Hurley – publically discloses psychological documentation – regarding Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, however, this disclosure backfires because psychological documentation revealed is evidence of the harm life caused to a child by the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings.
Impending rules on gay priests create Catholic divide - October 8, 2005
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? "…
Catholics Coming Out - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - 1997
(5) Benedict XVI’s butler too conveniently caught for the Vatileaks, he is accused and silenced by Vatican police for leaking documents. (6) Vatican police are under the control of Benedict XVI. The details of the Vatileaks are not given or leaked, which purposefully keeps the cloud of speculations swirling and left to die off in time. It conceals the truth of who was involved in leaking the documents. (7) However, the smoke from the Vatileaks keeps the confusion alive and the focus and accusations off Benedict XVI, regarding the Vatican Bank “lack of transparency” and the irrefutable incriminating evidence compiled the ex-president Gotti Tedeschi.
Vatican Banker Running Scared: Gotti Tedeschi Could Turn Whistle-Blower – 6/10/12
…a secret dossier that Gotti Tedeschi told friends he compiled “just in case something happens to me.” …reportedly contains irrefutable evidence…money laundering and tax-evasive practices…allegedly show financial transactions between the Vatican and a number of surprising characters, including politicians and known middlemen for mafia bosses… Three decades ago, another of “God’s bankers" was found hanging from a noose under Blackfriars Bridge in London.
Who Orchestrated The Vatileaks?
It has remained a question who orchestrated the Vatileaks. The butler has been considered a scapegoat and if he was involved, he was not acting alone. The motivation for the Vatileaks has not been established. It is interesting that a number of Benedict XVI’s staff members have been involved in wrongdoings. If we look for the mastermind of the Vatileaks, it would be interesting to find out who had the most to gain or to lose, which seems to be Benedict XVI. There is a definite systematic quality the Vatileaks that has a déjà vu feel to it. There is no real threat to Benedict XXI, the butler is conveniently arrested and silenced by the Vatican police, who are all under the control of Benedict XVI. It is an open and shut case neatly wrapped up in a matter of days, which also has that feel of déjà vu. In addition, Benedict XVI appears to undergo a major personality make over from a controlling and power hungry administrator to a weak nearly feeble-minded academic who is more concerned about his intellectual pursuits then administrative responsibility, even this has been played before in Munich: Benedict XVI as Archbishop Ratzinger, his child sexual abuse scandal 1980 in Munich.
In the news media articles, which announced that Benedict XVI hired the Fox News PR person to improve his public image, it makes mention to the fact that this PR person had been asked for several months prior to finally accepting the position, also mentioning that Benedict XVI never had a PR person before. Interesting? However, this Fox News PR person may have been hired at first on a contractual basis, before accepting the offer of a fulltime position?
Benedict XVI’s Staff Members
VatiLeaks Strikes Again: Was the Butler Framed? – 6/04/12
Friends of the butler describe him as a 'simple man' without a motive. Since Gabriele’s arrest, there has been much speculation in Rome about just who was the mastermind behind the document dump...
Priest says he was bullied into taking fall for Benedict XVI in abuse scandal 1980 Munich – 4/18/10
Vatican gay sex scandal reaching into Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring MALE PROSTITUTES for a Benedict XVI GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING – 3/04/10
Dino Boffo - Italian Catholic scandal draws in Pope Benedict | Forged documents from Vatican | - 2/09/10
…Il Giornale's editor Vittorio Feltri - who had penned the initial articles - admitted the document implying Boffo is gay was falsified, and apologized in a front-page letter.
The scandal resurfaced last week when Feltri said the document in question had been given to him by an "institutional" church official whom he trusted.
Some Italian media suggested that the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, essentially the pope's mouthpiece, was involved. Others suggested the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was behind it.…The statement - unusual in its line-by-line denial of unsourced rumors - was confirmation that the case had reached the highest echelons of power in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, making clear that the pope had become personally involved…
Vatican 'regrets' letter on bank chief's health – 6/12/12
…the publication of a letter from a psychotherapist detailing the mental health of the Vatican's recently ousted bank chief…and appeared aimed at further discrediting and humiliating the Vatican bank's ex-president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, once a top papal adviser…
…The ouster was a stunning show of Holy See power struggles playing out in real time and came amid one of the greatest scandals facing Pope Benedict XVI's seven-year papacy: the continuous leaks of confidential documents that have laid bare allegations of church corruption, intrigue and even homosexual relationships under Benedict's watch…
Fox News Reporter Hired as Vatican Media Adviser – 6/24/12 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/world/europe/vatican-hires-fox-news-correspondent-as-media-adviser.html?_r=1
Vatican Bank “Lack of Transparency” Scandals
Global News Media Coverage
Free Publicity
Papal Deficit & US Bankruptcy
The Vatican bank scandal has received global news media coverage. This makes this time a most opportune time to maximize the free publicity by the Vatican showing attempts to increase the transparency of the Vatican Bank. However, more importantly to have the Vatican be viewed as a victim the focus centers on the huge Vatican deficit and because it is globally publicized it elicits people sending in donations to Benedict XVI and he publically thanks the people. Playing the victim is Benedict XVI official trademark, especially when being accused of criminal wrongdoing.
In addition, while Benedict XVI has the global news media spotlight, it is conveniently make mentioned that the American Catholic Church is near bankruptcy because of the child sexual abuse court lawsuits. This is a fact that cannot be verified. It is interesting that this statement is made about the USA Catholic Church during a presidential election year with Obama running for reelection who recently came out in support of gay marriage. Because below the radar of the news media Benedict XVI and the hierarchy continue to scapegoat gay priests (and by extension gay marriage) even against authoritative data firmly that can verify that homosexuality is not related to child sexual abuse.
I. Vatileaks???
Separating fact, fiction in Vatican leaks case – USA Today - 6/22/12
…Sparked by the publication of dozens of confidential documents, the scandal has led to the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI's personal butler and might even be linked to the ouster of the president of the controversial Vatican Bank…
VatiLeaks Puts the Pope in Publicity Hell – 6/16/12
It’s been more than three weeks since the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested for allegedly stealing secret documents from the papal desk, and the details spilling from Vatican City are as murky as smoke from burning incense…
VatiLeaks Strikes Again: Was the Butler Framed? – 6/04/12
Friends of the butler describe him as a 'simple man' without a motive. Since Gabriele’s arrest, there has been much speculation in Rome about just who was the mastermind behind the document dump...
Pope Benedict gets no respite from ongoing Vatileaks scandal – 6/04/12
…The person who sent the documents to the paper said Bertone and Ganswein were 'those really responsible for this scandal'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154313/Pope-Benedict-gets-respite-ongoing-Vatileaks-scandal-allegations-emerge-leaked-confidential-documents.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154313/Pope-Benedict-gets-respite-ongoing-Vatileaks-scandal-allegations-emerge-leaked-confidential-documents.html
Conspiracies Swirl As Vatican Scandal Engulfs Rome- 60212
"It's the Vatican press office that announced that many documents were found in the butler's home," Nuzzi says. "Now, if he is the whistle-blower he must be really stupid to hold on to all stuff. And it's very disturbing that the trial will be held in secret."
The Pope’s Butler Silenced In Vatileaks Investigation – 5/30/12
…Gabriele’s voice has been silenced—and for now, so have the leaks—but everyone watching this mystery unfold in Rome is waiting for the next twist in this bizarre case of the pope, his butler, and the Vatican’s spilled secrets…
Italian journalist defends Vatican leaks – 5/30/12
..The Vatican has not denied the authenticity of the documents, copies of which are reproduced in the book…"There is not a single word in the book against the pontiff"
Pope breaks silence over Vatileaks – 5/30/12
The motivations for the leaks remain unclear… others say they aim to show the 85-year-old Benedict's weakness in running the church… there's not a word against the pope or the church in the book.
VatiLeaks Exposes Internal Memos of the Catholic Church – 5/24/12
The book also contains ample reference to the troubled American church, which was nearly bankrupted by legal costs and payments to victims of pedophile priests. In spite of its strategic importance for the Roman Catholic Church, the American church was considered a purgatory in terms of papal appointments.
In Vatican Whodunit, a Punch Line of a Suspect – 5/25/12
“It was not clear whether the bank president’s ouster and the arrest of the man found with confidential documents were directly related, although Mr. Nuzzi’s book includes various memos from Mr. Gotti Tedeschi about the Vatican bank.”
Mr. Nuzzi said… “…There are documents that hint at relations between states, and that’s why I think they are very relevant; they are not private documents regarding the Holy Father or one of the cardinals.”
Vatican: New book of leaked documents 'criminal' – 5/19/12
II. CHARACTER ASSASSINATION of Boffo - Benedict XVI’s Global MO
Pondering the 'what,' not the 'who,' of Vatileaks – NCR - 6/01/12
The Boffo case - For Italians, the story of Dino Boffo, a prominent lay Catholic journalist, is already the stuff of legend. There's now even an Italian phrase, the "Boffo method," as a short-hand for a style of character assassination… Nuzzi draws this conclusion: We now know Boffo accused both the Cardinal-Secretary of State and the editor of the Vatican newspaper, by name, of very serious crimes -- defamation of character, as well as falsifying a legal document. According to Nuzzi, if Boffo's accusations were judged credible, then Bertone and Vian should have been prosecuted…
Dino Boffo - Italian Catholic scandal draws in Pope Benedict | Forged documents from Vatican | - 20910
…Il Giornale's editor Vittorio Feltri - who had penned the initial articles - admitted the document implying Boffo is gay was falsified, and apologized in a front-page letter.
The scandal resurfaced last week when Feltri said the document in question had been given to him by an "institutional" church official whom he trusted.
Some Italian media suggested that the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, essentially the pope's mouthpiece, was involved. Others suggested the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was behind it.…The statement - unusual in its line-by-line denial of unsourced rumors - was confirmation that the case had reached the highest echelons of power in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, making clear that the pope had become personally involved…
Vatican blamed for 'bogus dirt' that ousted Catholic editor – 20410
Vatican gay sex scandal reaching into Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring MALE PROSTITUTES for a Benedict XVI GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING – 30410
III. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI – Reassigning pedophile priest
Priest says he was bullied into taking fall for Benedict XVI in abuse scandal 1980 Munich – 4/18/10
Gerhard Gruber was Joseph Ratzinger’s general vicar in Munich during the 1980s, when Ratzinger, now Pope, was Archbishop.
Ratzinger chaired the meeting which decided to offer paedophile priest Peter H., a safe haven in Munich. The priest was also given further positions of trust in the church, and was later convicted of further child abuse.
Gruber’s friends have told Der Spiegel news magazine that when the story came to light last month, he was under immense pressure to take responsibility for the decision in order to shield the Pope from accusations of having helped a paedophile…
IV. Vatican Bank Scandal
JP Morgan Closes VATICAN bank account “LACK OF TRANSPARENCY” - 31912
The Vatican’s woes: God’s banker - A beleaguered papacy is embroiled in intrigue. Some scent a succession struggle – 7/7/12
A Growing Vatican Bank Scandal Threatens Catholic Church Image – 7/02/12
Part 1: …perhaps an excess of zeal Gotti Tedeschi upset powerful forces within the Roman Curia…In one of the seized Gotti Tedeschi memos, he wrote: "I've seen things in the Vatican that scare me."
Transparency vs. Money Laundering Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal – 7/02/12
Part 2: The Shady Past of the Vatican Bank
…Under Angelo Caloia…head of the bank, the Vatican consistently expanded its money-laundering activities. While he was in charge, there were secret accounts such as that for Giulio Andreotti, the controversial former Italian prime minister…
…It wasn't until about three years ago, when evidence of such dealings came to light, that Pope Benedict XVI ousted Caloia. What prompted his change of heart were the more than 4,000 documents that Vatican financial expert Renato Dardozzi had assembled and hidden before his death in 2003. In his will, Dardozzi had written: "These documents should be published so that everyone can learn what has happened here."
The Vatican Bank: The Most Secret Bank In the World – Forbes - 6/24/12
…In today’s interconnected financial world, instituting measures to mitigate abuse of the international financial sector is part of the cost of doing business…While the Vatican answers to a higher calling, the EU, FATF and MONEYVAL should insist that its earthly responsibilities are equally important.
Vatican 'regrets' letter on bank chief's health – 6/12/12
…the publication of a letter from a psychotherapist detailing the mental health of the Vatican's recently ousted bank chief…and appeared aimed at further discrediting and humiliating the Vatican bank's ex-president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, once a top papal adviser…
…The ouster was a stunning show of Holy See power struggles playing out in real time and came amid one of the greatest scandals facing Pope Benedict XVI's seven-year papacy: the continuous leaks of confidential documents that have laid bare allegations of church corruption, intrigue and even homosexual relationships under Benedict's watch…
Vatican Banker Running Scared: Gotti Tedeschi Could Turn Whistle-Blower – 6/10/12
…a secret dossier that Gotti Tedeschi told friends he compiled “just in case something happens to me.” …reportedly contains irrefutable evidence…money laundering and tax-evasive practices…allegedly show financial transactions between the Vatican and a number of surprising characters, including politicians and known middlemen for mafia bosses… Three decades ago, another of “God’s bankers" was found hanging from a noose under Blackfriars Bridge in London.
Ouster of Vatican bank chief takes strange twist – 6/07/12
Gay Marriage - No Mystery – Only TRUTH about Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups Will Set Benedict XVI Free – not FOX NEWS NETWORK PR in an USA Presidential Election Year – A 30 year Web of DECEIT & RUTHLESSNESS is Unending Expense & Global Violence Against Children! July 4, 2012
This posting has been sent out as a US group mailing prior to posting it here on the Thalamus Center.
Protect Children and The Whole World Will Be Safe.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/18/new-catholic-sex-abuse-findings-gay-priests-not-the-problem/
The Importance of Obtaining a WELL-INFORMED CONSCIENCE – 62011
Protect Religious Freedom not Tyranny in Religion
Thomas Paine
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of
good conscience to remain silent.
The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the
Importance of Imagination
JK Rowland
“…many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.
They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience,
never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.
They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;
they can refuse to know…
those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters.
For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves,
we collude with it,
through our own apathy.”
JK ROWLAND at Harvard University – June 5, 2008 – video
Read more:
GAY MARRIAGE – UNIDENTIFIED - Internalized Homophobia - Benedict XVI, Hierarchy & Blind Followers - GAY-BASHERS UK & US | UK Blair & Cameron Legalization of Gay Marriage | Kids Are Being Hurt!!! | PART 8
March 2012
Update Reference links 3/26/12
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The question I asked myself was: what would it have been like for someone growing up gay during the Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933 -1945?
B16: Save the rainforest–Stop gay marriage! - December 22, 2008
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GAY MARRIAGE – HOMOSEXUALITY For Catholics or Anyone? "WHY IT IS A 'GIFT' FROM GOD!!!" And when we accept and value this gift from God – we are able to experience love like never before, and we are able to love | PART 7
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz Photo
I found that the true heterosexuals are clueless about homosexuals expressions of love and they have absolutely no anger towards homosexuals, especially people they never met and do not know. They tend to be genuinely interested about what life is like for them, but no anger. They tend to connect on the issues about what it is like to fall in love with someone.
Introduction
The theme of this posting is about the importance of being true to oneself and the devastation that can occur when people refuse to face the truth that exists within them. “Pleasantville” (1998) is a movie that was written and directed by Gary Ross. This movie is a unique flashback to the 1950s sitcoms filmed for the most part in black and white. A time in the past believed to be a less troublesome time. The ingenious aspect of this movie is the way in which it is able to portray the personal struggles of each individual when challenged to face their own particular truth within themselves or to give into the pressure to conform to the social norms. Gary Ross gives an excellent insightful commentary which can be found on the DVD to this movie explaining the complexities involved in the struggles and importance of being true to oneself. Photo
The next section explores the problems connected to what seems to be the inability for some people particularly for those well known public figures who adamantly speak out against homosexuality to face their own personal homosexual feelings within themselves. Many of these same people were later discovered to be in homosexual relationships or situations. This process is referred to as a dissociated state of mind from homosexual feelings, which is explained thoroughly in the book by Harry Stack Sullivan MD, Dissociative Processes, Clinical Studies on Psychiatry (1956). Photo There is no authoritative factual evidence or religious reason to be intolerant of homosexuals; therefore the intolerance comes from the pressure to conform to ignorant social norms, which appears to be in some way self-perpetuating. Researchers have found that homophobia appears to be strongly connected to homosexual arousal. The listing of the news media articles the follow are about antigay public figures found in homosexual situations, which suggests that homophobia is associated with homosexual arousal. This sections ends with a few quotes from the movie “Pleasantville” (1998) of the court scenes towards the end of the movie. “But see that's just the point. It can't stop at once. Because it's in you. And you can't stop something that's inside you.”
In the following section is about honestly knowing oneself and then having the courage to face the overwhelming pressure, even threats to conform to ignorant social norms about homosexuals and then make a strong public stand for their rights as human beings regarding gay marriage. We have been slowly over the last few years witnessing a most unexpected but most deeply appreciated increase in this courageous outpouring on the part of some many of our politicians across our nation. This courageous momentum on the part of so many may have had an accumulating effect in helping to encourage on the many in NY who so ardently work towards the passing of the gay marriage bill in New York State 2011. As the nation and the world watched the moment by moment struggle of this process – something occurred in what seems to be an astounding phenomenon of life imitating art related to the passing of the New York Gay Marriage Bill June 2011. In the 1961 movie a “Pocketful of Miracles” at the end of the movie the Gov. of New York State and the Mayor of NYC both from different normally feuding political parties come together for no other reason than “to do something good for someone else,” which is to help Apple Annie with her daughter’s wedding. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg of different political parties came together and were dedicated in their efforts working to help make the NY Gay Marriage Bill a reality and they succeeded. Thank God! Photo This could be called a Capraesque moment which some people may count as irrelevant, but it is darn nice when it happens, which is not that often or so one might think. However, in the UK PM David Cameron is in earnest leading the legalization of gay marriage, only to be joined by Former UK PM Tony Blair. We hope and remain in continuous prayer for their success in this most profound endeavor for all of humanity.
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The next section explains in part what happens when people do not face the truth about themselves. Over time if they are left unchallenged to face the truth of their false reality it then becomes their reality, which can have the most serious ramifications for other unsuspecting individuals. The 1941 movie “Arsenic and Old Lace” depicts this unfortunate life threatening phenomenon in a humorous way, which stars Cary Grant. However, without the humor this movie helps to describe the surreal world of Benedict XVI, his seeming oblivious disregard for the truth about human sexuality in particular homosexual orientation, the authoritative facts from both science and the bible. Benedict XVI disregard for the truth in this way actually does kill innocent people. Photo
Finally the last section, I describe, in brief, the life long process of what was involved for me in my “coming out” and how I had to undo the decades of harm caused by my blind obedience to believing as true the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. Lastly the focus is on the tremendous courage of Ricky Martin, as a super star to face the truth about his sexual orientation by his public “coming out.” Mr. Martin’s “coming out” has been a significant factor that has help so many adults and children globally. Photo
This posting is the eighth part of a larger one and was sent out as a US group mailing prior to posting here on the Thalamus Center.
Original 3/13/12 | Revised 3/19/12
Reviving Catholic Social Justice
Know thyself – Plato
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
‘Self-knowledge’
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
‘Self-knowledge’ is commonly used in philosophy to refer to knowledge of one's particular mental states, including one's beliefs, desires, and sensations. It is also sometimes used to refer to knowledge about a persisting self -- its ontological nature, identity conditions, or character traits. At least since Descartes, most philosophers have believed that self-knowledge is importantly different from knowledge of the world external to oneself, including others' thoughts… These accounts have important consequences for the scope of mental content, for mental ontology, and for personal identity.
Repressive nature unacknowledged in a person - is colorless and depending upon the kind and degree of the intensity of the repression determine how brutally obsessive the need to control everyone else will be. Because it is an outward attempt to control one-self – in order to maintain our repression of whatever it is that frightens us. Mentally we can with great precision structure a dissociative state of existence from whatever it is inside of us that terrifies us. We are truly unaware that we have created a false reality. However, this also creates for us a painful implicit state of isolation from any form of true love, because all secure relationships are based on truth and honesty. Our true nature will not be allowed to come out, so long as we can maintain our state of dissociation, however, when it does come out it will be disguised in some of the most bizarre, surreal and even dangerous ways. This is because it is like driving blind – we truly are not fully conscious of what we are doing.
Gary Ross’s Commentary on - Pleasantville (1998) DVD
Severe Dissociated State Of Mind From Homosexual Feelings
What would be the severity of the psychological effects on a boy who grew up to be gay in Germany during the time of Hitler’s NAZI PERSECUTION OF HOMOSEXUALS 1933 -1945? During the Nazi regime, homosexuals were publicly defamed and falsely accused for the major social problems of that time, which was done to incite massive public hatred and hostility directed against homosexuals. Homosexuals were used for medical experiments, physically mutilated, brutally tortured and exterminated.
Would this child, as an adult, in a severe dissociated state of mind from his own homosexual feelings (Harry Stack Sullivan MD, Dissociative Processes, Clinical Studies on Psychiatry (1956)), unconsciously perpetuate the terrifying horror of the insensitivity he had experienced growing up? If he found himself in a position of authority would he recreate the same social and political environment of violence and terror for homosexuals that he experienced, as a child who grew up to be gay, during the NAZI PERSECUTION OF HOMOSEXUALS? Photo
Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal?
Dissociated State Of Mind From Homosexual Feelings
Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places Photo
Anti-Gay Marriage - Rev. TED HAGGARD - "Evangelical Leader Denies Accusation of Paying Former Gay Prostitute for Sex" – Nov. 3, 2006
…Haggard may not be a household name, but he is a major figure in evangelicalism in the country, with a direct line to the White House.
His prominence is now threatened by Jones, who says he is a former gay prostitute and alleges that Haggard paid him for sex at regular intervals over a three-year period….
…He said he came forward when he learned Haggard and his church were backing an anti-gay marriage initiative on the ballot Tuesday in Colorado.
"I had to expose the hypocrisy. He is in the position of influence of millions of followers, and he's preaching against gay marriage," Jones said. "But behind everybody's back doing what he's preached against."
HAGGARD Pronounced ‘Completely Heterosexual – Feb. 7, 2007
Forced by a gay sex scandal to resign as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is “completely heterosexual,” says an overseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led…
…Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist who is an expert on issues of gender and sexuality, said that while it was people’s prerogative to identify their sexual orientation as they wanted, the notion of being able to change that orientation was “not consistent with clinical presentations, but totally consistent with theological belief.”
GEORGE REKERS, Anti-Gay Activist, Caught With Male Escort 'Rentboy' – May 25, 2011
Social Conservative Minister GEORGE REKERS Denies he is Gay After Newspaper Prints Story on his Travel With Young Man he Allegedly met on ‘Rentboy’ - May 5, 2011
GEORGE REKERS, Antigay - ‘Rentboy’ and the Law – May 19, 2010
Christian right leader GEORGE REKERS takes vacation with "rent boy" – May 6, 2010
George Rekers and "Lucien" at Miami International Airport. Photo
The pictures on the Rentboy.com profile show a shirtless young man with delicate features, guileless eyes, and sun-kissed, hairless skin. The profile touts his "smooth, sweet, tight ass" and "perfectly built 8 inch cock (uncut)" and explains he is "sensual," "wild," and "up for anything" — as long you ask first. And as long as you pay.
George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy's client and, as it happens, one of America's most prominent anti-gay activists…
For decades, George Alan Rekers has been a general in the culture wars, though his work has often been behind the scenes. In 1983, he and James Dobson, America's best-known homophobe, formed the Family Research Council, a D.C.-based, rabidly Christian, and vehemently anti-gay lobbying group that has become a standard-bearer of the nation's extreme right wing. Its annual Values Summit is considered a litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls, and Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have spoken there. (The Family Research Council would not comment about Rekers's Euro-trip.)
He has also influenced American government, serving in advisory roles with Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services and testifying as a state's witness in favor of Florida's gay adoption ban. A former research fellow at Harvard University and a distinguished professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina, Rekers has published papers and books by the hundreds, with titles like Who Am I? Lord and Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality…
GEORGE REKERS - Scandal Stirs Legal Questions in Anti-Gay Cases – May 18, 2010
…For years, George A. Rekers has held himself out as an expert witness in court on homosexuality, arguing in cases concerning same-sex marriage and gay adoption that gay men and lesbians lead parlous lives and raise troubled children…
MARK FOLEY’s Secret Life – October 15, 2006
Mark Foley's explicit e-mails could bring down the GOP
In uptight, colorless Washington, Congressman Mark Foley, 52, Republican of Florida, was a bon vivant…He also hid, or tried to hide, his interest in younger men--much younger men, including the teenagers who can be seen scurrying around Capitol Hill toting the mail and taking in, at least in theory, a firsthand civics lesson…
MARK FOLEY congressional page incident
Newsweek's June 7, 2010 issue's BACK STORY listed Foley, among others, as prominent conservative politician who had a record of anti-gay legislation and was later caught in a gay sex scandal.
1998 - Republican Rep. MARK FOLEY’s remarks on Clinton-Lewinsky scandal -
"It's vile. It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
2006 - Mark Foley was brought down by an addiction to sexually explicit text messages to male congressional pages.
LARRY CRAIG - Idaho Republican Senator - Arrested For Lewd Conduct In The Men's Restroom - June 11, 2007
In 1999 Craig became sharply critical of U.S. President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Speaking on NBC's Meet The Press, Craig told Tim Russert: "The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy - a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy." Photo
LARRY CRAIG's anti-gay hypocrisy – Aug. 30, 2007
If Larry Craig were held to the standard of sexual conduct he imposes on the U.S. armed forces, he'd be out of his job.
Fourteen years ago, in his first term as a Republican senator from Idaho, Craig helped to enact the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. It stipulates:
A member of the armed forces shall be separated from the armed forces under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense if one or more of the following findings is made and approved in accordance with procedures set forth in such regulations: (1) That the member has engaged in, attempted to engage in, or solicited another to engage in a homosexual act or acts unless there are further findings … that the member has demonstrated that—(A) such conduct is a departure from the member's usual and customary behavior; (B) such conduct, under all the circumstances, is unlikely to recur; … [and] the member does not have a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts.
…According to the report filed by the officer who arrested Craig at the Minneapolis airport in June, Craig stood outside the officer's bathroom stall for two minutes, repeatedly looked at the officer "through the crack in the door," sat in the stall next to the officer, tapped his foot, and gradually "moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot … within my stall area." Craig proceeded to "swipe his hand under the stall divider for a few seconds" three times, palm up, using the hand farthest from that side of Craig's stall. Most of these gestures, the officer explained, were known pickup signals in a room known (and hence under surveillance for) public sex. When the officer took Craig outside and told him so, Craig claimed he had been reaching down with his hand to retrieve a piece of paper from the floor. The officer wrote that no such paper had been on the floor…
…I feel sorry for Craig. I hate the idea of cops going into bathrooms and busting people for coded gestures of interest. I'd rather live, let live, and tell the guy waving his hand under the stall to buzz off. But that's not the standard Craig applies to others. Any gay soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who admitted to doing what Craig has admitted would, at a minimum, lose his job for violating DADT. In fact, many have been kicked out for less.
Most people think "don't ask, don't tell" means that if you don't announce that you're gay, you can keep your job. It should mean that. But in practice, if you don't tell, the military can—and often does—investigate and interrogate you until you're forced to tell.
Why men like LARRY CRAIG continue to court danger in public places. Sept. 3, 2007
…safe to assume that many tearoom traders have a need, which they only imperfectly understand, to get caught. And this may be truest of all of those who are armored with "the breastplate of righteousness." Next time you hear some particularly moralizing speech, set your watch. You won't have to wait long before the man who made it is found…
TEAROOM TRADE
Rev. GRANT STORMS Arrested: Anti-Gay Christian Pastor Charged Over Public Masturbation – March 1, 2011
TROY KING Alabama Republican Attorney General - made homophobic statements, including calling gays the “downfall of society,” is the subject of rumors that his wife recently discovered him having sex with another man. – John McCain campaign scrubbed its website - July 11, 2008
JAMES E. WEST, Former Mayor Spokane, Wash & former Republican state Senate majority leader - opposed gay-rights bills but was recalled from office over an Internet gay sex scandal… July 6, 2006
RICHARD CURTIS - Republican state legislator Wash - had sex with a man he met at an erotic video store while in Spokane on a GOP retreat – October 31, 2007
RICHARD CURTIS - Republican state legislator - voted in 2005 and 2006 against a bill that granted civil rights protections to gays and lesbians, and in 2007 voted against a bill that created domestic partnerships for same-sex couples…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21568392/ns/us_news-life/t/wash-legislator-resigns-amid-gay-sex-scandal/
BRUCE BARCLAY - Republican commissioner of Cumberland County, PA - Sept. 16, 2010 - secretly taping men having sex at his home… and promoting prostitution, male escorts
Pope Benedict XVI: Gay Marriage Is 'Insidious And Dangerous' – May 13, 2010
Pope: Gay marriage threatens humanity’s future - January 9, 2012
Pope denounces gay marriage lobby to US bishops, 3/9/12
Vatican Calling For Male Prostitutes
“Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.”
(Though you drive Nature out with a pitchfork, she will still find her way back.)
Vatican hit by gay sex scandal - March 4, 2010
The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting...
Benedict's ceremonial ushers, as well as a member of the Vatican choir, were involved in a gay prostitution ring – March 6, 2010
Pope: Condoms OK -- for male prostitutes – November 20, 2010
Internalized Homophobia
American Psychoanalytic Foundation Public Forum
Ralph Roughton, M.D. 1999
…When we speak of internalized homophobia, we refer to the shame, denigration and anger turned inward onto the self of the homosexual individual either as a re-internalization or from the absorption of homophobic attitudes in the environment and then identifying with the hated and feared object. The primary emotion is shame, but a whole gamut of inhibitions, loss of self esteem, depression and self-destructive behavior often follow…
But see that's just the point. It can't stop at once.
Because it's in you. And you can't stop something that's
inside you
Pleasantville (1998) movie script - by Gary Ross.
"At Last" by Etta James
(dialogue from the courtroom scenes at the end of the movie)
DAVID
You don't have a right to do this.
[There is a murmur in the courtroom. David continues.]
DAVID
I mean, I know you want it to stay "Pleasant" around
here, but, there are so many things that are so much
better: like Silly... or Sexy... or Dangerous... or
Wild... or Brief... And every one of those things is in
you all the time if you just have the guts to look for
them.
BOB
Okay -- that's enough!
DAVID
I thought I was allowed to defend myself.
BOB
You're not allowed to lie.
DAVID
I'm not lying.
(pointing…)
See those faces back there. They're no different than
you are. They just happened to see something inside them
that you don't want to look at…
BOB
THIS BEHAVIOR WILL STOP AT ONCE.
DAVID
But see that's just the point. It can't stop at once.
Because it's in you. And you can't stop something that's
inside you…
Pleasantville (1998) movie script - by Gary Ross
SEXUAL ORIENTATION is less about sex and more about Love, being one with another human being. Attachment Theory - LOVE & RELIGION - by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - April 30, 2009
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…
"He was part of my dream of course
but then I was part of his dream too."
Lewis Carroll "Through the looking glass"
Pope denounces gay marriage lobby to US bishops, 3/9/12
Pope Benedict XVI waded deep into U.S. campaign politics Friday, urging visiting U.S. bishops to beef up their teaching about the evils of premarital sex and cohabitation, and denouncing what he called the “powerful’’ gay marriage lobby in America…Benedict said there was an urgent need for Catholics in America to discover the value of chastity — an essential element of Christian teaching that he said had been subject to unjust “ridicule.’’
B16, Hierarchy & Blind Followers –
Need Stop Unjust “Ridicule” Value of HONESTY & CHARITY
Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups & God’s Gift of Homosexuality
The Psychology of the Closeted Individual and Coming Out – 2007
by Jack Drescher, M.D.
Many LGB individuals report developmental histories with difficulty acknowledging their homosexuality, either to themselves or to others. This is because, starting in childhood, LGB individuals are often subjected to antihomosexual attitudes, not only from strangers, but also from their own families and communities (Drescher, Stein and Byne, 2005). The childhood need to hide may persist into adulthood, leading many LGB individuals to conceal important aspects of themselves. There are a range of homosexual identities that describe an individual’s awareness and acceptance of same-sex attractions. Closeted individuals cannot acknowledge homoerotic feelings, attractions and fantasies to themselves. They cannot or will not integrate homosexuality into their public personae and these feelings must be dissociated out of conscious awareness.
…Some gay men, before coming out, were either gay-baiters or gay-bashers. To maintain a psychological distance from their own homoerotic feelings, they also exhibit dissociative tendencies. Attacking those perceived to be gay can serve several functions. One penile plethysmography study indicated that men with strong antihomosexual beliefs actually had significant homosexual arousal patterns (Adams, 1996). Interpersonally, strong antihomosexual feelings may represent an effort to control perceptions of a gay-basher’s own sexual identity. If they attack gay people, others will not think of them as gay…
UNIDENTIFIED - Internalized Homophobia – Devastating, and Horrific Consequences On Innocent Children - PERPETUATING GENERATIONS HATRED & VIOLENCE - 2010
Pope’s child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims
December 21, 2010
Blair takes on the Pope by backing gay marriage, Mar.11, 2012
Tony Blair has defied the Pope by making clear he "strongly supports" plans for gay marriage, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. The former prime minister, a Catholic since 2007, backs proposals by David Cameron for a new law allowing homosexuals to marry.
A consultation on gay marriage to be launched later this month has met fierce opposition from senior figures in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.
On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics to block the "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage".
New York Gov. Cuomo & NYC Mayor Bloomberg
Passing NY Gay Marriage Bill 2011
WELL-INFORMED CONSCIENCE
Protect Religious Freedom – but not Tyranny in Religion - June 20, 2011
The way to begin for us all, not only the NY State Senators, to protect Religious Freedom and not Tyranny in Religion is by obtaining a well-informed conscience. We start by individually approaching and studying in (great detail because it involves the lives of children) from the best and the brightest (1) scripture scholars regarding the references related to homosexuality and (2) scientists in the field of study of human sexuality, in particular, but [not] limited to, the onset of sexual orientation. The prerequisite to the formation of a well-informed conscience is making a thorough study of all sides of the issue from all available authoritative data and research, including opposing views. Then in this way we are better equipped to decide who and what needs government protection in regards to the gay marriage bill. This exhaustive procedure follows to the letter the Gospel quotation about the “plank” and the” speck.”
“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 6:42
The “plank” for us is ignorance. If we satisfactorily resolve this ignorance, then together we will be able to see more clearly, whether or not, as NY State Senators (government officials) and as citizens we are colluding with the Catholic Hierarchy and are harming children, as was found to be the case in the Ireland Murphy Report.
…This piece of legislation the gay marriage bill is not like any other in that it involves the well-being of children, at its very root…
How I resolved this situation was through hours upon hours of continuous prayer. Afterwards, I came to the realization that my life had already been altered – changed forever. Because there was no way I could pretend I did not know what I knew, how severely children are harmed for life by the unsubstantiated antigay teachings and antigay social norms. I decided that I could not live with the regret knowing that I had a chance to make a profound difference for the better for others, most especially children and that I did nothing. My life would be nothing. I took the bungee jump and I came out to my parishioners. It definitely was not easy, but one thing that happened to me is - I gained a real sense of peace and well-being that has remained constant and unshaken. The scripture passages that kept repeating over and over in my head were:
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” Luke 9:25
“Anyone who loves their FATHER or mother more than me is not worthy of me;… Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:36-38
“…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.” Matthew 18:6
Even after Benedict XVI and his accomplices’ mistreatment of me and the serious harm they have caused me that sense of peace has never left me. It is remains rock solid. I believe that is the benefit of spending the time and energy of acquiring a well-informed conscience regarding sexual orientation.
Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
NY Capraesque Hope “Pocketful of Miracles” June 2011
The above is a Capraesque moment a “Pocketful of Miracles” of the early 1960’s long before Benedict XVI/Ratzinger when such things may have been possible. However, for the past 30 years life with Benedict XVI has been anything but Capraesque. It has been an era more like the “Godfather” films of the 1970’s with the Benedict XVI’s multitude of global child sexual abuse cover-ups, his ominous fears of being prosecuted for his decades of fierce discrimination against gays - a most startling likeness to Hitler and his “above the law” Gestapo secret police treatment of people he deemed less than human. Due to the days and length of the NY State Republican Senators “secret” meetings regarding the passing of the “Gay Marriage Bill” many disparaging thought begin to arise such as, maybe how much is the Vatican involved and if so, should it be so? It fits too closely to Benedict XVI’s covert modus operandi that of a typical bully who only attacks those who cannot defend themselves.
Benedict XVI’s covered- up crimes of discrimination against gays is likely to be equal in number to his child sexual abuse cover-ups globally. Benedict XVI’s crimes are not that difficult to realize when one studies Church History of past popes, killing people, starting wars for profit, etc. John Paul II in 2000, made an unprecedented public apology for these grievous past sins of popes and promise never again. And those of us who have not studied our past Church History are witnessing history repeating itself. My foolish “Capraesque” hope is that someone in the NY State Republican Senate will have the intelligence and courage to break through this darkness and help stop this violence against children. But my faith remains firmly established in the words of Christ –
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
Ny gay marriage
Reviving - Catholic Social Justice
Social Justice issues can never be given a back seat – in the Catholic Church or any religion for that matter. The moment that that happens the back to the Stone Age we go – barbaric times – beat them up – knock them down – just get our way. And if we take and honest look around our world today – I wonder what some of the true Catholic social justice activists of the 1960s and 1970s would have to said about our economy, women rights, foreign involvements, health care, child care and of course the Vatican activities. More to the point what would Christ say about the above?
SOCIAL JUSTICE CATHOLICS
GAY MARRIAGE – Homosexuality for Catholics or anyone? "WHY IT IS A 'GIFT' FROM GOD!!!" And when we accept and value this gift from God – we are able to experience love like never before, and we are able to love. | PART 7
E.J. Dionne: Santorum, Huntsman and the future of conservatism – January 5, 2012
…Santorum is a Catholic of a certain kind, and it’s the most important thing about him. He’s on one side of a long-standing debate in the church about how to build a decent society. Social justice Catholics (and I’m one of those) represent an older American tradition. We agree with more conservative Catholics on the family as an essential social building block, but see capitalism as in need of regulation and correction if it is to serve the common good, and protect the family itself. Many of us — and here we do depart from the church’s official teaching — see gay marriage not as undermining fidelity and commitment but as encouraging them…
I love being Catholic, just as much I believe as many people feel about their own particular religion. However, Catholic in the sense of what it is like for every religion when it is at its best. At the very best of every religion, I believe, we are likely united as one. However, Benedict XVI “has made worse just about everything that is wrong with the Roman Catholic Church…” Hans Kung
Pope John Paul II in March 2000 humbled all Catholics publically apologizing for the centuries of sins of Catholic Church around the world. Pope says sorry for sins of church - Sweeping apology for attacks on Jews, women and minorities defies theologians' warnings - From the altar of St Peter's Basilica in Rome he led Catholicism into unchartered territory by seeking forgiveness for sins committed against Jews, heretics, women, Gypsies and native peoples… Photo
Papal Personalities
Benedict XVI and as Cardinal Ratzinger has spent over 30 years at the very top of the Roman Catholic Church, inside the Vatican. Pope John Paul II brought Cardinal Ratzinger and placed him in the second highest position in the Vatican early in the 1980s. Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has been for 30 years in power – without much, if any checks and balances, which is a dangerous situation for anyone. A person can get away with murder and worst. I have a bias that comes from having two different professional careers. A person’s personality is rather stable throughout a person’s lifetime. Our likes and dislikes may vary some. Hopefully - as we grow and learn more through the years - we grow in wisdom, but our personalities will only blossom becoming more of what is already there.
B16’s Secrecy
Now, this is my double bias perspective, which together is my speculation. I do not think that Pope John Paul II was aware of all that Cardinal Ratzinger was doing. I can be completely wrong however, Ratzinger close association with the decades of all the child sexual abuse cover-ups and the ordered secrecy, which is stronger today than ever leads me to believe the above.
Pope [Benedict XVI} 'obstructed' sex abuse inquiry - April 24, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI faced claims last night he had 'obstructed justice' after it emerged he issued an order ensuring the church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret.
The order was made in a confidential letter, obtained by The Observer, which was sent to every Catholic bishop in May 2001.
It asserted the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood. The letter was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as John Paul II's successor last week.
Honesty vs. Dishonesty
Benedict XVI is noted for his guarded secrecy. In what appears to be extreme contrast, John Paul II went against major theologians and insisted on making a public apology for the sins of the Roman Catholic Church, March 2000. This contrast between the two men - is a matter of honesty and dishonesty. The one place on earth Catholic or not we would expect is that the Vatican to be the pillar of truth. I would even as a priest would expect that the Vatican would have connections to the best and the brightest experts and professionals from very field of study in the world. When I came out to my parish, March 1997, publically admitted to being gay. I was not ordered to leave the priesthood. Because, John Paul II was the Pope and he did not share Cardinal Ratzinger/now Benedict XVI obsessive hatred for gay priests. And as long as John Paul II remained Pope, I was allowed to return to post graduate studies at the University of Michigan and later at Madonna University, while on the weekends helping with the celebration of Masses throughout the metropolitan Detroit.
Benedict XVI - “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE”
However, behind the scenes - behind close doors and a delay of 3 months after I came out in March 1997, Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI issued his directives for me. He canceled my two earned sabbaticals. I was told that my request to study psychology at the University of Michigan was denied. Emphatically, I was told the Church did not need psychologists and that the Church needed more canon lawyers and liturgists. At this point, this situation turned surreal, bizarre, weird, and freakish, like being in a dream. In a flash, it was made perfectly clear that Ratzinger is completely oblivious to the present basic urgent needs and sufferings that human beings are experiencing. This was the exact opposite of what the overwhelming majority people in the world know and believe what it means to Christian - in any denomination.
Instead I was told that I was to be sent away to be reeducated about sexual orientation. (This is the same procedure that Hitler used to handle those who opposed him, they were sent away to be reeducated. This was the beginning of the idea for the concentration camps - ultimately used to exterminate Jewish adults and children.) I was shocked and stunned by this statement – it was as if time stood and I could see my whole life flash before me – like a near death experience. The mere thought of returning to what my life was like before I “came out” felt like being re-traumatized all over again. Thought of being ordered to reliving all that needless suffering of a lifetime spent in endless excruciating agony of a suffocating existence caused by my blind obedience to the Vatican unsubstantiated antigay teaching – was criminally inhuman treatment. It meant a return to a maintaining a constant vigilance of any thought, word or deed that has even a hint of an intimate connection to another human being. This is inhuman – but as a child you are not aware of the significance of the term “inhuman.” It was like telling someone who had survived living in a concentration camp that they are going to be sent back.
Sexual Conversion Therapies
Sexual Conversion Therapies
Ethical Issues
There is no accepted body of research data to support the position that these treatments are effective
I was 47 years old at the time – I spent a lifetime in prayer, psychotherapy and study to ultimately discover (a Galileo experience) that homosexual orientation is a normal, natural and vital part of human development essential for sustaining life and the well-being of the individual, the same as heterosexual orientation. What was also alarming about this directive from Cardinal Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI – I was told this after successfully coming to my parish, as recorded in the news media. The parishioners did not leave. At that time in the parish, we had two major collections, the regular weekly collection for the general operation of the parish and the building collection to pay back our loan for the new building construction and the renovation/updating of existing facilities – neither collection suffered after I came out. In addition, I held sex education classes for the parishioners – 3 times a week for 7 weeks and every class was filled. Catholic parishioners wanted to learn all about human sexuality.
As Ratzinger’s long list of bizarre directives were being conveyed to me behind close doors – I kept thinking no one is going to believe what was being told to me. It is just too surreal - simply unbelievable. I so urgently wanted many other people around me to hear what I was hearing, because I could not believe my ears. I kept thinking where is the news media when you need them.
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I felt like Cary Grant in the 1941 movie “ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_(film) When Cary Grant playing the part of Mortimer Brewster first finds the body in the window seat, he is almost completely disorientated. It is not until he tries to confront his aunts about the dead body in the window seat and finds that they are not shocked, quite the reverse, they sincerely believe that poisoning lonely old men was Christian charity. It is at this point that Cary Grant is completely disorientated, because his aunts are totally unaware of seriousness of the crime of murder that it is morally wrong. His aunts are extremely disproportionately more upset about being accused of fibbing than about committing 12 murders and burying them in locks that their nephew Theodore Roosevelt believes he is digging for the Panama Canal in their cellar.
Pope John Paul II Dies - Honesty & Benevolence
turns to
Benedict XVI Covert Ruthless & Deceitful Attacks
Secrecy is Prime
After Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI April 2005 – the benevolent climate that had existed towards gay priests while Pope John Paul II was alive had drastically turned ruthless and deceitful completely hidden from the public view.
New Rules Affirm - Pope Benedict's Stance Against Gays - October 8, 2005
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…
Impending rules on gay priests create Catholic divide - October 8, 2005
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? "…
Catholics Coming Out - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz - 1997
Given Benedict XVI close association with the 30 some years of covering up the child sexual abuse cases – it seems that his lifelong trademark has always been to be ruthless and deceitful in the strictest secrecy. As John Paul II was becoming more incapacitated and confined to bed, Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI began in 2003 to aggressively attack gay priests. However, he still had to be careful that this kind of violence against gays did reach the bedside to John Paul II. Another, unconscionable trademark of Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is to arrange behind the scenes ways to aggressively attack not only a gay priest’s reputation but anyone who opposed him – to render the person powerless, losing employment and the support of friends even family members. The same as he did as Benedict XVI attacking a Catholic editor in Rome who write article related to Italy’s PM sexual activities. A consultant for the Vatican's high court attacked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo because he supported gay marriage.
Commentary: what lies BEHIND VATICAN'S DENIAL of involvement in Boffo affair? - February 11, 2010
What lies behind the highly unusual denial this week by Pope Benedict XVI that the Vatican was involved in the smearing of Dino Boffo, a Catholic editor critical of the private life of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, as a "renowned homosexual"?
Vatican intrigue hits new level with LEAK DENIAL - February 9, 2010
Italian Catholic scandal draws in Pope Benedict – February 9, 2010
VATICAN CITY —A scandal in Italy's Catholic Church has morphed into a tale of VATICAN INTRIGUE complete with FORGED DOCUMENTS, reports of dueling cardinals and a papal admonishment Tuesday to put the matter to rest…
NY Gov.- Cuomo Says He’ll Push for Vote to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage - February 9, 2011
New York Governor ATTACKED BY VATICAN ADVISER for taking Communion as his glamorous home life with girlfriend Sandra Lee is revealed - 24th February 2011
Catholic Professor Says Cuomo Shouldn't Get Communion - February 23, 2011
ALBANY, N.Y. — A consultant for the Vatican's high court says he believes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo shouldn't receive the Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion because he is not married to his live-in girlfriend, Food Network star Sandra Lee…
Edward Peters, who's also a conservative Catholic blogger and seminary professor in Detroit [Michigan], called the living arrangement "public concubinage" and said that Cuomo taking Communion would be sacrilegious…
Benedict XVI’s Cover-ups
A Lie Never Ends – It Tends To Snowball
Benedict XVI has an overwhelming number of factual pieces of evidence and allegations that all point to his secret ruthless and deceitful attacks against people who threaten or oppose him. However, take note that Pope John Paul II has had no such factual evidence or allegation made against his character. John Paul II did not have to hired professional PR strategists to help improve his public image because his honest and open personality made almost an instant connection with crowds of people, young and old from all around the world far beyond any arranged PR manipulation of the news media. The same is not true for Benedict XVI. Benedict XVI cost for his professional PR manipulation of the news media must be astronomical. This is especially true because of Benedict XVI continuous refusal to publically and honestly address his part in the Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups, which is endless until the truth is made known. In addition, continuous major major expense must be involved in attempting to shift the blame off Benedict XVI, though totally against all global authoritative studies and research, by obsessively trying to demonize homosexuality as the cause and by extension gay marriage. A lie never ends – it tends to snowball.
How the Catholic Church could end its sex scandal – March 26, 2010
The Vatican has dealt with the sexual abuse scandals as other institutions would. It should be relying on its Christian values.
…It has worried about its image. It has worried about itself as an institution and about protecting its leaders from public scandal. In so doing, it has made millions of Catholics righteously furious and aggravated every one of its problems.
So instead of going away, the scandal keeps coming back - lately, in a form that seems to challenge Pope Benedict XVI himself. It was sickening to read Thursday's New York Times story reporting that Vatican officials "did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church."
In Germany, the pope's home country, more than 300 victims have come forward in recent weeks, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose party has Catholic roots, called the scandal "a major challenge for our society."
…The church needs to show it understands the flaws of its own internal culture by examining its own conscience, its own practices, its own reflexes when faced with challenge. As the church rightly teaches, acknowledging the true nature of our sin is the one and only path to redemption and forgiveness…
United Nations Accusations - Vatican’s COVER-UPS Child Sexual Abuse
“…a complete failure to take responsibility” - September 22, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI /Ratzinger Engineered Cover-up of Child Sex Abuse – Hans Kung - April 4, 2010
...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 [Benedict XVI] 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...
Church in worst credibility crisis since Reformation – Irish Times
Child Sexual Abuse DECREASED As GAY PRIESTS Began Serving The Church – Research Found - 2011
…Since the scandal broke, conservatives in the church have blamed gay priests for perpetrating the abuse, while liberals have argued that the all-male, celibate culture of the priesthood was the cause. This report will satisfy neither flank.
The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off. If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the church.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City
Ireland - KILLING THE SECRECY EXPOSING - Benedict XVI & Roman Curia - Response to Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups - 2011
Child Sexual Abuse – Benedict XVI - Cover-Ups
The INEPTITUDE of BISHOPS Over Many Decades and
Their DELIBERATE COVER-UP of Crimes Against Children - 2011
…The situation in other countries where the crisis has surfaced, with its familiar patterns of abuse, secrecy and misuse of authority, indicates a larger systemic problem, the source of which is much deeper than the sexual revolution of the 1960s. While the John Jay study may shed some light, within limits, on individuals and their aberrant behavior, the real scandal never began or ended with sexual sin. The scandal that still angers and frustrates Catholics involves the ineptitude of bishops over many decades and their deliberate cover-up of crimes against children. The John Jay report is an important first step in understanding the scandal. However, until the hierarchy gets serious about facing down the real demons of its own clerical culture, the crisis festers, largely unresolved.
Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal? By Henry E. Adams, Lester W. Wright, Jr., and Bethany A. Lohr, University of Georgia – 1996
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, American Psychological Association, Inc.
1996, Vol. 105, No. 3,440—445
B16: Save the rainforest–Stop gay marriage! - December 22, 2008
Benedict XVI says legislation safeguarding rights of same-sex couples violates 'natural law' – February 1, 2010
Vatican Calling For Male Prostitutes
“Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.”
(Though you drive Nature out with a pitchfork, she will still find her way back.)
Vatican hit by gay sex scandal - March 4, 2010
The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting...
Pope: Gay marriage threatens humanity’s future - January 9, 2012
Archbishop Dolan…strongly opposed gay marriage…“a violation of what we consider the natural law that’s embedded in every man and woman.” June 17, 2011
Naturalistic fallacy and Homosexuality
Against Nature
James Boyle 1998
Excerpt:
The fight against the naturalistic fallacy was supposed to be over. One of the great achievements of modern philosophy was to undermine arguments from Nature. No longer would educated people argue that homosexuality, powered flight, and the education of women were unnatural. Naturalistic arguments use the multiple meanings of the word "nature" to solder a dubious claim about biology or Divine Plan to a negative value judgement, and then to make the whole thing look like a mere statement of fact. Philosophy would allow us to see the weakness of the join, to pry the argument apart, identify its constituent claims and dispose of them seriatim. In particular, philosophical scepticism would expose the anthropomorphism of arguments that attributed knowledge and insight to a world of brute facts and organic processes…
…Many people who would roll their eyes if told that homosexuality was unnatural and thus should be prohibited would find the same basic argument much more convincing if made about nuclear power, genetic engineering or high intensity farming. Naturalistic argument is alive and well…
Read complete article:
James Boyle is a professor of Law at American University, Washington College of Law and a visiting professor at Yale Law School.
Who Can Mock This Church? – April 5, 2010
Maybe the Catholic Church should be turned upside down.
Jesus wasn’t known for pontificating from palaces, covering up scandals, or issuing Paleolithic edicts on social issues. Does anyone think he would have protected clergymen who raped children?
Yet if the top of the church has strayed from its roots, much of its base is still deeply inspiring. I came here to impoverished southern Sudan to write about Sudanese problems, not the Catholic Church’s. Yet once again, I am awed that so many of the selfless people serving the world’s neediest are lowly nuns and priests — notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for the grandness of their compassion…
…The Vatican believes that this newspaper and other news organizations have been unfair and overzealous in excavating the church’s cover-ups of child rape. I see the opposite. No organization has done more to elevate the moral stature of the Catholic Church in the United States than The Boston Globe. Its groundbreaking 2002 coverage of abuse by priests led to reforms and by most accounts a significant reduction in abuse. Catholic kids are safer today not because of the cardinals’ leadership, but because of The Boston Globe’s…
...There’s Father Mario Falconi, an Italian priest who refused to leave Rwanda during the genocide and bravely saved 3,000 people from being massacred. There’s Father Mario Benedetti, a 72-year-old Italian priest based in Congo who fled with his congregation when their town was attacked by a brutal militia. Now Father Mario lives side by side with his Congolese congregants in the squalor of a refugee camp in southern Sudan, struggling to get schooling for their children.
It’s because of brave souls like these that I honor the Catholic Church. I understand why many Americans disdain a church whose leaders are linked to cover-ups and antediluvian stances on women, gays and condoms — but the Catholic Church is far larger than the Vatican…
What Can Catholics do Today to – Help Protect all Children?
GAY MARRIAGE – Catholic Truth ≠ Benedict XVI & hierarchy’s SPIN - Unsubstantiated Antigay Teachings & Disregard for Children – Silent Catholics COLLUDING w/B16 – Continually Hurting Kids!!! | One – Letter & Many – Copies | Anne Rice | PART 6
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz Photo
COMING OUT and NEW BEGINNINGS
May 21, 2009 – updated 3/12/12
The very first person I was able to “come out” to was a Trappist Abbot, who I visited yearly, some 3000 miles away from where I lived. I came out to him just before I was to enter the monastery. The Abbot was shocked that I thought being "gay" was something bad, “Who said you were Bad!” He said, "Why it is a 'gift' from God!!!" Then I was in shock. It was not the response I had expected. I was completely confused. Disappointed at first, however, "life" began there for me but ever so faintly but it was definite I was "different." The Abbot told me ever so kindly and reassuringly that I must, first, go back out into the world and come to appreciate all the blessings that come with being "gay."
At that time, I could not even imagine being "gay" in any positive light. But I trusted the Abbot's wisdom, his sincerity, his genuine empathy for another human being and his care for me. It was not until several years later and my fifth therapist that I began to normalize to the truth about myself that I was indeed “gay.” It was at Affirmations, Ferndale, MI that I really noticed my life beginning. There were several more years of acclimating that I had to go through before I realized that I was at peace with myself and the anger I wore like a coat had greatly dissipated. All that energy trapped in suppressing the fact I was “gay” for years and years was turned loose. I went back to school now in by mid 40's. I was simultaneously enrolled taking classes at both Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI at the same time, all while being a full time pastor in Grand Rapids, MI (Holy Family Parish, Sparta, MI) and teaching High School and 3rd grade religion classes. Without all that anger eating me up inside I came "alive" for the first time in my life! I felt like that song "But Alive" from the Broadway musical “Applause Applause.”
A L I V E
Initially this led to a host of new problems being out with my priest-friends. Instead of bursts of anger, now in my mid 40's and sober I'd have these uncontrollable bursts of energy to breakout into dancing and swinging from street lamp posts all up and down Yonge St. in Toronto, singing "I'm alive!!! I'm alive!!! --- Surprisingly, I even had some spontaneous crowd participation shouting back "And we're glad you are!" Even that I could hear for the very first time in my life and believe they meant it, because I was acting so obnoxiously ridiculous in public. Without all that anger blocking my hearing… Photo
I could actually hear love,
for the first in my life and
appreciate the feeling of affection, and
not feel the immediate need to run away.
The Real
S A I N T S
All the while I was feeling so much better I constantly felt so indebted to the people who came out before me, for their parents and friends who supported them, because they all paved the way for people like me to come out in much safer and better environments then they did. Their gift to us was to experience what it truly feels like to be alive and to be able to love and be loved without fear and without guilt. They were for me the real saints; I was so astonished and admired their courage and love for humanity. It was all quite unbelievable that the world was filled with such wonderful people, risking their lives for people, people they do not even know. Now, this was quite a significant realization to have, being a priest. Maybe I was thinking that they were truly the real priesthood making the world a better place for everyone, simply because they were willing to be honest about themselves, and that truth meant everything and was valued. And this is evil?!? I don’t think so! They were more like Christ out for everyone. Now that is what it means to be gay! No anger!!!!!!! And everyone is important!!!!!!!!! Just a slice of heaven!!!!!!!!!
Read more:
For Those Who Are Against Marriage Equality
Methinks They Doth Protest Too Much
I think that this is true of everyone more than most people know. So, when I run into people who are so angry about Marriage Equality I have an immediate flashback to the time that I had all that anger. I then have to ask where is all their anger coming from. “Me thinks They Doth Protest Too Much.” And who is doing the most protesting? It sure does help to see clearly when you remove the plank in your own eye, first. It does not make any sense for some people, clergy, hierarchy and pontiffs to be so so angry about Marriage Equality, because nobody is interested in marrying them. It almost has the makings of a real classic musical comedy Broadway Show if it wasn't my life and so tragic the abuse they are causing to innocent children around the world, youth suicides and killings of adults. In the end it is just about "being mean" for the sake of "being mean", being as cruel as anyone can be to another human being. I guarantee they will find absolutely no peace of mind. Because they have never known it in their lives, otherwise they could not be so inhuman to fellow human beings, especially to children worldwide. Their lives will remain filled with only anger and depression and with not even a hint of love. This is likely because no one considered their feelings when they were children growing up and being part of the 90% of those who have some degree of homosexual orientation mixed with their heterosexual orientation. Maybe this is why Jesus said to his real and true followers the rule about the plank and speck.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's [sister's] eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother [sister], 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's [sister's] eye." Matt 7:3-5
We are more alike than we are different from one another. The way to check this out is by checking out who is angry about Marriage Equality. If they are absolutely 100% heterosexual what and how would they know anything about homosexuality? Where are they getting their information? Many questions to be answered if their anger will allow them to.
My only concern is to stop the abuse to innocent children who are defenseless and powerless to protect themselves. I would hope this was first and foremost everyone's concern. First, intelligently and thoroughly make sure, as God wants us to, if kids are safe, before speaking harmful words. Photo
The Bible and Being
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender
I learned from my studies in psychology and my personal therapy that sexual orientation is a natural development of being human and therefore cannot be considered a sin against God. This is where my guilt began, as far back as when I was a child. From further studies of those like from Daniel Helminiak, STL, PhD, PhD, LPC regarding "Does the bible condemn homosexuality?" I learned that it does not. I was experiencing a different kind of strong feeling that of needing to be protective of children when I realized through studies, therapy and my "coming out" that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different not gay but that they do not fit in. This "different" and "not fitting in" are the effects of antigay influences experienced as a child. These same children grow up to be gay.
Realizing how long it took me to "come out" in my 40's I could not even think of putting even one child through what I went through. All that wasted time, years, opportunities for life and love lost! I came out publicly, in 1997, to draw attention to this kind of harm caused to children who grow up to be gay raised in social environments influenced by antigay social and religious norms. They are our tomorrows!!! They are loved and watched by God. NO ONE EVER SHOULD HARM A CHILD!
Social Influence: Norms & Conformity
Sexual orientation is not the only continuum that makes up the complexity of human sexuality, there are others. However, allowing the powerful effects of social norms that are ignorant about human sexuality to continue out of fear only perpetuates the harm to generation after generation. The powerful strength of social norms to influence a person or a whole group of people should not be underestimated, as demonstrated by this video clip from Allen Funt's "Candid Camera."
Social norms can be so powerful that they can get entire groups of people to agree to go against truth and logic. This video clip is quite humorous. But it is not humorous the kind of serious harm caused to very young children and the life threatening situations even death to many others that is promulgated and perpetuated through the ignorance and fear of social norms not based on truth and facts regarding complexity of human sexuality. 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"
Whenever I enter an office-building elevator, I automatically turn and face front, do not make eye contact with other passengers, stop talking or speak only in hush tones to a companion. Are these my personal preferences or idiosyncrasies? Hardly, since most people in most elevators behave similarly. Those actions tell you little about me but a lot about the unspoken rules of public elevators. Why do we do it? Unlike signs forbidding us to smoke or advising us what to do in case of a fire, nothing in any elevator says we should act in these strange ways. Our behavior is under the control of unwritten social rules, implicit norms, which govern appropriate elevator demeanor.
We can test if such situational rules are in silent force by violating them and seeing what our own and others' reactions will be. The reactions will be either of distress or laughter at the apparent violation of these unwritten expectations. One of the most popular scenarios in the long history of Alan Funt's ingenious Candid Camera programs is "Face The Rear." An elevator is rigged so that after an unsuspecting person enters, four Candid Camera staff enter, and one by one they all face the rear. The doors close and then reopen; now revealing that the passenger had conformed and is now also facing the rear. Doors close and reopen, and everyone is facing sideways, and then face the other way. We laugh that these people are manipulated like puppets on invisible strings, but this scenario makes us aware of the number of situations in which we mindlessly follow the dictates of group norms and situational forces…
Read more: By Philip Zimbardo - Stanford University
Parallels Between the Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram’s Obedience Research
Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" Elevator Prank – video
Power of Social Norms
Social Psychology
M U S T * P R O T E C T * C H I L D R E N
When I realized that the guilt that I had nearly all my life never had to be there or all that therapy, time and money spent. I experienced an unsettling feeling of frustration of injustice and truth that something positive has to be done to keep children safe. The criminal lack of responsibility to protect children by the Vatican and the hierarchy woke up in me this strong moral obligation that children must be protected.
The Vatican and the hierarchy believe they are (a) justified that they are not obligated to compensate people for the lifetime of harm that they have caused beginning as far back as children. In addition, (b) they are not stopping this kind of harm caused to children.
(1) How are the Vatican and the hierarchy any different than the tobacco companies who were made to be responsible to pay for the harm they caused their consumers?
(2) How can the Vatican and the hierarchy be allowed to continue to emphatically instructed people that they must believe the Vatican's antigay teachings in order to save their souls, which has been proven to cause life threatening harmful effects (see, Family Acceptance Project, “Pray Away the Gay”, "Suicide Prevention Among LGBT Youth").
(3) How can the Vatican and the hierarchy not be held accountable for the harm they caused and are still causing, especially when it involves the lives of innocent children, who have no voice and are powerless to protect themselves? Catholics love their faith and remain faithful, but children must be protected against the life threatening effects caused by antigay teachings and therefore cannot remain silent.
(4) How can antigay teachings that cause this kind of child abuse, impacting youth suicide rates, and contributing to the torture and killings of LGBT people be allowed to continue, in the name of religion?
(5) Tony Blair has been the only World Leader who has spoke out, April 2009 to end this violent harm caused by the Vatican and the hierarchy's antigay teachings. Mr. Blair speaks out again after Benedict XVI attacks gay people.
Pope denounces gay marriage lobby to US bishops, 3/9/12
Blair takes on the Pope by backing gay marriage, Mar.11, 2012
Tony Blair has defied the Pope by making clear he "strongly supports" plans for gay marriage, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. The former prime minister, a Catholic since 2007, backs proposals by David Cameron for a new law allowing homosexuals to marry.
A consultation on gay marriage to be launched later this month has met fierce opposition from senior figures in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.
On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics to block the "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage".
(6) Since 2009 there has been a number of people in government in the USA and the UK – it is most encouraging – knowing that their courage is helping to protect children around the world. But still many more voices are needed to join them to protect our kids.
J.K. Rowling in her Commencement Address, June 5, 2008, at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association spoke about her work at Amnesty International in London and how she witnessed the horror of the inhumanity that innocent people suffer in the world. She spoke of the positive effect of "The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners." But she also spoke about the real horror,
What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy. J.K. Rowling Photo
Recently, from the United Kingdom the Royal College of Psychiatrists announced that they share “the concern of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association that positions espoused by bodies like the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in the United States are not supported by science. There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Furthermore so-called treatments of homosexuality as recommended by NARTH create a setting in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists holds the view that lesbian, gay and bisexual people should be regarded as valued members of society who have exactly similar rights and responsibilities as all other citizens. This includes equal access to health care, the rights and responsibilities involved in a civil partnership, the rights and responsibilities involved in procreating and bringing up children, freedom to practice a religion as a lay person or religious leader, freedom from harassment or discrimination in any sphere and a right to protection from therapies that are potentially damaging, particularly those that purport to change sexual orientation.
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association concluded there was no scientific evidence that homosexuality was a disorder and removed it from its diagnostic glossary of mental disorders.” The International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organisation followed suit in 1992. Read more
Love The Church
And
C A N N O T * R E M A I N * S I L E N T
About
C h i l d * A b u s e
I am not against the Catholic Church or the Vatican, it is because of my strong faith that I am for keeping innocent children safe from all life threatening harm and not remain silent. How can anyone remain silent when the innocent lives of children, who have no voice and are powerless to protect themselves are threatened? The Vatican and the hierarchy have already proven their lack of responsibility of protect children from decades of ongoing child sexual abuse, how can we allow this form of child abuse caused by their antigay teachings to continue? When it comes to Judgment Day, we will all be held accountable of how well we protected the lives of innocent people and most particularly defenseless children. Will we be excused for our sin of omission by saying we were only following orders? How well are we following Christ's one command that he gave us all?
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men [women] will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13: 34-35
The Judgment
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers [sisters] of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
Then He will also say to those on Hi s left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” “Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matt: 25, 31-46
How To Protect Children?
With
Every Voice Helping
Changes have to be made to protect children this is first and foremost in the mind of God, as we learn from the Gospels. Fortunate Families have already suggested practical ways to address protecting children in a very Christ like manner. Every voice makes a difference in making this a safe world for children! Fortunate Families set as their goal dialogue, not confrontation. They hope to motivate people “to encourage and challenge their bishop(s) to dialogue with Catholic LGBT persons, with their Catholic parents and other family members, and with Catholic pastoral ministers who minister with both of these groups.”
Fortunate Families are concerned parents of LGBT children and they work endlessly to foster changes that will make the world a safer place not only for their children but for all LGBT people. They are dedicated to working within the Catholic Church to help foster change at the very foundation of Catholic teaching. They are continuing the work that began in 1997 when the USA Bishops released their document “Always Our Children.” It was the first document from the Catholic Church that was moving in a positive direction concerning LGBT people and they are holding the bishops accountable to their words.
Research supports that dialogue with people, such as LGBT people, parents, families and ministers helps to stop the depersonalization that takes place, which allows for inhuman treatment of innocent people to flourish uncheck. It is far more difficult to mistreat people you have met and have taken the time to know, than people you have never met. Fortunate Families have not taken on an easy goal but one that has been proven to produce long lasting effective changes. As parents of LGBT children you can well understand their fearless efforts to protect their children not just for today but far into the future.
Catholic groups are understandably mistrusted considering the antigay atmosphere that is so often found in the news regarding the Catholic Church. However, as national statistics have shown that not all Catholics in "good conscience" can be supportive of the antigay teachings and work continuously for reform. Fortunate Families is such a group. I would suggest a visit to their website and learn more. Fortunate Families are able to help educate people about LGBT issues in the Catholic Church, which is the most effective way to change attitudes. Considering that the most opposition to Marriage Equality comes from Christians who have never known LGBT people, Fortunate Families are in the front lines initiating change in favor of all LGBT people. Read more
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, M.Div., M.S.
Property of MS Kurylowicz, May 2009
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009
Listening Parents Network -- Fortunate Families
What Can Catholics do Today to – Help Protect all Children?
Read more:
“If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Mt 6:23 | Benedict XVI – “Light of the World” | Hitler – “Mein Kampf” | NARCISSISTIC BULLY | WORLD REMAINS SILENT - 12/4/10
Catholics Coming Out - Fr. Marty Kurylowicz & Ricky Martin - March 29, 1997, 2010 - Leading Support Gay Marriage - NY Gov Cuomo & Vatican Attacks – March 29, 2011
Ricky Martin says he's 'a fortunate homosexual man'
By Alan Duke
CNN.com, March 29, 2010
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Pop singer Ricky Martin declared publicly this week what he avoided discussing for years: He is gay.
"I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man," Martin wrote on his official Web site. "I am very blessed to be who I am."
…Now, Martin wrote, "these years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed."
The 39-year-old Puerto Rican native started off with the Latin boy band Menudo before launching his solo career in 1991.
His song "Livin' La Vida Loca" rose to the top of the music charts in 1999 and propelled Martin to stardom.
Martin said he decided years ago to not share "my entire truth" with the world because people he loved warned him that "everything you've built will collapse."
"Allowing myself to be seduced by fear and insecurity became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sabotage," he wrote. "Today I take full responsibility for my decisions and my actions." …
Read complete article – CNN.com
Know thyself – Plato
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
"At Last"
At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh yeah yeah
At last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream, that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh yeah yeah
You smiled, you smiled
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
for you are mine...
At Last --- by ETTA JAMES
‘
All tyranny needs
to
gain a foothold
is
for people
of
good conscience
to
remain silent.
What Can Catholics do Today to – Help Protect all Children?
Read more in PART 6
GAY MARRIAGE – Catholic Truth ≠ Benedict XVI & hierarchy’s SPIN - Unsubstantiated Antigay Teachings & Disregard for Children – Silent Catholics COLLUDING w/B16 – Continually Hurting Kids!!! | One – Letter & Many – Copies | Anne Rice | PART 6
Injustice anywhere is a
threat to
Justice everywhere
Martin Luther King
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964
Martin Luther King Jr.
What you cannot do is accept injustice.
From Hitler – or anyone.
You must make the injustice visible
– be prepared to die like a
soldier to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
“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. Matthew 18:6
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!!!
3 PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTS ABOUT GROWING UP GAY
A partial list:
1. Sexual orientation is set either just before birth or very soon afterwards
References:
Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality - American Psychological Association
The Science of Sexual Orientation - Researchers Focus on Twins (Video)
Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation
Sexual Conversion Therapies - by Jack Drescher, M.D.
Sexual Conversion Therapy - Ethical, Clinical and Research Perspectives (2002) -
edited by Ariel Shidlo, PhD, Michael Schroeder, PsyD, and Jack Drescher, MD
Sexual Orientation & ‘Reparative Therapy’
by Jack Drescher, MD – video
Bibliography for Facts about Sexual Orientation
Major - Medical and Mental Heath Associations
Policies & Position Statements - Regarding Sexual Orientation
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association, AGLP
APSAA, American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association
American Counseling Association
American Medical Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
Gay & Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA)
Gender Identity Research and Education Society - UK
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of Social Workers
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
2. Early psychological development – in a social environment that is anti-gay – causes significant harm to the child’s ability to be in relationships, with others, a job, etc.
References:
Sexual orientation is less about sex and more about love, being one with another human being. Attachment Theory - - LOVE & RELIGION
Attachment Theory
Mary Ainsworth: Attachment and the Growth of Love – video
ATTACHMENT THEORY - our first relationship with our carers acts as a LIFELONG TEMPLATE, moulding and shaping our capacity to enter into, and maintain, successful subsequent relationships with family, friends and partners...
Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man
Jack Drescher, M.D. in his book Psychoanalytic Therapy & The Gay Man
describes the complexities related to growing up gay; from his research of developmental narratives of gay adults retrospectively recalling their feelings being gay began in early childhood. These gay feelings had remained constant, and were resistant to being altered. Dr. Drescher explains the contrast of how social norms impact the psychology of the early childhood developmental years of a heterosexual boy and a homosexual boy.
Being Homosexual: Gay Men and Their Development – by Richard A. Isay M.D.
Argues that homosexuality is biologically innate, suggests a natural developmental path for homosexuals, and discusses the problems faced in long-term gay relationships
The overstimulation of everyday life: I. New aspects of male homosexuality
Sidney H. Phillips
Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, USA
J Am Psychoanal Assoc 49:1235-67. 2001
Western heterosexual culture surrounds the homosexually inclined boy in a climate of erotic overstimulation that powerfully affects his development and adult sexual adaptation. This assertion is illustrated through a case presentation of a homosexual man who shared a bed with his brother from childhood into adolescence. Analysis of the patient's transference enactment—repeatedly falling asleep on the couch—gradually revealed the psychic impact of this everyday overstimulation: the creation of a tantalized inner world of longing. The regular occurrence and developmental understanding of adolescent homosexual boys' unrequited love affairs with adolescent heterosexual boys are described and explored. Finally, the overstimulation of everyday life is proposed as a new model for understanding certain behavioral aspects of male homosexuality, such as the avoidance of rough-and-tumble play in childhood and homosexual cruising.
Homosexuality: coming out of the confusion
Sidney H Phillips
Int J Psychoanal 84:1431-50. 2003
In this paper, Dr. Phillips describes the complications of how the historical context of social norms can significantly influence the classification of the components of homosexuality by clinicians causing them to be blind to their own biases. Mindful of our susceptibility to this kind of phenomenon, Dr. Phillips calls to task these biases that pathologize homosexuality simply because it is not consistent with heterosexuality and therefore to be classified as a mental disorder. He offers an alternative description of homosexuality from his clinical research that is consistent with other researchers of early childhood psychological development of children who grow up to be gay.
The Psychology of the Closeted Individual and Coming Out – Jack Drescher, MD
Many LGB individuals report developmental histories with difficulty acknowledging their homosexuality, either to themselves or to others. This is because, starting in childhood, LGB individuals are often subjected to antihomosexual attitudes, not only from strangers, but also from their own families and communities (Drescher, Stein and Byne, 2005). The childhood need to hide may persist into adulthood, leading many LGB individuals to conceal important aspects of themselves…Read more
Gay Conversion | Religious Conversion - Transforms the Damned into the Saved | COVERING - Kenji Yoshino – 2002 - The Yale Law Journal
Resource Links -- Conversion Therapy
Policy Statements of Professional Organizations
Rockway Institute - Alliant International University
3. Gay teen suicide – Family Acceptance Project - shows relationship between a lack of family acceptance of a gay child and the rate of substance abuse, suicide and others problems
References:
Groundbreaking Study Finds Family Acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Adolescents Protects Against Depression, Substance Abuse and Suicidal Behavior in Early Adulthood – by Caitlin Ryan, PhD, December 6, 2010 - FAMILY ACCEPTANCE PROJECT.
Dr. Caitlin Ryan: Reducing Risk and Promoting Well-Being for LGBT Youth: The Critical Role of Family Support – 2009 – podcast
Dr. Caitlin Ryan: Commitment, Intentionality, and Hard Work: What It Takes To Do Culturally Competent, Ground-Breaking Research 2010 – podcast
Family Acceptance Project™ website:
Dr. Caitlin Ryan – Mental Health Matters: How does the “Family Acceptance Project” work? – 2011
Family Acceptance Project™ - Helping diverse families understand how to support their LGBT children – videos
Family Acceptance of LGBT Youth Protects Against Suicide, Depression & Substance Abuse and Predicts Better Health & Self-Esteem
School Victimization of Gender-Nonconforming LGBT Youth Linked with Depression and Quality Of Life In Adulthood
Best Practice Guidelines for Serving LGBT Youth in Out-of-Home Care
Family Acceptance Project™ Resource Links:
San Francisco State University Related Programs
LGBT Family-Related Organizations
LGBT Youth Organizations
School-Related Resources
Gender-Related Resources
LGBT Legal Advocacy Organizations
Online Resources for LGBT Youth
Hotlines
Adolescent Health
National LGBT Organizations
LGBT Health-Related Organizations
Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counseling - By Caitlin Ryan and Donna Futterman
UA professor Stephen T. Russell to Explore LGBT Suicide Risk – 2008
Homophobic families harm gay teenagers, study claims - 2008
Internalized Homophobia and Relationship Quality among Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals - David M. Frost and Ilan H. Meyer - 2009
Journal of Counseling Psychology 2009, Vol. 56, No. 1, 97–109
New Report Shows Inequalities for Children with LGBT Parents
Talking About Suicide & LGBT Populations - Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Preventing Suicide among LGBT Youth by Effie Malley - Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Homophobia Is Killing Our Youth – 2009
Gay Bullying Deaths and Religion: Are Believers the Problem or the Solution? 2010
For Many Gay Youth, Bullying Exacts a Deadly Toll – 2010
Gay bullying and Catholic responsibilities – 2010
Homophobia in the Church: What Catholics Are Doing About It, and What Still Needs to Be Done – 2010
“Most religious denominations continue to condemn homosexuality as sinful and
provide a rationale for marginalizing LGB people.” - Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
Social Environment - Although the social environment itself has not been defined as a risk factor for suicide, widespread discrimination against LGBT people, heterosexist attitudes, and gender bias can lead to risk factors such as isolation, family rejection, and lack of access to care providers. Risk factors may interact in unhealthy ways—for example, internalized homophobia or victimization may lead to stress, which is associated with depression and substance abuse, which can contribute to suicide risk. This risk may be compounded by a lack of protective factors that normally provide resilience, such as strong family connections, peer support, and access to effective health and mental health providers…
Herek and colleagues (2007) describe a framework to understand the social environment for sexual minorities. The framework integrates the sociological idea of stigma with the psychological idea of prejudice. Through stigma, society discredits and invalidates homosexuality relative to heterosexuality. Institutions embodying stigma results in heterosexism, and heterosexual individuals internalizing stigma results in prejudice. The United States legal system has faced challenges by sexual minorities and sympathetic heterosexuals that have led to significant changes. However, the legal system continues to reinforce stigma through discriminatory laws and the absence of laws protecting sexual minorities from discrimination in employment, housing, and services. A minority of states had antidiscrimination laws as of 2005, and most of these only referred to employment and not to housing or services. Most religious denominations continue to condemn homosexuality as sinful and provide a rationale for marginalizing LGB people…
See no Race, See no Gay: What Proponents of a Gay-Blind Approach to Bullying in the Schools can Learn from Race Relations - by Kira Hudson Banks, Ph.D. and Nestor L. Lopez-Duran PhD,
2010 - Psychology Today
Bullying, gay teen suicides, and a need for a solution – 2010 - Nestor L. Lopez-Duran, PhD. - clinical child psychologist and researcher, University of Michigan
Bullies and Victims: Boys will be boys or a symptom of distress? 2009 -Child Psychology Research
http://www.child-psych.org/2009/10/bullies-and-victims-a-risk-for-psychopathology.html#comment-47375
The cruelties of STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE on CHILDREN are often subtle, unspoken, unrecognized, and even normalized, regarded by many people as natural or “just the way things are.” Daniel J. Christie - Peace, Conflict, and Violence:
Peace Psychology for the 21st Century.
Pope’s child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims -122110
Related links:
John Jay Report: On Not Blaming Homosexual Priests – 51711
"No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict" 112611
The New John Jay Report on Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church – “The researchers conclude that there is no causative relationship between either celibacy or homosexuality and the sexual victimization of children in the Church.” 51811
Facts about Homosexuality and Child Molestation - Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D.
Roman Catholic Hierarchy child sexual abuse “cover-ups” ordered by Benedict XVI to avoid public outrage & criminal charges falsely accused gay priests, WATERGATE? – January 2, 2010
GAY MARRIAGE - Benedict XVI Dismisses Science Reason – Natural Law | Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely | PART 1
GAY MARRIAGE – Understanding – NATURAL LAW & How it can be used? – With or Without - Reason & Rational |To Support - Benedict XVI & Hierarchy’s Vague & Negative Statements Against Homosexuality | PART 2
GAY MARRIAGE – “Doublespeak” Benedict XVI - IRRATIONAL Shift Blame Gays – Evading UN Accusations Global COVER-UPS Child Sexual Abuse “…a COMPLETE FAILURE to take responsibility” | PART 3
GAY MARRIAGE – Non-Violence is Key - Use of Violent Confrontation Strategies - The Moral Arguments of People Who Are Being Unjustly Treated Become Irrelevant – The Use of Violence Only Creates More Violence | PART 4
GAY MARRIAGE – Propaganda Tactics|B16’s Naturalistic fallacy & Homosexuality - Dehumanizing, Depriving Civil Rights, Silencing Gays - Covering Up B16 Crimes Against Children 30+yrs? |PART 5
What Can Catholics do Today to – Help Protect all Children?
GAY MARRIAGE – Catholic Truth ≠ Benedict XVI & hierarchy’s SPIN - Unsubstantiated Antigay Teachings & Disregard for Children – Silent Catholics COLLUDING w/B16 – Continually Hurting Kids!!! | One – Letter & Many – Copies | Anne Rice | PART 6
GAY MARRIAGE – Homosexuality for Catholics or anyone? "WHY IT IS A 'GIFT' FROM GOD!!!" And when we accept and value this gift from God – we are able to experience love like never before, and we are able to love. | PART 7
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