armageddon

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 29, 2005

We can't say we hadn't been warned. Three years ago already, the Episcopal Bishops of Massachusetts predicted the carnage that we are witnessing this very moment.

The Episcopal bishops of Massachusetts, in a rare public challenge to the Catholic Church, are warning that a steady stream of comments by Vatican officials critical of gays in the priesthood could lead to hate crimes in the United States. In interviews yesterday, the bishop of Massachusetts, M. Thomas Shaw, his suffragan, or assistant, bishop, Roy F. Cederholm Jr., and a bishop-elect, Gayle Elizabeth Harris, all said they believe the danger to gays and lesbians is so great that they feel compelled to speak out despite their reservations about wading into another denomination's controversy. Shaw, the top Episcopal bishop in the state and head of the nation's largest Episcopal diocese, said he was particularly upset by a report from Rome last week that a Vatican cardinal, Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, said "a homosexual person ... is not suitable to receive the sacrament of holy orders." -- from Michael Paulson, "Gay comments concern bishops: Vatican's remarks are feared to incite hate crimes in US," Boston Globe, December 10, 2002, page A30.

Prophetic. But the Holy See didn't listen, and we have reaped the consequences. Out my window as I type I look on throngs of rioters surging around the overturned busses and burning police cars. The Comp Lit department of the local college is being lynched from utility poles. Starbucks is already in ashes. It didn't have to be this way.

In other news, the Pittsburgh Pirates have acquired right-handed reliever Terry Adams.

From Egbert, Iowa, the grim scene we see replayed throughout America. Their homophobia unchained by this morning's release of the Vatican's Instruction on Criteria for Seminary Admission, frenzied mobs of hate-fueled thugs rampage through the streets, breaking windows, torching libraries, and baying for the blood of differently-oriented citizens. "Got me a six-point buck flight attendant," gloated Egbertite Walt Haffner, "first time out." (CWN photo)