IT'S coming up for Easter – the most important date in the Catholic calendar – so it is natural Church leaders would want to take the opportunity to spread the Christian message across the world.How best to do it, though, that's the question?
To believers, the Resurrection is all about bringing light to a dark world. What about trying to capture that vision with a display of compassion and tolerance that demonstrates the power of faith?
Endeavouring to see the world from someone else's point of view might also be in the spirit of the occasion; extending the hand of friendship to a group you are traditionally at odds with, an appropriate gesture.
Somewhat less effective, surely, would be to announce your intention to "pick a fight" with the gay community.
This, however, is the route Bishop Joseph Devine took.
In a lecture entitled Sectarianism And Secularism last week, he launched a vitriolic diatribe against homosexuals and lesbians that made the Rev Ian Paisley appear laid-back on the subject.
Not content with spewing out the traditional bile – "homosexual acts are a perversion" and so forth – the Bishop of Motherwell and president of the Catholic Education Committee accused the gay lobby of a "huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy" against Christian values, harked nostalgically to the days when Oscar Wilde was sent to jail, and then – apparently oblivious to the irony – accused homosexuals of aligning themselves with Holocaust victims to create a false impression of themselves as a persecuted minority.
Demonstrating all the warmth and compassion of a pit viper, he went on to suggest that parents of children struggling with their sexuality should not "tolerate" their behaviour.
Admittedly, the Bishop does have a point about all the lobbying. It is wrong to use your power and influence to try to change the law in your favour, isn't it?
If you have large sections of the right-wing press ranged against you, precious few resources at your disposal and are campaigning for the introduction of civil partnerships, then you must be part of a sinister plot.
If, however, you are high up in the Roman Catholic Church, have access to vast pools of wealth and want to use them to get abortion outlawed, then you are an emissary of truth in a benighted world. No tactic, not even threatening to deny Communion to the uncooperative faithful, is too base to be exploited in support of your mission.
And what about this predilection homosexuals seem to have for attending Holocaust memorial ceremonies?
Do they think they have a right to grieve just because tens of thousands of them were rounded up and shipped off to concentration camps during the Second World War; just because at least 15,000 of them died at the hands of Nazis?
Always playing it for sympathy, that's the gay community.
As a practising Catholic who cherishes diversity, you get used to burying your head in embarrassment at intemperate outbursts from the hierarchy, but sometimes they just don't make cushions big enough.
One minute you're listening to a news item about the stoning of homosexuals in Iran and thanking God you live in a more enlightened society.
The next, up pops Bishop Devine to prove religious fundamentalism is alive and well in your own back yard.
It's not even as if he got carried away in the heat of the moment and regretted it later. The Bishop made his remarks during a prepared speech at St Aloysius College last week. And – as waves of revulsion greeted them – he stuck to his guns, presenting his hate-filled invective as merely another salvo in the war between right and wrong.
It's difficult to imagine the Jesus of the New Testament, the one who intervened to stop a prostitute being stoned and used his dying breath to offer a thief a place in paradise, coming out with anything so vicious. Even when he was hanging on the cross, he appealed for understanding, crying out: "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do."
But then, really, what did he know?
Was he surrounded by Gay Pride marches and homosexuals in positions of power?
Did he have to contend with Graham Norton in a bright, shiny suit and arguments over Section 28?
He did not.
Bishop Devine, on the other hand, lives in challenging times: the kind of times when a talented gay actor like Sir Ian McKellen not only escapes incarceration but is rewarded for his services to the gay community. No wonder his temper is frayed.
This being a democracy, of course, Bishop Devine is entitled to disapprove of homosexuals, just as homosexuals are entitled to disapprove of him. Freedom of speech protects his right to express this disapproval openly, even when it is couched in terms that are deliberately hurtful and provocative.
But at a time when the Church has its back against the wall, when humanism is on the rise and religion is increasingly seen as a spent force, such outbursts are not only offensive, they are counter-productive, serving only to confirm the sceptics' view of Catholicism as narrow and backward-looking.
As we head into Easter Week, it is worth remembering that throughout his preaching, Jesus said precisely nothing, nada, nil on the subject of homosexuality, although he had plenty of opinions on tolerance, loving your enemies and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.
And he reserved his greatest ire not for the prurient or the promiscuous, but for Pharisees who affected piety, while neglecting the condition of their own hearts.
Bishop Devine is loquacious on the faults of others.
Perhaps it is time he drew his own Easter message from this discrepancy.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
Endeavouring to see the world from someone else's point of view might also be in the spirit of the occasion; extending the hand of friendship to a group you are traditionally at odds with, an appropriate gesture.
Somewhat less effective, surely, would be to announce your intention to "pick a fight" with the gay community.
This, however, is the route Bishop Joseph Devine took.
In a lecture entitled Sectarianism And Secularism last week, he launched a vitriolic diatribe against homosexuals and lesbians that made the Rev Ian Paisley appear laid-back on the subject.
Not content with spewing out the traditional bile – "homosexual acts are a perversion" and so forth – the Bishop of Motherwell and president of the Catholic Education Committee accused the gay lobby of a "huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy" against Christian values, harked nostalgically to the days when Oscar Wilde was sent to jail, and then – apparently oblivious to the irony – accused homosexuals of aligning themselves with Holocaust victims to create a false impression of themselves as a persecuted minority.
Demonstrating all the warmth and compassion of a pit viper, he went on to suggest that parents of children struggling with their sexuality should not "tolerate" their behaviour.
Admittedly, the Bishop does have a point about all the lobbying. It is wrong to use your power and influence to try to change the law in your favour, isn't it?
If you have large sections of the right-wing press ranged against you, precious few resources at your disposal and are campaigning for the introduction of civil partnerships, then you must be part of a sinister plot.
If, however, you are high up in the Roman Catholic Church, have access to vast pools of wealth and want to use them to get abortion outlawed, then you are an emissary of truth in a benighted world. No tactic, not even threatening to deny Communion to the uncooperative faithful, is too base to be exploited in support of your mission.
And what about this predilection homosexuals seem to have for attending Holocaust memorial ceremonies?
Do they think they have a right to grieve just because tens of thousands of them were rounded up and shipped off to concentration camps during the Second World War; just because at least 15,000 of them died at the hands of Nazis?
Always playing it for sympathy, that's the gay community.
As a practising Catholic who cherishes diversity, you get used to burying your head in embarrassment at intemperate outbursts from the hierarchy, but sometimes they just don't make cushions big enough.
One minute you're listening to a news item about the stoning of homosexuals in Iran and thanking God you live in a more enlightened society.
The next, up pops Bishop Devine to prove religious fundamentalism is alive and well in your own back yard.
It's not even as if he got carried away in the heat of the moment and regretted it later. The Bishop made his remarks during a prepared speech at St Aloysius College last week. And – as waves of revulsion greeted them – he stuck to his guns, presenting his hate-filled invective as merely another salvo in the war between right and wrong.
It's difficult to imagine the Jesus of the New Testament, the one who intervened to stop a prostitute being stoned and used his dying breath to offer a thief a place in paradise, coming out with anything so vicious. Even when he was hanging on the cross, he appealed for understanding, crying out: "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do."
But then, really, what did he know?
Was he surrounded by Gay Pride marches and homosexuals in positions of power?
Did he have to contend with Graham Norton in a bright, shiny suit and arguments over Section 28?
He did not.
Bishop Devine, on the other hand, lives in challenging times: the kind of times when a talented gay actor like Sir Ian McKellen not only escapes incarceration but is rewarded for his services to the gay community. No wonder his temper is frayed.
This being a democracy, of course, Bishop Devine is entitled to disapprove of homosexuals, just as homosexuals are entitled to disapprove of him. Freedom of speech protects his right to express this disapproval openly, even when it is couched in terms that are deliberately hurtful and provocative.
But at a time when the Church has its back against the wall, when humanism is on the rise and religion is increasingly seen as a spent force, such outbursts are not only offensive, they are counter-productive, serving only to confirm the sceptics' view of Catholicism as narrow and backward-looking.
As we head into Easter Week, it is worth remembering that throughout his preaching, Jesus said precisely nothing, nada, nil on the subject of homosexuality, although he had plenty of opinions on tolerance, loving your enemies and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.
And he reserved his greatest ire not for the prurient or the promiscuous, but for Pharisees who affected piety, while neglecting the condition of their own hearts.
Bishop Devine is loquacious on the faults of others.
Perhaps it is time he drew his own Easter message from this discrepancy.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce