WHAT HYPOCRITES

An American Secretary of Agriculture was on a commercial flight several decades ago and, after a couple of drinks, became garrulous and indiscreet in conversation with a fellow passenger.

The US Government equivalent of an Australian Cabinet Minister started talking about religion, the Catholic religion, the Pope and the Church ban on contraception.

Fuelled, it was claimed, by several martinis, the Secretary, Earl Butz, put on a fake Italian accent and said of the Pontiff:

“You no playa da game, you no makea the rules.”

It caused a furore in religious and political circles even then (before the days of political correctness) but I must admit his comment floated to the surface of my brain in this week’s debate over sexuality and the Church.

It was prompted by an open letter written to Cardinal George Pell by his lesbian cousin – a former nun named Monica Hingston.

She spent 26 years of her life as a nun – even risking her life helping disadvantaged and suffering people in Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile.

Her female partner spent 35 years (more than half her life) helping others as a Franciscan nun. They have partners for 19 years. That’s about twice as long as many legitimised heterosexual marriages last.

In our sister paper, the Herald Sun this week, Sarah Henderson, had a telling column about the issue of homosexuality in particular and tolerance in general in the Catholic Church.

Henderson, a lawyer from a Catholic family said: The Catholic Church is very good at articulating the so-called failings of others. It is not so good at turning the mirror on itself”.

What prompted this new debate, spurred by Hingston’s newspaper letter, was the Vatican official declaration last year that homosexuals were

“seriously depraved persons”.

Hingston went to either her dictionary or her Roget’s Thesaurus to find synonyms for “depraved”.

She found words like: corrupt, debased, vicious, vile, wicked, degenerate.

I interviewed her on radio and she certainly didn’t sound like any of those things.

Her cousin, the new Cardinal, George Pell faced his own accusations about homosexuality – even paedophilia – and stood down as Archbishop of Sydney until cleared. Not found innocent. From memory the verdict was that the alleged offences were too long ago. No conclusive evidence was brought forward. The accuser may be unreliable. The Church certainly leaked enough material to smear the accuser.

But that is not the issue here. It is whether gays and lesbians have any place, and any rights, in their church.

The Rainbow Sash Movement – which I believe started here in Melbourne – clashed repeatedly with a dogged and unyielding George Pell when he refused them Communion.

Since his cousin’s newspaper article Cardinal Pell has released a brief statement saying that “The Church’s views are well known and will not change.”

Of his cousin’s lifestyle he said: “I continue to regret the path she has chosen”.

I am grappling with this argument from a perspective that may weaken my argument. I am an atheist and am not homosexual.

But I remember the words of the late, progressive, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre-Elliot Trudeau, who said that the government has no right in the bedrooms of its people. As long as the behaviour is between consenting adults.

Shouldn’t that apply to the church?

And does the ageing, ailing Pope (and his equally conservative Vatican advisers) really believe that Catholic homosexuals are depraved? Are millions of gay people who say they believe in a Catholic God unworthy of the religion they have followed? Should they be banned?

If that’s the case what would the Vatican’s answer be to all the homosexual priests in its global house? Not to mention the child-molesting ones.

There was a case in Queensland this week where a paedophile priest was jailed for six years for a litany of offences. Part of his defence was that he had been to confession and admitted his sexual sins to other priests about 1500 times. He said he felt better after the sessions in the confessional and then he went out and molested other children. Now THAT is what I call depraved.

Suffer little children. Not one of those priests alerted their hierarchy. Or if they did nobody did anything.

I have been in TV and talkback radio long enough to know that many people are homophobic. They will never change. And the Church encourages them not to change. Reinforces their fears and prejudices.

But, for God’s sake! It is not compulsory. I could never embrace a personal homosexual situation, and to be honest, sometimes can’t comprehend some aspects of gay relationships. And I also know gay men who wince at exaggerated mincing, lisping queens. But they are just people. Living, loving, loyal (sometimes religious) people.

I have seen gay relationships outlast Church-blessed marriages by years. Let them be. Whatever gets you through the night.

I have thought a lot about Monica Hingston (and her partner Peg Moran) since I talked to her on air. Between them they gave more than sixty years as nuns to their Church and their God and to humanity.

Now their own Pope – and Monica’s Cardinal cousin – tell them they are “seriously depraved”.

As an atheist I can afford to be flippant. But I reckon some of those Cardinal blokes in their dress-ups and red hats would have gone well at the Spanish Inquisition. And George would have been there pell-mell.

February 1, 2004

.©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2003