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Embracing Sexuality as a Part of Every Human Being

Thu, 03/14/2013 - 08:25
Submitted by The Intern

Dear Pope Frans,

I guess it’s appropriate to say congratulations. Congratulations. Especially with being part of one of the last places in the Western World that celebrates old age. Love that. Also, I love that your favorite cause is social inequality, and your favorite movie is the Danish ”Babette’s Feast”. I’m all there.

But dear Frans it appears that you are a nice man… it’s just that I had really hoped for you to be a man where the words ”conservative values” were less important… especially considering the subjects: homosexuality, contraception and artificial insemination…not to mention women in the Vatican.  That maybe you would think, "it's 2013, let’s see if we can make some new friends around the world".

’Cause you know what, Frans?  Some of the most sexually repressed people I know are Catholic. Okay, I don’t know any Afghan women, and it’s not as if things are great in India when it comes to sexual repression… but I’ll tell you, I know some really crazy stories about Catholic women and men in Western countries.

And seriously, Frans, you yourself are standing in the middle of the most obvious example of what I would say is the direct consequence of sexual repression: the unforgivable incidences of sexual abuse that the Catholic Church has ignored… for crying out loud, Frans! Can’t you see it? It’s all connected… and it all boils down to you embracing sexuality as the unavoidable part of every human being.

My dad has always said that if there is a God, his toes must be extremely curled with embarrassment from all the things he has to put his name to. I was kind of hoping that you’d come along and help curl out his toes… will you?

Fingers crossed!

Karen

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Embracing sexuality

Thu, 03/14/2013 - 13:07
Patrick_R

Hello Karen. I just wrote a reply to Lawrence's post on celibacy, and you're absolutely right---it's all connected. I grew up with the Catholic Church's impossible and cruel teachings on sexuality, and they're directly responsible for the abuse scandals as well as untold misery among Catholics. When I was 11 years old, the Church told me that my discovery of my body meant that I was a 'mortal sinner', headed for the same Hell that Adolf Hitler must have gone to. It was devastating to find out that being a normal, curious kid supposedly made me a terrible 'sinner'. It took me many years to recover. I'm completely unsurprised by the abuse scandals in the Church, because when healthy sexuality is driven underground it only encourages unhealthy sexuality to run riot. I appreciate your kind good wishes for the Catholic Church, but I'm afraid that any really compassionate changes in Catholic teaching will take centuries. They have two thousand years of experience in controlling others through claiming that healthy sexuality is the quickest way to go to Hell.

True

Thu, 03/14/2013 - 15:21
Jake E

I think the Pope and the Catholic church should be true to themselves and be accepted or rejected based on who they really are and let a universally literate online population make our own decisions.  

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