Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Here Are Some of the Things Said About LGBT Folks During the Synod (Smoke of Satan, Exorcism, Dictatorship, "This Synod Is on the Fa-mi-ly")

In case you haven't paid attention as the synod gathering occurred, LGBT folks, here are some of the things that pastoral leaders of the Catholic church have said about you and human beings like you as they have discussed the church's obligation to engage in pastoral ministry to the faithful (not all of these folks were at the synod, by the way; all are, however, commenting on the synod and its work):

Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship:

What Nazi-Fascism and Communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism are today.  

Archbishop Tomash Peta of Astana:

Blessed Paul VI said in 1972: "From some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God."

I am convinced that these were prophetical words of the holy pope, the author of "Humanae vitae". During the Synod last year, "the smoke of Satan" was trying to enter the aula of Paul VI. 

Namely:the proposal to admit to Holy Communion those who are divorced and living in new civil unions; the affirmation that cohabitation is a union which may have in itself some values; the pleading for homosexuality as something which is allegedly normal. 

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana:

When Jesus spoke, He was often very exclusionary in His language. For example, when Peter said to Jesus: "Oh, you ought not to suffer at the Cross," Jesus said: "Go and get behind me, Satan." This is very exclusionary language. And so the Synod Fathers should also stand up and say such things when they see these proposals for accepting homosexuality and divorce: "Satan depart from here, from this Synod Hall, and from this Holy Eternal Rome." Some people say it would be helpful to make an exorcism upon the Synod meetings. . . . 

For, this is really what awaits us, what is in front of us: a dictatorship of the homosexual ideology.  This is a new dictatorship. 

Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:

Most people in continental Europe or even North America, when they hear of a synod they think immediately of divorce-remarriage and will they receive Holy Communion. And they even mention homosexual unions. Africans say "Lord help us! Is that what you understand by family? This synod is on the fa-mi-ly."

And so it goes, as pastoral leaders (pastoral leaders!) of a major Christian denomination ask whether they can or should treat a segment of the human community as human beings, in obedience to Christ and the charge he has given to them to be good shepherds. And as many lay Catholics who claim to stand for gospel values permit this kind of discourse to pour forth at the very top of their church — as they stand by in silence while a segment of the human community is directly targeted by hateful rhetoric equating that segment of the human community with the diabolical, speaking of it as the enemy of Christ and of family, as the embodiment of an anti-human fascism that seeks to destroy religious commitment . . . .

Certainly other moderate things were said at the synod about LGBT human beings. My point is that the Catholic church is still — and this should shock its adherents, I'm also maintaining — the kind of institution in which top leaders feel perfectly free to make the kind of remarks I've cited above. 

While those footing the bill for this nonsense — lay Catholics — continue to stand by in silence and let the toxic nonsense pour out of the mouths of these "pastoral" leaders . . . .