Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: As Pope Francis Informs French Ambassadorial Appointment He's Unacceptable, Papal Nuncio Slated to Speak at NOM Anti-Gay Hate Rally

Here's a two-fer for you — a two-fer of very stinky Catholic birdcage droppings:

1. As Jean Ann Esselink reports for The New Civil Rights Movement, Pope Francis has met with Laurent Stéfanini, the French government's ambassadorial appointment to the Vatican, and has told him to his face that he's not suitable for the position. Because (reading between the lines, but the subtext is glaringly obvious) he is gay. Though a practicing Catholic and very discreet about his sexual orientation. 

2. And, as this happens, as Human Rights Campaign reports in a press release yesterday, this coming weekend, the papal nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, will be speaking at the National Organization for Marriage's anti-gay rally in Washington, D.C. As the HRC media statement notes, the rally "will feature some of the most virulently anti-LGBT voices in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to rule against marriage equality in its deliberations this summer." And: 

NOM has a long history of giving voice to hate. In its fight against equality, the organization has used racially motivated tactics as strategy, committed numerous campaign ethics violations, and promoted speakers and pundits who accuse LGBT people of child endangerment and abuse and compare marriage equality to Hitler’s Third Reich.

I am so deeply ashamed at (and, to be frank, repulsed by) the "pastoral" leaders of my Catholic church.

Note how out of touch the leaders of the Catholic church are with the Catholic laity on the issue of human rights for LGBT people: as poll results released yesterday by the Public Religion Research Institute show, 6 in 10 lay Catholics in the U.S. support marriage equality. As Jack Jenkins points out, the majority of most major religious groups in the U.S. now support marriage equality, with white evangelicals (whose strength lies in the American Southeast) standing out as the religious group least supportive of marriage equality among all American religious groups (at 28%). 

Let me say it again: I am so deeply ashamed at (and, to be frank, repulsed by) the "pastoral" leaders of my Catholic church.

(My thanks to Facebook friends Jean François Garneau and Kathy Shaw for supplying links to me that I've cited above, and my apologies to all of you that I'm running behind on acknowledging your very valued comments to previous postings here.)