Is The Catholic Church Still Living In The Dark Ages?
Obviously the leadership of the church is ignorant to the research that is out there concerning the ways of contracting HIV and AIDS. There are plenty of ways other than the lifestyle-related methods of contracting the disease. Do they not take this into consideration? Is this just a half-witted way to try and show that they are trying to stem the growing problem of pedophilia in their ranks?
If they want to try and stop the pedophiles that are among them, they might want to think about loosening their stance on celibacy. This might help even a little bit in fighting the sickness that is pedophilia.
It makes sense to me.
Why would the church even have the celibacy rule in the first place? I'm not a religious person, so I have trouble understanding the validity of this exercise. Sex is natural and is part of the human makeup. If you take that away, problems will no doubt arise.
An article I read stated:
"This is a very backwards idea because it links HIV to a gay lifestyle, and that is not always the case," Thomas said in an interview with the SRC, the French-language arm of Canada's public broadcaster, CBC. "And while they say this is a test of promiscuity, one can be very promiscuous, yet practice safe sex and never become HIV positive."
So where is the logic in this?
The Catholic Church's system of rules, policies, and actions are so muddled now that none of it make sense anymore to me.
This US article intrigued me:
"Critics of allowing gays to be priests say it conflicts with church teachings that homosexuality is a sin. Others say the church teaches that homosexuality is not a sin, but homosexual activity is.
No one knows for sure how many gays are priests. Estimates range from 10 to 40 percent of the U.S. priesthood."
"Both dioceses require seminary applicants to be tested for HIV, although the Cincinnati archdiocese has yet to craft a policy for what happens if someone tests positive, since no one has yet."
"People with (homosexual) inclinations just cannot be ordained," Joaquin Navarro-Valls, a U.S. spokesman for the Vatican, told the New York Times last month.
"That does not imply a final judgment on people with homosexuality," he said. "But you cannot be in this field."
Ok....Now I'm really confused!
I think that tackling the "gay" issue is a complete waste of time. The problem they really have is pedophilia which needs to be halted right away. It is obvious to me that the church is more than willing to tie gay men to pedophiles. This is absolutely wrong in my opinion. I've yet to see or hear any proof that these two things go hand-in-hand.
The church has completely mishandled both issues I feel. Here is an article that I think proves my point:
"Roman Catholic priests in the United States are dying from AIDS-related illnesses at a rate four times higher than the general population and the cause is often concealed on their death certificates, The Kansas City Star reported in a series of stories that started Sunday."
"I think this speaks to a failure on the part of the church," said Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit. "Gay priests and heterosexual priests didn't know how to handle their sexuality, their sexual drive. And so they would handle it in ways that were not healthy."
"How to be celibate and to be gay at the same time, and how to be celibate and heterosexual at the same time, that's what we were never really taught how to do. And that was a major failing," Gumbleton said.
"Six of 10 priests responding said they knew of at least one priest who had died of an AIDS-related illness, and one-third knew a priest living with AIDS. Three-fourths said the church needed to provide more education to seminarians on sexual issues."
The Star said precise numbers of priests who have died of AIDS or become infected with HIV is unknown, partly because many suffer in solitude. When priests tell their superiors, the cases generally are handled quietly.
"The newspaper cited the case of Bishop Emerson Moore, who left the Archdiocese of New York in 1995 and went to Minnesota, where he died in a hospice of an AIDS-related illness. His death certificate attributed the death to "unknown natural causes" and listed his occupation as "laborer" in the manufacturing industry."
"Some priests and behavioral experts believe the church has scared priests into silence by treating homosexual acts as an abomination and the breaking of celibacy vows as shameful."
I think that if there is a God watching us from up above, he/she/it must be ashamed of the actions of the Catholic Church. Doesn't the bible state that we should look after each other? Shouldn't we be looking after the people who need it the most, like the Emerson Moore's of this world?
I think the Vatican should take some of the $7.5 billion that is raised annually by the 20,000 American churches and put it to good use by helping their people in need. Or sell off some of the "vast holdings in real estate and investments that are the center of its financial power" to assist people in need. I have always been under the impression that the bible frowns on excessive material possessions. But I guess I'm wrong. Look at the physical structure of the Vatican and it's belongings.
Instead, they are throwing money away and not tackling the roots of the problems they face, such as pedophilia:
"Attorneys and specialists estimate that the diocese faces paying $40 million to settle the 140 pending sexual molestation claims against priests, and possibly tens of millions more as claims continue to pour in.
There is some evidence that the vast array of social services that the Boston agency of Catholic Charities provides is already being hurt by the scandal. The institution, which serves 170,000 needy people, announced layoffs of about 10 percent of its staff of 1,400 and a planned 15 percent cut in its $40 million annual budget, according to Catholic Charities president Dr. Joseph Doolin."
The Church should also stop making up silly stories to defend it's silly policies. There are more important issues to contend with and resolve. They should stop living in the 13th century and climb into the 21st century with the rest of us.
It's Been A Good Day
I was sitting in the living room this morning, watching the clusters of birds eating away at our bird feeder, when out of nowhere, a small bird crashes into our sliding glass-door window. I went to look out of the window to see if it was all right and noticed the poor little bird buried in the snow with the tips of it's tail feathers sticking out. As an animal lover, I was immediately concerned for it's well-being, so I rushed outside to see if it was still alive. I carefully and gently cupped my hands and raised the bird up and out of the snow. It was a small sparrow and it was still struggling to breath and it's eyes were shut and I was about to accept the fact that this bird had no chance to survive. Especially when it is -20 degrees Celsius out. I looked around for a place in the sun to set it in to see if it could in any way warm itself up and let it try and fight for it's own life, but there was nowhere that was suitable.
I've always believed in nature's way of letting the strong survive. Whether you live or die, you serve in helping the overall well-being of the natural world around you. But with this little bird crashing into my glass door, nature was being distracted from it's natural course. Since glass doors don't occur naturally, I began to have feelings of guilt and responsibility for this little guy's imminent demise. I decided then and there that I would take action and try and help this small little bird with whatever chance it had at survival.
I decided to bring it into the house to at least shelter it from the elements. I figured I owed it that much. As I have 2 cats that love to bird watch and I'm sure they would have loved to have met our new guest that had come in from the cold, I felt I needed a plan to keep them away as well as have a plan in case things went well for the bird and it wanted to try and fly. With the bird in one hand, I rummaged around the basement trying to find a suitable sized box with a lid to protect it from inquisitive cats and flight. I found the right kind of box (a good printer paper box with a solid lid). I set the little bird gently into it and sat back to observe it. Things didn't look good. The breathing was still laboured and it remained unconscious.
I watched it for a while and wouldn't you know it, but one eye had started to move a bit and was half open. As a little more time went on, both eyes were open, but it didn't move a muscle. I tried to nudge it a bit with my hand to see if it could move on it's own (I was fearful that maybe it had a broken wing, back or something other that was serious). It didn't move in response to my encouragement. I now felt worse than before, because at least if it was going to die out in the snow, it would have done so in a state of unconsciousness. Now it was fully awake and possibly suffering. Way to go Kevin.
After a few minutes I tried to nudge it again and see what the results of my actions might bring. As I did this, the bird suddenly leaped onto the back of my hand. This is when I felt a little panicky. What if the bird was now fine and decided it wanted to leave my company? The last thing I needed was a bird racing around the house crashing into things and my cats following around behind it in a wild frenzy. I quickly grabbed the box lid and then slowly lowered it down over the bird on my hand which was positioned over the now empty box. It looked at me in the eyes as if to say "you have to be joking if you think you're going to put me back in that box". It did let me do just that, without as much as a flutter of it's wings.
After it was secured safely in the box, I was feeling pretty good about myself and that little bird. It wasn't long however that I began to realize that if the bird stays in this house any longer (the house that was nearly 40 degrees warmer than it was outside where it belonged), it could suffer temperature shock that could make this wonderful revival all for naught.
I threw my coat and boots on and gently brought the box with the bird in it back out into the yard where I had found him. Was this going to work, I wondered?
I slowly raised the lid off the box and peered inside. The bird made no attempt to fly away. It just looked up at me with seemingly helpless eyes. This wasn't going to work, although the bird was functioning well enough to evacuate itself on the floor of the box. I was hoping this wasn't the bird's way of expressing itself about how it felt about all of this.
I cautiously lowered my hands down and underneath the bird to raise it up out of the box so that it could see the world it knew, hoping that it would spur it on to fly away and be free again. As I got the bird half out of the box, it leaped out of my hands and flew to the large maple tree that stood in my neighbour's yard. I was as exhilarated as I felt the bird must have been! For a split second I knew what it was like to be one of those wildlife people you see on TV who have rescued eagles from injury and are now releasing them back into the wild again as they leap off of the biologists arm with a burst of energy and soar out over the forests to once again rule the skies.
I felt really great. The stress of being in a fender-bender the previous day, the miserable cold we've been living through the past week here in Ontario, and all the other negative news that has been bashing me in the head lately, seemed to melt away effortlessly. I could have stayed in that freezing sub-zero backyard all day and just watched the birds. I actually did for a few minutes, but the cold crept back in and I realized I should go back inside to continue calling around to get my car fixed. Back to our human world.
"The Corporation" - A movie we must all see!
THE CORPORATION engages us in a darkly amusing account of the institution's birth as a legal "person" whose prime directive is to produce ever-increasing profit for it's shareholders regardless of the cost to anyone, or anything else. This pathological nature wasn't always written in stone. 150 years ago a corporation was merely an organized way of doing business. Today it is is a global power.
Considering the odd legal fiction that deems a corporation a "person" in the eyes of the law, the feature documentary employees a checklist, based on actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and DSM IV, the standard tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. What emerges is a disturbing diagnosis.
To continue reading the synopsis of the movie, click HERE.
The theatrical trailer is available HERE.
Official Website
Additional info site #1
Additional info site #2
Reviews:
"The next Bowling for Columbine." -- Globe and Mail
"A provocative, entertaining, and at times chilling documentary." --IndieWIRE
"If it leaves you unmoved, pass on calling the doctor: Go straight to the morgue, because you are already dead." -- Montreal Gazette
"A brilliantly argued essay which takes us on a scintillating intellectual journey into the heart of global capitalism"
-- IDFA, International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam
Unbelievable Mars Panorama
It's a beautiful distraction from todays news stories!
Here is the 12 mb full version of the photo.
The Mars Exploration Rover website.
The Way I Feel....
A Little Bit About Me....
I also love history. Especially World War II history. I have a fairly large collection of original photographs of the war, helmets, correspondence, original newspapers and various weaponry (all inert and de-activated, of course). I hope to update my artifacts website to accommodate these items very soon. I already have several of my other items displayed on my website (the "My Historical Collection" link on the sidebar), which include many items from ancient Egypt, Roman, Aztec, Mayan, and North America. There are also many items displayed in the Natural History section that include fossils of megalodons, trilobites, and others.
I have recently obtained a collection of letters from an American during World War II (over 400 letters spanning 3 years of the conflict. His wartime travels took him to Africa, France, Belgium, England, and into Germany. He served in the air force in the 415th Night Fighter Squadron. Also included in the collection is over 2000 photographic negatives of his experiences, as well as his father's during World War I. The plan I have for these items, is to incorporate them into a book about the man known as George Walthers from New Jersey. This will be quite a task, but I am up for the challenge. I will be posting my progress as I go, on this blog. I've never written a book before, so any hints, tips, and tricks would be appreciated.
I also enjoy politics. World events are of a particular interest to me.
Until next time....
Hello....
About Me
My name's Kevin.
I live in Canada.
I have many interests, most of them deal with history and wildlife. I love to photograph nature and I love to collect historical items. You will find most of my everyday posting here (dealing with Canada, nature, photography, history, etc., along with the everyday goings on in my life.)
Feel free to leave a comment (there is a link for them after each posting). I also have a few other sites which you can find below on this menu.
Going Crazy.... (Wendy)
The Eyeranian
