Vatican plumbs new moral depths.

I have an extremely low opinion of the Vatican and the morally-challenged Cardinals and Bishops that make up the bureaucratic structure of that corrupt institution. So you would think that the Vatican could do little to actually lower my estimation of their character. You would think that but you would be wrong.

It seems the Vatican just has not yet reached the bottom of the moral barrel and they continue to explore new depths of moral depravity.

A resolution is about to be introduced into the United Nations on behalf of the 27 members of the European Union. Note that nothing here is a commentary on the UN and whether it ought to exist (I’d abolish it by lunch time if it were up to me). France, on behalf of the EU, will introduce a resolution calling on governments around the world to decriminalize being gay.

Now note what this measure does not do. It does not call on nations to grant equality of rights. It merely asks them to stop executing people for being gay, stop arresting them for being gay and stop imprisoning them for being gay.

The Vatican is against that. The Vatican faux state has a “permanent observer” at the UN, one Archbishop Celestino Migliore (Celestino sure sounds like a gay name to me and I hear he runs around town in a dress). Migliore, who as archbishop has reach a status that Jesus couldn’t accomplish in his own life, says that the Vatican will oppose the decriminalization of homosexuality.

And the argument he uses is two fold. First he said that if you don’t make homosexuality a criminal offence it will lead to “reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage” He claimed that unless gays are treated like criminals “states which do not recognize same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure.”

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi offers a second Vatican reason for criminalizing gay people. “It’s not for nothing that fewer than 50 member states of the United Nations have adhered to the proposal in question while more than 150 have not adhered. The Holy See is not alone.” So, they are in the majority.

The two arguments are: 1) letting gays live unmolested by the police is a threat to marriage and 2) the majority supports it. Sounds like the same false logic of Proposition 8 writ large. I guess the Vatican figured that such irrational positions worked with Prop 8 so they can try it with other things.

Of course this puts the Vatican in the majority with such enlightened states as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Zimbabwe. But you know what they say of birds of a feather. There seem to be three things that manage to get the blood flowing through the veins of the old farts who run the Vatican.

The first is denying women the right to control their own reproductive abilities through contraception or access to abortion. The second is any excuse for treating gay people like shit. The third is covering up the buggering of children by their priests. Truly the Vatican is a paragon of virtue -- at least by the standards of the Third Century.

Indicative of the church's moral authority here are a few news stories from the last few days.

Catholic priest pleads guilty to molestation charge in LA.
Arizona priest who skipped out on parole over molestation charges arrested.
Priest denied bail in trial for murder of nun.
Priest goes into hiding after being caught in love triangle with married woman.
Priest apologizes to children he abused.
Priest jailed for sex crimes against young girls.
Preist charged with new sex abuse charges, church helped cover up for him.
Priest arrested for sending threatening letters.
Parish priest arrested on sex charges.
Priest arrested for indecency.
Priest jailed on child porn charges.

These are just a few cases in the news in recent days. Apparently the Vatican has trouble prioritizing their conserns.