Demagogue

The Vatican is furious. But is it really because of intrusive journalism or is it because Catholic church officials are forced to recognize that even many priests are not buying into the Vatican's neanderthal doctrines?

It all started when the current issue of the Italian magazine L'Espresso hit the newsstand. According to Reuters:

To write the cover story in this week’s L’Espresso, reporter Riccardo Bocca visited 24 churches in five large Italian cities and confessed sins he never committed or invented ethical dilemmas for the priest.

In one confessional in Naples he told the priest he felt guilty over his father’s death after the family allowed a doctor secretly to detach a respirator. The father had for years been paralysed, confined to a bed and unable to breathe autonomously.

Although euthanasia is officially condemned by the Church, the priest told him not to worry too much because God would be the ultimate arbiter.

“If I had a wife, a father or a son who for years was alive only because of artificial life support, I would pull the plug too,” said the priest, who then gave him absolution.

In another confessional box he faked being HIV positive and was told by a priest that whether or not he used a condom in order not to pass the virus to the woman he loved was “a very personal matter of conscience”.

The Church teaches officially that abstinence and monogamy — not condoms — are the best way to stop the spread of AIDS.

... An editorial in the Vatican’s newspaper, l’Osservatore Romano, said the report had “profaned” the sacrament of Penance ...

Bocca said it was not his intention to show disrespect for the Catholic church or its sacraments.

“What I wanted to show was the difficulties facing these priests as they try to carry out their duties in good conscience,” he told Reuters. “The differences I found were shocking even to me.”

On homosexuality, one priest told him: “Well, homosexuality is a tendency which is a valid human expression. There are even homosexual priests and lesbian nuns.”

Ya think so?

Asked if he should openly declare his homosexuality, the priest told him: “Generally the best thing to do is to be yourself. Come clean. Do what the English call 'coming out'.”

Yeah, and who knows? Someday, you might even be knighted.