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Not your average Pope-bashing

The latest tasteless attack on the Pope has a strangely self-defeating undercurrent

By Milo Yiannopoulos on Monday, 26 July 2010

Not your average Pope-bashing

The Holy Father's soft-soled red moccasins (AP photo)

Most Catholic journalists and publications have by now received their free copy of The Pope Is Not Gay!, a charming little book that purports to expose Pope Benedict XVI’s complicated relationship with homosexuality while mocking his dress sense.

The book is deeply offensive, but not for the reason you might imagine. Let us skip over the tired and predictable Church-bashing and focus on the central conceit – and the selling-point of this slim, hot pink paperback – that the Pope’s “extravagant attire and his controversial relationship with his private secretary, Cardinal Georg Gänswein” sits uneasily with his “doctrinal rigidity on issues such as birth control, abortion and homosexuality”.

By “doctrinal rigidity” I presume the author, Angelo Quattrocchi, means “being a Catholic”. The fact that a third of the book isn’t even original material, but consists solely of freely available documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, hardly speaks in its favour. But it’s Quattrocchi’s laziness and cheap jokes (his tone is consistently snide and malicious), combined with his own strange ideas about what makes a gay man, that gave me pause for thought.

It isn’t enough to say that the book merely insinuates that the Pope is homophobic. It states it outright: “What they [the Pope and Mgr Gänswein] have in common, apart from their reactionary sentiments [again, I think he means "Catholicism"], many reactionary friends and the thousands of little habits created by their day-to-day contact, is a profound and implacable homophobia”.

Quite a claim. Yet, at the same time, Quattrocchi trowels on the innuendo, calling the Pope’s sexuality into question again and again because of his allegedly flamboyant taste in clothes and because he spends a lot of time with his private secretary (deeply suspicious, I’m sure you’ll agree).

In other words, he reduces homosexuality to an offensive and reductive set of physical characteristics and mannerisms before casting aspersions on the man’s sexuality because he matches the physical expectations deriving from those prejudices. Forgive me, but who, exactly, is being homophobic here?

The Pope Is Not Gay! claims to be “an irreverent history of homophobic and sexist obscurantism in the Holy Roman Church and an endoscopic examination of its greatest contemporary advocate, Pope Benedict XVI”. But I wonder if an endoscope was the right instrument for its author to employ. Perhaps a mirror would have been more appropriate.

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About the author

Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo Yiannopoulos is a journalist and broadcaster who was named one of the top 100 most influential figures in Britain's digital economy by Wired magazine.

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  • Pauline

    Georg Gaenswein is not a cardinal he is only a monsignor and the Pope has another secretary who is from Malta also a monsignor who handles the back office functions. .

  • Rohan

    I can't wait to buy the book! The perfect advertisement for the book was seeing the Catholic media dismiss it as a tasteless attack on the pope, something they have done time and time again when legitimate criticisms have been made about him throughout the international Catholic child-rape crisis.

    I would argue that it is far more homophobic to reduce homosexual attraction and desire to “demonic posession”, “the work of the devil”, etc than it is to make a few generalisations about physical characteristics and manerisms of gays (which I would imagine were made tongue-in-cheek). I would much sooner live with the “affeminate mincer” steriotype than be refered to as an unnatural, unclean and indulgent sinner simply because of my completely natural sexual urges. So no, you don't get to take the moral high-ground and accuse the author of homophobia. That's a cheap and dishonest ploy and it didn't come across as even slightly convincing.

    The way you people have managed to convince yourselves that homophobia is respectable if your imaginary friend tells you to be that way – seriously, it makes me sick to my stomach. I would have far more respect for you if you just came out and admitted “gays are different from us and that makes me uncomfortable” rather than trying to paint your intollerance as some kind of virtue. There are plenty of other things forbidden/sanctioned in the bible that are ignored by modern Catholics. The bible talks about certain types of mildew that make your house ritually unclean until it has been blessed by a priest, it advocates slavery and the stoning of adulterers.

    If you can manage to ignore those other “teachings”, why this obsession with homosexuality?

    If Catholic opposition to gay marriage was truly, as many Catholics say, because sex is only about procreation, then you should also be petitioning for the following people to lose their right to marry:
    - Any woman who has gone through menopause
    - Anyone who is infertile
    - Any man who is impotent
    - Any man who has had a vasectomy
    - Any woman who has had a hysterectomy
    - Any disabled person who is incapable of having sex
    - Any woman whose body is not capable of carrying a child to full term

    You're not interested in doing that because you still believe the above people should be allowed to get married because none of the above scenarios are quite as evil as two men who love each other being able to get the same legal recognition as any heterosexual couple.

    Lastly, Ratzinger's dress sense is terrible and, let's face it, if he wasn't religious but was wearing those clothes, many people (including Catholics) would be referring to it as transvestism and some would even think it indicative of some kind of perversion. Perhaps he needs help with his wardrobe and who better to help him than the gay community?

    I'm seeing a new amazing TV concept: Queer Eye for the Papal Guy

  • http://twitter.com/MR_CHIPFAT MR_CHIPFAT

    The false doctrine of enforced celibacy forces men into sexual sin, by depriving them of a normal happy married life. The infallibility is false too, as most popes have been immoral.

  • teatime

    I don't even know why this silly and tasteless book was even dignified with a article on this blog. It only serves to attract comments like the ones above.
    Pope Benedict deserves better than this.

  • Michael Kenny

    Why don't the Catholic media focus on the damage the Church does to gay people?
    I am also saddened that gay men are in the priesthood – they must be really self-hating?
    I want all the gay people to leave the Catholic Church. If this ever happened there would be no more masses available….!

  • Bwaj

    First of all Our divine Saviour is the One Who commends chastity for the kingdom of God (celibacy) as higher than marriage (St. Mtt:19.12c) and St. Paul also recommends chastity (1 Cor:7.1,8). In fact those worthy of a place in God's Kingdom do not marry (St. Lk:20). Now referring to the issue of homophobia – this claim is utter rubbish. The Holy Father has condemned same-sex unions / gay marriages because God created marriage as being between a man and a woman (St. Mtt:19.4-6) and gay sex is a sin (Lev:18.22 1 Cor:6.9-10) because it is a violation of the sex act between a man and a woman just as fornication and adultery are (1 Cor:6.9-10), however, St. Paul tells us some believers in Corinth practised these sins before Baptism but are now saved (1 Cor:6.11). St. Paul makes no reference to those who are homosexual becoming heterosexual and Our Lord tells us there are those who were 'eunuchs from their mothers wombs' (St. Mtt:19.12a).
    'Catechism of the Catholic Church' http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a… '2357 …. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. 2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. 2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.'

    'LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE PASTORAL CARE OF HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS' (CDF: 1 October 1986): 3,10,12 do not condone words or acts against homosexuals but says such words and acts must be condemned. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations…

    So too does 'CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS' (CDF: 3 June 2003): 4 http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations…

  • Morodery

    Well you're not going to get what you want you stupid child. The Church happens to be true whether you like it or not, and it will keep growing and providing spiritual fulfillment and moral leadership to all people, whether gay or straight.

  • Morodery

    Well you clearly know nada about Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular if you come up with simplistic tripe such as this. The doctrine of papal infallibility relates to when popes speak ex cathedra on matters of doctrine. It has nothing whatsoever to do with whether they are good or bad people. Honestly the posters on this blog might as well be children for the learning on display. And how many priests have you spoken to to support your claim about celibacy? Are celibates statistically more likely to abuse? I don't think so. Get your facts straight.

  • Rohan

    Bwaj: Those are merely words written by men – extremely primitive ones at that. Show me actual proof that those are the words of God and I'll take back everything I posted and convert to Christianity today.

    Without proof God exists, you have to accept that you are doing serious harm to gays by publicly campaigning against their right to marry, adopt etc. If you are wrong and there is no afterlife or God, you Catholics have dedicated so much to the cause of not letting gay people enjoy the one life they have. All of this is based on an assertion you can't prove about the existence not only of a God but specifically the Christian God who, quite conveniently, happens to agree with you on which parts of the bible can be ignored and which should still be adhered to.

  • john grosvenor

    I agree, silly book, although I am not exactly enamoured wit the pontifs taste in clothing, it's an improvement on his HitlerYouth uniform

  • johngrosvenor

    The bible tells me quite clearly that homosexuality is wrong. It also tells me that I can sell my sister into slavery, I wonder how much I woul get for her?. It also tells me I can buy in slaves, provided I purchase them from another state. Living in England, does this mean I can buy a Welshman or is a Scotsman cheaper? If anyone out there in Cloud Cucoo land can advise me I would appreciate your help

  • Mclom

    Grow up.

  • Mclom

    No priest is forced into celibacy. He studies for about 7 years and at the end freely takes on the celibate life! What about the normally married paedophiles then? and adulterers? and wife beaters? The list of normally married men who are very sinful in their sexuality is endless.

  • Mclom

    Read Fr. Robert Spizer's website and you will learn that more and more astronomers and other scientists are coming to the conclusion, through Science, that God has to exist. It is mathmatically impossible for the universe and all its laws to have happened through chance. The man who thought out – invented if you like – the Big Bang Theory was a RC priest, Henri le Maitre.

  • Mclom

    Some more sniggering children have just walked into the room.

  • Prehistoria

    Hmm, yes amazingly attractive. I'm sure the Holy Father's attempts to re-evangelise Europe will go really swimmingly well on the back of this stuff. Not.

    The Church's obsession with gay sex is not reflected by its congregations. Sooner or later, you'll have to catch up with the rest of us in the modern world.

  • Stz2

    Bitchy, bithcy, bitchy…..

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