Father Raphael Trytek of Krakow, Poland told reporters at a gay rights rally that homosexuality is unnatural and a choice, and that “faggots” should be burned at the stake as they were during the Inquisition. And by faggot, I do not mean a bundle of sticks (which would be quite appropriate to burn, coincidentally).
This kind of bigoted vitriol is what I’d expect to hear from the Westboro Baptist Church, but not many Catholic priests. It is of course true that the Catholic Church is against homosexuality*, but that stems more from theology than homophobia. Its problem with homosexuality is the very same one it has with birth control and masturbation—homosexuality violates the procreative purpose of sex. Convincing or no, at least the Catholic position on sex is consistent. They don’t single out homosexuality as a sin like other religions do.
No such defense can me made of this particular priest, though. Father Trytek reveals more than a theological opposition to homosexuality, but a deep and irrational hatred too. How anyone is able to call him a “man of God” is totally beyond me.
*The majority (62%) of the Catholics in the US are at odds with their church’s teachings and find homosexuality “morally acceptable” according to a recent Gallup survey.
Update: I wanted to know who this Father Raphael Trytek character is, so I did some research. Trytek is a radical in both Catholicism and Polish politics. He belongs to a fringe group of clergy called sedevacantists who oppose the Second Vatican Council and believe that the Papal See has been occupied by illegitimate “antipopes” since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Trytek is also a member of the National Revival of Poland, a neo-Nazi political party.
But in Catholicism…
Perhaps he’s compensating for something.
Maybe we should burn priests at the stake? Or at least give them really really bad sunburns.
In fairness, I do think that such rhetorical is atypical coming from a priest. Had this been your run-of-the-mill homophobic evangelical, I wouldn’t have posted this. I posted this precisely because it was out of the ordinary.
And perhaps Dr. Kleiner could clear this up for me, but it may be the case that this priest has been excommunicated due to his rejection of current papal authority.
As a sedevacantist, he would be immediately excommunicated. This guy is not a Roman Catholic priest. To be fair, his excommunication was a function of his rejection of the Magisterium and Papal authority. Being bigoted or homophobic is ugly, but it is not in itself an excommunicable offense.
He should burn himself. Priests are child molesting faggots.
Most priests who molest children are actually straight, but even if they weren’t, it’s not ever ok to call someone a faggot derogatorily.
someone is going to be defrocked…
OH MY GOD. How many times do I have to say it? Reparative therapy DOES NOT work. Period. The APA’s answer to that question is even a flat-out and solid “No*.” No reparative therapy, no encouragement of suppression.
Sorry, I know I’m preaching to the choir (punny), I’m just sayin’.
Look, my rant even comes with a reference this time.
*http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx
(whoops, read too quickly before typing this. I see reparative therapy was referring to homosexuality, which I agree is stupid, I thought it was referring to sexual criminals, anyway, point stands…)
I agree with Courtney here. I’m a big supporter of capital punishment for that reason. Fritz Lang’s classic film M was an attack on the death penalty, but the killer both admits he knows of his sickness and gives in to his urges, and his lawyer claims that being sick makes the man unaccountable for his actions. Bullshit either way, therapy and medicine are just guessing games where the risk of relapse is perhaps another dead child (in the case of M). Some people simply can’t be had in society.
One of the many problems is that it’s far too easy to put innocent people to death, or put to death people who’ve committed crimes, but don’t deserve to be put to death, but had a vindictive jury and/or judge. Also, you’re advocating death sentences for sex crimes? That’s very extreme. Lastly, the American judicial system and also therefore the capital punishment system are extremely racially inequitable. A white person commiting the same crime as a black or latino person is far, far less likely to receive the death penalty, and far more likely to get a more lenient sentence than a person of colour is for the same crime committed in the same circumstances.
Furthermore, countries which focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment have far lower rates of recidivism. For extreme crimes, not only is it far more humane to simply incarcerate for life, but it’s also cheaper.
For so very many reasons, capital punishment is a terrible idea.