Sebastian White :: New Pope Notoriously Anti-Gay

ESSAYS

New Pope Notoriously Anti-Gay

The Empty Closet | May 2005
By Sebastian White

With the emergence of a ephemeral puff of white smoke at sunset, the highly ritualized papal conclave came to a close in Rome April 19 with German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger being elected the next leader of the world’s 1 billion Catholics. The tolling of the bells at St. Peter’s Square ushered in a new era for the faith, but the selection of the uber-conservative Ratzinger, known for a quarter-century as a Vatican insider with a sternly doctrinaire view of the church’s teachings and staunchly anti-gay beliefs is likely a worry to many in the LGBT community.

The vote for Ratzinger ended weeks – and years, really – of supposition over who would lead the church in the wake of Pope John Paul II’s death, and just what direction that person would lead the church as it propels itself further into the new century.

While pundits say it is too soon to conjecture fully about the tenor of this new papacy, the well-documented religious leanings of Pope Benedict XVI – as Cardinal Ratzinger has chosen for his official papal name – suggest that the incoming pontiff will follow closely in his predecessor’s footsteps by advocating a tightly-controlled interpretation of Scripture and a renewed focus on returning the church to its ultraconservative roots.

Ratzinger has opposed efforts to increase the standing of women in the church, and is a firm believer in celibacy for the clergy. He has called homosexuality an “intrinsic moral evil,” and has opposed efforts to allow members of the LBGT community to adopt children, be foster parents, coach sports, or be school teachers.

In 2003, as a steadfast defender of Catholic teachings, Ratzinger was the chief architect and public face of a Vatican statement against the legalization of marriage for same-sex couples, calling such unions, “immoral, unnatural, and harmful.” The then-cardinal said his belief was that, “Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law.”

Like Pope John Paul II, the 78-year old Ratzinger opposes the use of contraception and condoms to combat the spread of AIDS, despite the frenetic growth of the Catholic Church in Africa and Latin America, two areas plagued by soaring rates of HIV infection.

And then there is the priest sex scandal. In recent years, as allegations of abuse roiled the U.S. Catholic Church, Cardinal Ratzinger said he was “personally convinced” that American reporters were deliberately distorting the scope of the problem in an effort to discredit the church. He concluded that “the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States…a planned campaign…that it is intentional.”

Through his unyielding opposition to facile, modern interpretations of the Catholic doctrine, his disdain for policies shaped by the seas of public opinion, and his commitment to preserving hard-line Catholicism against those who “pick and choose” their religious beliefs, Ratzinger earned himself the nickname “the enforcer” at the Vatican, as well as “God’s Rottweiler” and “Cardinal No” in the European press.

Matt Foreman, who leads the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, quickly took the selection of Ratzinger to task. “Someday, the church will apologize to gay people as it has to others it has oppressed in the past,” he said in a statement to the media. “I very much doubt that this day will come during this Pope’s reign. In fact, it seems inevitable that this Pope will cause even more pain and give his successors even more for which to seek atonement.”

So, although no one can be certain at this juncture just how the new pontiff will shape the Catholic Church as its moves forward, those watching the papal selection proceedings and hoping for a leader with more progressive and gay-affirming views will have to wait for the next conclave to get their wish.