In
this Issue:
Commentary:
A New Inquisition
By Rev. Michael Piazza
 A few
weeks ago, I stood on a Sunday morning in St. Peter’s
square with several thousand other people. At precisely
12 noon, Pope Benedict XVI appeared in the window of his
apartment, addressed the crowd and then blessed us. It
was a surreal experience for a variety of reasons.
I was
struck by the lilt of the Pope’s voice. If a man
wearing elaborate and colorful dresses had addressed my
church in Dallas with that voice no one would have thought
a thing about it. We are accustomed to gay preachers. No,
I’m not suggesting that the Pope is gay. I just think
that the head of an institution where the male employees
wear frilly dresses and are not allowed to marry or have
children, and where he himself is guarded by handsome young
men wearing the nelliest costumes, ought to be careful
throwing stones at homosexuals.
This
week, the Vatican issued guidelines designed to exclude
gay men from becoming priests. This is not a new crusade
for Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. He has been
obsessed with the sexual orientation of celibate priests
for some time. Now that he is Pope with absolute authority
he has decided to purge gay priests from the ranks of Roman
Catholic seminaries. Although I cannot understand, for
the life of me, what possible difference the sexual orientation
of a celibate person can make, this Pope seems to think
it matters.
My suspicion
is that, rather than dealing with the effect that celibacy
has had on the sexual abuse of priests, the Catholic church
as decided to blame homosexuality. Sexual repression is
unhealthy, and to insist that grown men live their whole
lives in such an unnatural way is bound to have unhealthy
consequences. Like most conservatives, the current Pope
has decided that if the current level of repression isn’t
working then the answer is to increase the repression.
Note the Pope’s edict singles out for exclusion men
with “deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies.” The
church is still not purging those with “deeply-rooted
pedophilic tendencies,” or even those with “deeply-rooted
homicidal tendencies.” Since when did a “tendency” of
ANY kind become a sin? Again, aren’t ALL priests
still expected to be celibate? So this Pope now wants to
exclude people based on the feelings in their heart!
Lost
in all of this is the fact that human sexuality is a gift
from God. Like all gifts it can be abused, but making religious
leaders be non-sexual people implies that sexuality is
a hindrance to spirituality. Pedophilia, like that practiced
by thousands of Catholic priests, is not about sex or love;
it is about power and abuse. The Catholic Church ought
to be asking why it has attracted and so long protected
so many pedophiles. Study after study has proven that lesbian
and gay people are no more likely to be pedophiles than
heterosexual people. The truth is heterosexual men commit
well over 90% of the child abuse in our world. An inquisition
to purge the church of gay priests will not make Catholic
children safer, though it may certainly endanger millions
of Catholic children who are growing up lesbian and gay.
Homophobes are the only ones made safer by this. If the
Pope can discriminate against people for what they feel
in their heart then certainly everyone else’s bigotry
is justified as well.
I do
not wish to add to the pain of my Catholic sisters and
brothers. As you might imagine, with a name like Piazza,
my own spiritual heritage is Roman Catholic. However, just
as with the first inquisition, this is wrong, hurtful and
should be vigorously opposed by all people of good conscience.
We don’t usually involve ourselves in the inner workings
of other churches. However, when the leader of a billion
people launches a moral crusade against an already oppressed
people, it is time to rebuke him in the name of the God
of Jesus Christ.
On our
website you will find the email address of Bishop William
Skylstad, President of the US Catholic Council of Bishops.
Let him and the other Bishops know of your own experience
and of your hope that they will be conscientious objectors
to this newest inquisition.
Click here to write US Catholic Bishops
World AIDS Day
A Day for Remembrance
 Across the world yesterday, millions of people gathered
to remember those lives taken by a disease still considered
one of the greatest health threats in the world today.
In a recent CNN/TIME survey released November 30, some
56 percent of those questioned rated HIV/AIDS as
the biggest health threat, compared to 35 percent
who said heart disease and 7 percent who said bird
flu.
When asked about "the single biggest hindrance to fighting
AIDS globally," 50 percent said it was a lack of education
and 25 percent said a lack of commitment from political world
leaders.
In France, there is much less of a discrepancy between
the proportion of people who rate lack of education (39
percent) and commitment from world leaders (35 percent)
as the problem.
Insufficient availability of treatment is named by just
19 percent of those surveyed.
Two-thirds of those surveyed expect an HIV vaccine to
be developed within the next 10 years.
One in five think it will be within 50 years.
Some eight percent of people think an effective vaccine
will never be developed.
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of those in France,
Britain and Germany feel they personally have access
to public information and education about AIDS.
The research was undertaken between 18 and 23 November
among representative samples of approximately 1,000 adults
in each of Britain, France and Germany.
The margin of error is +/- three percent. TNS is a leading
global provider of market information.
H4PJ Dallas Mixer: Monday Night with Mike
Monday, December 5 | 5pm-7pm | Fuse
An Open Invitation from Phil Martin, H4PJ Board Member:
This month’s Monday
Night with Mike will be held December
5 at Fuse in Downtown Dallas. The event will begin at 5pm
and last until around 7pm. Fuse is located at 1512 Commerce,
Suite 100. Appetizers will be provided with a cash bar ($3
drinks).
Monday
Night with Mike is a free event. Everyone is invited!
This is a great way to meet new people that are passionate
about our issues.
Michael
Piazza, President of Hope for Peace & Justice,
will speak about current issues and H4PJ. Please mark your
calendar for this special event on December 5th.
Remember to invite your friends and family! I hope to see
you there.
Phil Martin
H4PJ Board Member
H4PJ
Death Penalty Initiative
US approaches 1000th Execution since 1976
This week, the United States will likely reach the grim
milestone of 1,000 executions of convicts since 1976, though
capital punishment is declining with fewer juries choosing
death sentences.
A convicted murderer was put to death by lethal injection
in Ohio on Tuesday, making him the 999th executed inmate
since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment 29
years ago.
John Hicks, 49, was killed by lethal injection in the
prison of Lucasville, Ohio, state prison authorities
said.
Hicks was sentenced to death over the 1985 murder of
his mother-in-law and five-year-old step-daughter.
He was under the influence of drugs during the killings.
According to a copy of his final statement before his
execution, Hicks said, "First I'd like to thank my Heavenly Father
for forgiving me of these crimes I committed and to the victims
who lost their love ones, I know it has been 20 years of
pain and hurt.
"Y'all endured the pain each day. I hurt too. I cared
and loved them too. God has forgiven me. I'm sorry and I wish
I could bring them back," he said.
"The real me began with a syringe in my arm and now today
I have a needle in my arm. I have come full circle. I'm at
peace with it," he said.
An execution was scheduled in Virginia for late
Wednesday, but on Tuesday, Virginia Governor Mark
Warner issued an eleventh-hour reprieve for Robin
Lovitt, commuting his death sentence to life in
prison without parole.
The governor explained his decision by the fact that
evidence from Lovitt's trial was destroyed by a court
employee, even though the state of Virginia was legally
obligated to maintain physical evidence until the
defendant had exhausted every legal post-trial remedy.
The grim milestone is now likely to be reached on Friday
as North Carolina and South Carolina both have executions
scheduled for that day.
"The impending milestone occurs at a time when the country
is sharply moving away from the use of the death penalty," according
to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC).
"The 1000th execution is a significant event in the nation's
30-year experiment with capital punishment, but it is not indicative
of an expanding or strongly endorsed use of capital punishment," said
DPIC director Richard Dieter.
"To the contrary, there is a wealth of evidence that the
country is pulling back from the death penalty," Dieter
said.
Statistics show a 50 percent decline
in the number of death sentences since
the late 1990s and a drop of 40 percent
in executions since they peaked at 98
in 1999. There were 59 executions last
year.
Moreover, the number of inmates on death row -- the prison
wing for prisoners awaiting execution -- has
declined each year since 2001.
Last month, a Gallup poll showed that 64 percent of Americans
remain in favor of capital punishment, though
80 percent backed it in the 1990s.
The death penalty has also come under fire since
inmates facing execution have been found innocent
after their convictions, unmasking flaws in the judicial
system. In the last 32 years, 122 death row inmates
have been released.
Former Illinois governor George Ryan triggered a
heated debate in January 2003 when he cleared the
state's death row after learning of various cases
in which innocent people were sentenced to die.
"More and more people understand that the death penalty
makes mistakes, disproportionately affects the poor and people
of color, doesn't deter crime, and is expensive, arbitrary
and immoral," according to 1000executions.org, an Amnesty
International website.
The Supreme Court court
barred executions of people
with mental illness in
1986, people younger than
16 at the time of the crime
in 1986 and people with mental retardation
in 2005.
This year, it forbade capital punishment for people who
were under 18 at the time of
the crime.
The death penalty is currently on
the books in 38 US states, but many
seldom or never use it. The vast
majority of executions take place
in southern states.
More than half of all executions take place in three
states: Texas has executed 355 people, Virginia
has put to death 94 and Oklahoma another 79.
The US government also has the death penalty for federal
cases, but it rarely uses it.
The most prominent US execution in recent years was that
of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh. He was executed in 2001 after a federal trial
over the attack of a federal building in 1995 in which
168 died.
The first person executed after the Supreme Court's
1976 ruling was Gary Gilmore, who was killed by
firing squad in Utah in 1977. It was the first execution
in 10 years.
Gilmore
was immortalized in American author Norman Mailer's "The
Executioner's
Song."
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