“…attention for what people with their different talents and biographies can bring to the Body of Christ, the people of God,” says Marx in his homily. It is true, a welcoming culture for all people in the parishes to create the church associations and movements, where everyone can speak their language and will yet understood: “the drawn Northerners and Bavaria, the middle class and the wealthy, the unemployed and the directors of the banks, the Greens and the Blacks, homosexuals and heterosexuals, the divorced and the marriage anniversaries, the refugees and the mountain soldiers.” Every human being who could be led by the Spirit of God “proclaims the Good News for others. In it we are all equal. Not the differences include, but what unites us.” ~ Cardinal Reinhard Marx (5/24/15)
Cardinal Reinhard Marx is the most prominent member of the German hierarchy pushing for greater acceptance of homosexuality in the Catholic Church; specifically at the upcoming Fall Synod on the Family. Not new to controversy:in 2011, Marx was reported as saying that the Catholic Church “has not always adopted the right tone” toward LGBT people. He went on to add that, while he cannot officially bless a union between two people of the same sex, he can (and implicitly will) pray for their relationship if asked. Recently, during his Homily for Pentecost, Marx included homosexuals in a lengthy comparison of different economic, social and ethnic groups and how these seemingly divergent communities can bring their unique “talents” into the Church for the betterment of all. Sadly, this statement reveals a serious lack in understanding concerning the origins and current reality of the gay lifestyle; it exposes simplicity in thought and a shockingly twisted sense of how gay men and women express their sexuality. First of all, Marx, by paralleling homosexuals with heterosexuals is creating a false analogy – that one is similar to the other; it also skillfully perpetuates the “born this way” theory, gives one the same status as the other, and, at the same time, diminishes homosexuality, and, raises it’s significance, by lumping it together with the arbitrary, like economic position, and the uncontrollably inherent – like ethnicity.
I have seen this sort of blind acceptance towards the current reimagining of the gay libertine into a domestic picture of monogamous bliss in a certain group with a seemingly sophisticated educational background and a penchant for finer living – i.e. the wealthy liberal conclaves in the US converging around New York, LA, and San Francisco as capitals for gay rights and the epicenters of the gay marriage movement. Marx inhabits the German equivalent: when the Vatican suspended and ousted German prelate Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in 2013 over his alleged lavish spending, Cardinal Reinhard Marx was also criticized as he spent around $11 million renovating the archbishop’s residence and another $13 million for a guesthouse in Rome. In these rarified environments, a certain salon atmosphere of intellectual adventurism and self-preening takes over – those who join in are exposed to a very narrow example of the gay experience; in most cases, to those homosexuals most interested in changing the Church’s position; as a template, these advocates have taken the enormous successes of the same-sex marriage campaign: by repackaging homosexuality as a natural variation – capable of the same ethical and moral highpoints as heterosexuality.
Those without a personal investment, or with the fortitude and courageousness to look beyond the propaganda, discover that homosexuals are deeply wounded, desperate, and angry people: in every study conducted, homosexuals have significantly higher rates of childhood trauma, abuse, neglect, and molestation, than heterosexuals; homosexual men have more than 3X as many sex partners as straight men; and, consequently, are 140X more likely to contract HIV or syphilis than heterosexual men.* These facts do not warrant a nonchalant inclusion of homosexuality with other German demographics – no more than would the common cold be legitimately compared with more serious diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or AIDS; doing so, makes distinctions irrelevant and most tragically condemns some to an imprisoned existence that they actually have a choice to leave. Cardinal Marx has neutered the Church – took away Her ability to change lives and Save souls. Because? In his opinion, there is nothing wrong with being gay.