Friday, April 26, 2013

Gay 1990s Studies - Pope John Paul II’s group of THEOLOGIANS and SCIENTISTS studying homosexuality – for better understanding and fuller acceptance – ended with Benedict XVI 2005



Pope John Paul II throughout his papacy (1978-2005) it was clear that he had a profound respect for science, including never separating the interaction between science and religion when searching for truth.  

Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.” 

Faith can never conflict with reason. The 'Galileo case' teaches us that different branches of knowledge call for different methods, each of which brings out various aspects of reality.” 

John Paul II, Deep Harmony which Unites the Truths of Science with the Truths of Faith, November 10, 1979 “Galileo formulated important norms of an epistemological character, which are indispensable to reconcile Holy Scripture and science…” 

Know Yourself” John Paul II Fides et Ratio On The Relationship Between Faith And Reason – September 15, 1998. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html


It has been reported that John Paul had a regular scheduled weekly meeting with scientists in the Vatican.  His search for truth was courageous, uninhabited by any false need to sacrifice truth to protect the image of the Church e.g. his public apologies, first to Galileo 1992 and then for the past sins of the Church in 2000. John Paul, in 1979, commissioned the investigation of the Vatican’s trial of Galileo with the mandate to find the truth regardless of any negative consequences that may be found against the Church.  

In 1992, the investigation was completed and he made his public apology to Galileo that the Vatican was wrong and Galileo was right. “The Vatican's formal acknowledgement of an error, moreover, is a rarity in an institution built over centuries on the belief that the Church is the final arbiter in matters of faith…Pope John Paul II himself has said that the scientist was ‘imprudently opposed.’"  Photo. John Paul’s public apology to Galileo also demonstrates his openness and transparency. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/31/world/after-350-years-vatican-says-galileo-was-right-it-moves.html 


What is not that well known is that John Paul’s courageous commitment to truth and justice had extended to homosexuals. It was only after the death of John Paul, April 2005, I was informed that John Paul had commissioned a group made up of theologians and scientists to thoroughly investigate all the authoritative facts on sexual orientation focusing on homosexuality.  

This group was enthusiastic about the steady progress they had been making, having already made significant changes and confident of the possibilities that others would be made in the near future. In the fall of 1997, there is evidence of a significant step made forward towards a fuller knowledge and acceptance of homosexuals in the Church. Six months after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops made their statement to the press referring to my “coming out” in March 1997 for the protection of children as  “unprecedented,” they released the first ever, a positive document focused on children growing up gay called “Always Our Children” September 1997. 
A news reporter had asked the USCC Bishops if my “coming out” as a gay Catholic priest to help stop the lifetime harm and violence caused to very young children growing up gay by antigay social and religious norms had anything to do with the release of their document. Their response was “no” indicating that they had been previously working for some time on their document  “Always Our Children.”  I was informed later that my coming out did help to push it forward in getting it released, but also confirming that the long hard work on the document happened quite some time before.  This news was most encouraging to learn that the US Catholic Bishops were concerned about the lives of gay children throughout the 1990s and well into the 2000s. This vibrant commitment and care for gay children on the part the US Bishops was an outgrowth of John Paul’s group. 

However, it is frightening to witness that 15 years later, such a drastic void of human compassion and empathy the US Bishops once had for gay children in 1997. The pervasive attitude among the US Bishops observed today and in the recent past revealed by their endless dehumanizing public unsubstantiated antigay statements is a deliberate and complete disregard for the safety and well-being of children growing up gay. The toxic pollution from their antigay statements is as lethal, as smoking in a neonatal care unit. The proof the US Bishops were aware of the life-threatening harm antigay statements are to gay children, because in 1997 they released their document “Always Our Children.” Photo

What happened in the past 15 years that they the whole group of US Bishops became ignorant of the authoritative research data regarding the care and well-being of gay children?  Or worst when and how were they convinced that gay children are subhuman? Being subhuman they are excluded of the moral rights and obligations that binds all human beings together, meaning it is wrong to kill a human being, but not to kill a bug, a rat or anything subhuman. This vibrant commitment and care for gay children on the part the US Bishops ignorance all began deteriorating quickly after Ratzinger became Benedict XVI in April 2005 
with his immediate removal of all the scientists commissioned by John Paul to work with theologians on the issues of homosexuality.  If someone considers homosexuals to be subhuman, not true human beings then understanding their science is irrelevant and unnecessary. This is the ongoing process of the dehumanization of children cloaked in secrecy and silence.

John Paul from the start of his papacy was publicly clear about his commissioning a group of scientists and theologians to review Galileo’s trial and get to the truth regardless of the consequences to the image of the Church.  Later, he followed the same formal to get to the truth about homosexuality. How was Ratzinger beginning, as John Paul’s closest advisor, able to work in direct opposition to John Paul’s basic values? John Paul is commissioning groups in particular one on homosexuality unearthing every bit science to find the truth.  At the same time, Ratzinger, his top advisor is doing the exact opposite.  He is forcefully suppressing all the emerging authoritative science on homosexuality beginning in the 1960s and 1970s that no longer supports homosexuality, as a disorder or sickness, but instead finding that homosexuality is a normal and natural part of human development. Photo  Ratzinger’s arbitrary dismissal of the relevance of “human sciences” related to homosexuality is noted in a letter he sent to Archbishop Hunthausen, dated 9/30/1985 (p 155). “Conflict in the Catholic Hierarchy: A Study of Coping Strategies in the Hunthausen Affair, with Preferential Attention to Discursive Strategies” by Timothy Peter Schilling 2003 http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2003-0206-111237/c6.pdf. In 1990, Ratzinger, in a speech in Parma, Italy stated that  "At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just."  http://www.eou.edu/soctheory/lecture/whatistheory.htm  

What is so surprising is how Ratzinger was able for 27 years throughout John Paul’s papacy keep his constant covert antigay operations, from arousing any suspicion to reach John Paul. As John Paul was insisting on considering all the scientific authoritative research on sexual orientation, Ratzinger was systematically forcefully suppressing all the scientific authoritative research on sexual orientation, as well as, silencing and removing all those supporting gay people and gay rights. Archbishop Hunthausen along with Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent of New Ways Ministry Photo
their pastoral ministering to end the discrimination of gay people by educating people on the science and theological aspects of homosexuality was consistent with what Pope John Paul II had started in the Vatican.  And yet they were relentlessly being attack by Ratzinger for years that was for the most part shrouded in secrecy.  Ratzinger was able to work continuously in direct opposition to the importance that Pope John Paul II placed on science - throughout his papacy without raising any suspicion. Astounding and frightening!  This could only have been pull off with the same precision like skill of the systematic organization that was involved in the years of the child sexual abuse cover-ups as was found in the independent investigations that have all led back to Benedict XVI.


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This entire posting was sent out as a US group mailing prior to posting here on the Thalamus Center. Photo
Original posting date: February 26, 2012












Thalamus Center
Early Childhood Psychological Development Growing up Gay    
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz           

Page 1
February 10, 2013                                   

    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

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

I am writing this letter to inform my family, friends, parishioners, colleagues, government officials, justices, attorneys, and others about the “adverse action” that was taken against me by the Vatican after I came out, as a gay Catholic priest for the protection of gay children in March of 1997.
(http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2012/11/gay-marriage-sexual-orientation-is-less.html) It may have been a severe intimidation tactic to get me to leave the priesthood, which I refused to do. Regardless, the intent was malicious and made it clear that I was not wanted to remain in the Diocese nor would it be safe for me to do so.  Since, that time, I have been the target of vindictive attacks directed against my reputation aimed at ending my means to financially support myself. There is documented evidence that these types of character assassination tactics are associated with Cardinal Ratzinger’s investigation of Archbishop Hunthausen and as Benedict XVI used against Dino Boffo a catholic journalist and Vatican bank's ex-president, Tedeschi.  These attacks have been ongoing for the past 15 years and have ultimately led to my bankruptcy. The constant related distress eventually led me this past year to be hospitalized 3 times for bleeding stomach ulcers.(http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2003-0206-111237/c6.pdf

Now, 15 years later, among the other questionable charges being used to remove me from the priesthood, Benedict XVI is also charging me for “coming out” in 1997 and starting the Thalamus Center, an educational blog on early childhood psychological development.
(http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2012/10/1977-against-gay-discrimination.html) Two months after I came out, Ratzinger, the Vatican’s official in charge, did not mention one word about my “coming out.”  In 1997, this type of brutality by the Vatican would have been completely unbelievable, but not today in 2013. In 1997, I came out for the protection and growth of gay children growing up. In addition, in 2012, I am making public the type of vindictive attacks that I have endured for the past 15 years by Ratzinger and now Benedict XVI to draw public attention to how those in the Church  attempting to speak out for the protection of children are then severely silenced. This also includes, though not limited to, those who threaten to expose the corruption in the Vatican. And to draw public attention to the fact that there are no USA laws to protect the USA citizens in the Church from this type illegal and life-threatening treatment by the Vatican, even when it is to protect the lives of all USA citizens. 

It is of significant importance to research the facts of 1997 related to all those in the Church who publicly supported the science of early childhood psychological development regarding growing up gay.  Because this science was moving forward in the Church among the US Bishops, along with Pope John Paul’s group of scientists and theologians studying homosexuality, and including the New Ways Ministry’s co-founders that had the potential to permanently alter the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, like it did for Galileo. However, the evidence, like that of the child sexual abuse cover-ups, reveals that Ratzinger was the strong covert force in the Vatican working to prevent this from happening.

In March of 1997, I attended the New Ways Ministry National Symposium (Gay Catholic Educational Conference) that was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I learned that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are “different” not that they are gay.  It is only as adults do they identify this being “different” 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, especially disrupting their ability to form long and lasting relationships. 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 (2010 USA letter)...


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