UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Yesterday, the Spanish journal Religión Digital published an interview with the gay Polish priest who came out of the closet in a public way prior to the synod on the family — Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa. Those following this story will know that Msgr. Charamsa was quickly defrocked by his bishop (in sharp contrast to the many priests who have abused minors and have been permitted to remain in ministry, have been moved about from parish to parish and hidden from public scrutiny).
The interview with Msgr. Charamsa in Religión Digital is a conversation between him and journalist José M. Vidal. To the best of my knowledge, this article has not yet been translated into English. I’m very grateful to my friend Brittmarie (Brittie) Janson Perez for sending me and others on her email list a quick translation of the article. As she notes, tools like Google Translate allow non-Spanish readers to have a fairly good, if somewhat rough, idea of what the article is saying.
If I spot an English translation or any Spanish-speaking reader of this blog wants to provide one (and Brittie herself may well have more commentary down the road), I may have further commentary on this interview. For now, here are highlights that leap out at me (whose Spanish is rudimentary, though I can make out quite a bit):
Vidal asks Msgr. Charamsa, “The church preaches mercy, but does it not keep on persecuting homosexuals?” (La Iglesia predica misericordia, pero ¿sigue persiguiendo a los homosexuales?). Charamsa replies:
Sí, hay una verdadera persecución por parte de la iglesia católica tanto de las personas como de la comunidad LGBTI en general. Es la persecución de las minorías sexuales que no pertenecen y no pueden pertenecer a la mayoría heterosexual. Se trata de un proyecto ideológico de la Iglesia. Mi Iglesia se permite afirmar que debe luchar contra los gays al igual que luchaba contra el nazismo. Nos comparan con los nazis, los enemigos de la humanidad. Esta afirmación ha salido en boca del cardenal africano Sarah justo en medio del sínodo, que en su lugar debería pensar con misericordia sobre las familias. La Iglesia está obsesionada con la homosexualidad, así como con la sexualidad humana en general.
Yes, he says, the Catholic church persecutes sexual minorities, the LGBTI community, in particular. It does so as an expression of the percecution of sexual minorities who do not and cannot fit into the heterosexual majority. This is treated as an ideological project by the church — something akin to the ideological battle against Nazism. LGBTI people are compared by church officials with the Nazis; they’re tagged as enemies of humanity. Cardinal Sarah made such an equation during the synod. The church is obsessed with homosexuality, as it is with human sexuality in general.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.