Pope Benedict XVI against proposed U.K. Anti-Discrimination Laws

| 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks

Pope Benedict XVI has expressed his opinion against the proposed anti-discrimination laws in the U.K., which seek to prevent discrimination against job applicants based on race, gender, age, or sexual orientation. These new laws would also apply to religious organizations that employ lay people, which could mean legal actions against the Catholic Church for denying employment to homosexuals or transsexuals.   

One news article quotes Pope Benedict: "The effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal [of equality] has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed."

His remarks have caused discontent among secular groups, who are already planning protests during the Pope's visit to the U.K. next September. The president of the U.K. National Secular Society said: "The taxpayer is going to be faced with a bill for £20m for the visit in which he has already indicated he will attack equal rights and promote discrimination."

The news articles can be found here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/02/world/main6166603.shtml 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/02/equality-laws-unjust-pope-uk

No TrackBacks

TrackBack URL: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/1114

1 Comment

As a “recovering Catholic” (as I refer to myself), I feel that this situation speaks to me especially. Going to Catholic schools all the way through elementary and high school obviously put a slant on my beliefs toward what the Church believes, and it was not until I attended college at a Liberal arts college that I heard other perspectives on social issues. I believe that my experience is similar to that of many Catholics…that is, up until the Liberal arts college education.

Much of what I know now was not necessarily the way I learned as a kid. Creationism was still an element of my education with a bit more Darwinism thrown in during high school science courses. Abstinence only sex education was the norm. Religion classes, preparation for sacraments, theology, etc. were all consistent elements of my education for my most formative years.

How does this relate to the news article you ask? Well, approximately 1.1 Billion people in the world are Catholics. There are around 218 thousand parishes with over 408 thousand priests. Around 29 million children around the world are currently attending Catholic elementary schools. 16 million teens are attending Catholic high schools. These statistics show that Catholics are still one of the world’s most influential religions. That being said, in Catholic terms, what the Pope says is final and infallible. That is why the Pope telling priests to resist equality legislation is a huge step backward for attitudes not just of the priests but of the parishioners as well.

Obviously it is possible to try to legislate equality. Anti-discrimination laws for protected classes of citizens are on the books in many countries (while still not enough). The problem that arises in this scenario is that while the legislating change is good for attitudes, having THE prominent religious leader in the world reaffirm intolerance toward homosexuality is not. Because the Pope is the Church’s leader, his word becomes the law for those that identify with Catholicism.

This anti-homosexuality stance is not a new development either. Homosexuality in men has been denounced since the very early Church. (Sidenote: Lesbianism was not even recognized as legitimate for a long time in Church history.) Church scholars (the Pope in this instance) site St. Thomas Aquinas’ and his moral code or ‘Natural Law’for this issue. This natural law has been espoused by the church for centuries, claiming that Homosexuality is wrong and should not be condoned by the Church. Disagreements have mostly resulted in breaks from Catholicism to other forms of Christianity that are more LGBT friendly.

My ultimate point in all of this is that for someone who is more a Humanist then a Catholic at this point, seeing such a negative stance toward something with such positive connotation as ‘equality’ kills me a little inside. Religion is a great predictor of attitudes and in this case the Catholic Church is not being too subtle.

Resources:
-Summa Theologia of Thomas Aquinas
-Statistics from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) http://cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/

Leave a comment

Recent Entries

Portfolios
Given the variety and amount of work you are doing for this class, I'm thinking the easiest way to evaluate…
Rush Limbaugh shocks media in Miss America Pageant
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2010/02/01/rush-racism-media-stunned-black-woman-could-win-over-limbaugh Rush Limbaugh surprised the media in voting for a Black women at the Miss America Pageant in which she…
Policies up risk of psychiatric disorder in gays, lesbians
I found this article that talks about how homosexuals that live in states that ban same-sex marriage have an increased…