Catholic pontiff Joseph Ratzinger's habit of spewing heterosexist nonsense is not only a legitimate subject of condemnation. It also is a legitimate subject of inquiry and analysis.

The Catholic Church has changed its attitudes on the Earth revolving around the sun. It hasn't been so long since they admitted that evolution happened. Yet, they still make barbaric and superstitious claims about homosexuality.

Why?

Part of it is something that is pretty much secret to most heteros. Most Catholic priests are sexually active gay men. One weird rite of passage for so many gay Catholic men is to see a priest that sermonized against homosexuality at a gay bar, bookstore, pride celebration (frockless) or at a bathhouse. Closeted queers are often vocal in their homophobic comments, hoping that those comments will divert any questions about their sexual orientations or gender identities. Expand that to trying to keep most of a global priesthood in the closet, and you can see part of the reason why Ratzinger, regardless of what his sexual orientation actually may be, is so fanatical in his bigoted comments against the queer community.

Another reason has to do with the disturbing minority of priests who are child rapists. Ratzi and so many other Catholic clerics have tried to cover this up for years, though that strategy has backfired. Getting the flock all riled up over homosexuality or abortion is a great way to divert attention.

But, there is more to it than that. Although priests raping girls and boys both are common occurrences, raping boys gets more public attention because of our society's heterosexism and misogyny. Many of the boys used by the rapist priests are gay, which makes them more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. If those boys can be convinced that being gay is wrong, they are more likely to believe that they are at fault or to feel too self conscious to go public. Even delaying the coming out process of young gay victims of priestly rape can protect the perpetrators via the statute of limitations. The repugnant reality is that the heterosexist rantings of the Catholic Church are partly designed to protect the church from the victims of its pedophile priests.

The other reason, of course, is that the Bible is homophobic, and Christianity is a homophobic religion. However, the Catholic clergy routinely reject other things in the Bible according to the dictates of the latest Pope. Their clinging to homophobic bigotry cannot be explained by the generic bigotry of Christianity alone.

Photo: eürodäna