The Wild Goose festival is a gathering of liberal Christians to affirm each other in their liberalism. This year there were transgender workshops and a lecture from Catholic priest Fr. James Alison, who self identifies as gay, attacking the Catholic Church.
Juicy Ecumenism reports:
Alison was dismissive of Catholic opposition to homosexuality, comparing church leaders with Italian traffic cops: well-dressed figures who occasionally feel the need to emerge from their booths and direct traffic, causing more problems.
“They should be ignored,” Alison declared.
Catholic teaching about the “intrinsic evil” of homosexual acts was inconsistent, Alison argued, with the understanding that the attractions themselves were not sinful.
“Most Catholic bishops know being gay is a regularly occurring non-pathological variant condition,” Alison asserted, equating homosexuality with being left-handed. The evil, Alison maintained, is how the left hand is used, not the using of the left hand itself. Listing group rape and pagan orgies resulting in self-castration, Alison suggested that these were in fact what scripture warned against when forbidding homosexual practice.
The Brazil-based priest also waved off religious liberty concerns as bishops “rabbiting on” about fortnight for freedom. Catholicism, Alison suggested, issued rules for a Mediterranean culture with a relaxed view about church authority. American Catholics were in the unfortunate situation of hearing those rules amidst a “Protestant conscience” forcing them to obey.
Fielding questions from the audience, Alison sympathized with a married lesbian from the Archdiocese of Detroit who was struggling with “new, young conservative leadership.” Some Catholics, Alison assessed, were in the unfortunate situation of being in a diocese where “pharisaical” leadership had taken over.
Treating the Church’s views on sexuality with such derision does terrible damage.
I don’t know why it always seems to be the case that those who openly espouse teachings antithetical to the Church do not only ignore the Church but attack it. It’s not enough for them to be surrounded by those willing to ignore the Church, they must tear at it and rip it down.
