Quote of the Day: Pope Benedict XVI on Love

Wordle created by Mícheál Carchrie Campbell

I have to thank Mícheál for his regular updates of the Pope's public utterances on this trip. I know he would far rather be down in London today rather in a rather damp Belfast. However, part of that is the words that he spoke today. These ones especially stood out:

"We were made to receive love, and we have. Every day we should thank God for the love we have already known, for the love that has made us who we are, the love that has shown us what is truly important in life. We need to thank the Lord for the love we have received from our families, our friends, our teachers, and all those people in our lives who have helped us to realise how precious we are, in their eyes and in the eyes of God.

"We were also made to give love, to make it the inspiration for all we do and the most enduring thing in our lives. At times this seems so natural, especially when we feel the exhilaration of love, when our hearts brim over with generosity, idealism, the desire to help others, to build a better world. But at other times we realise that it is difficult to love; our hearts can easily be hardened by selfishness, envy and pride."

Speaking about love to an open audience is a wonderful thing. Acknowledging that we were made to receive and give love is truly a Christian attitude. It is something that reaches to the heart of the Christian message. But I'm wondering is there are caveats on just what sort of love that might be.

However, as love has made me who we are, it has made me accept that I am someone who yearns for the intimate love of another man. Yes I am wondrously made, but I'm made in that way, to love whom I love and to love my God as well. There is an exhilaration of being in love and of sharing love, agape, Eros or Platonic love (if we are going to the Greek).

Of course I am merely seeing it through my eyes, from a heart that isn't hardened too much but is open. I hope and pray that the Pope, his church and all the other churches can look at the way we should love. That we are made to give and receive that love and that the decision of which gender earns that most intimate of loves is not a socially engineered decision but part of how we were made.

As you can see from Mícheál's wordle at the top 'love' certainly was at the forefront of today's homily, yet has also been the matter of contention of many of those who today chose to Protest the Pope. It can't be fully right in either direction if that is the case.

Read also speaking also of love, my friend Mícheál has found a rather touching and moving letter from a gay priest which he has reposted on his blog.

Your Holiness, Some Catholics are Gay. Get Over It!

One of my friends this morning on Facebook has posted this:

"happy to welcome the pope to Scotland but hopes that amid all the pageantry, the survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of catholic priests, will receive compassion, apology and a fair hearing. Oh and your holiness, some people are gay, get over it."

I was tempted to add the title of this blog post as a follow up, but decided it neither further expansion, so this is it.

I think that says a lot about where some of the disquiet about this state visit, but at the same times shows a sense of balance. It leads on from the debate on Better Nation yesterday where both myself and Caron added our balance tuppenceworths. I do like it when Liberal Democrats of faith and none can reach an agreement that freedom of religious believe is also embedded in the preamble to our constitution.

Over the last few days I've been seeing a lot of my gay friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or other media condemn the Popes visit for whatever reason. I've also seen some of my gay, Catholic friends looking forward the the visit which I why I think these needs saying.

Just as many of us don't agree with everything that our political leaders say, so do many of us not agree with everything that our religious leaders say (even if they claim divine infallibility). There are many of us in the churches of all types who have struggled with our own sexuality and what has been said from our pulpits. Many of us have to undertake a journey on our own with our bibles and with prayer to come to an acceptance of ourselves first and foremost as both gay and Christian. There are now some more support groups out there but many of us still make that journey on our own.

We do it alone fearing being ostracised or excommunicated from a church or religion (as it applies to other faiths too) that we feel in fellowship with and part of. Gay Christians tend to have two additional families outside of their own flesh and blood, the LGBT family and the church family yet they appear like the Montagus and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet always to be at each other's throats (there are of course exceptions).

I saw another tweet that said the Pope was not welcome until the progress was made on all the aspects at which there are dispute contraception, child abuse and homosexuality. The middle one of those I think is at the start of progress being made, however it may well take time. The other two similarly. As I have blogged before it took me over a decade to reconcile my own sexuality with my faith and that was just one individual looking at it out of self interest not the generalities with with the leadership of a church looks at it. Therefore I'm prepared for the churched to take their time to come to conclusions, what I do want however is for them to start on that journey.

As I would have said, because I know, some Catholics are gay, as are some Presbyterians, Baptists, Jews, Muslims etc. We need to all get over it, acknowledge it and work with it.

Bannside to Morningside*

Lord Bannside, who until recently was just plain old the Right Honourable, Rev. Dr. Ian K. Paisley P.C., M.L.A., as well as former M.P. and M.E.P. has announced he is visiting Edinburgh this week.

Far be it for me to point out that the Festival has finished for another year he has another reason for visiting the city I've worked in for the past nine years. Yeah, anyone who know the history of Paisley and the Popes (video link) will hardly be surprised that he is heading the protest against the Pope in Edinburgh.

Regular readers will know that I don't always see eye to eye with Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh, but I had to admire him in the press conference yesterday. He mentioned that as a man born in the former MP's constituency he would have been surprised if Paisley had not made the journey to make his protest.

If what Lord Bannside has said is the reason he will be protesting, in light of the recent revelations he has a justified reason** to protest against a State Visit, when he said :

"What we're doing, we're making a legitimate protest about something that is entirely wrong, and I am looking at myself as a person who is prepared to champion those who have been very, very badly treated by these priests of Rome."

The problem I have with the Protest the Pope idea is that there are elements of this visit which are State Ceremonial, there are other elements which are Pastoral to the Catholic pilgrims who will also be visiting these cities along with the protesters. Therefore protests at the civic elements of the Pope's visit are to be expected, however they should leave the religious elements to those of the faith to have their time with their spiritual leader.

Personally I'll not be making a physical protest. However, I will continue stand up against what I feel are wrong statements and falsehoods on this blog as time goes on (and yes that will mean the odd spat with a good friend). That goes for any church not just the Roman one.

* He may not actually visit Morningside, I'm aware of that, but the Southern Edinburgh works for the wordplay. It is also more widely known than Hillside which is right next to the Catholic Cathedral, so give me artistic license.

** Yeah me having good things to say about Cardinal O'Brien and Ian Paisley in the same blog post mark that in your diary.