KENILWORTH, 19 APRIL 2005 — The election of Joseph Ratzinger as the new pope has been forthrightly condemned by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA).
Commenting on the announcement, GALHA’s secretary George Broadhead said: “This is extremely bad news for the lesbian and gay community worldwide which has been under sustained and vicious attack from the Vatican throughout Pope John Paul II’s pontificate. In my comments on his demise, I said that no self-respecting, rational-thinking gay person can be expected to mourn it or be at all optimistic that his successor will take a more sympathetic approach. The appointment of the rabid reactionary Ratzinger bears this out.
“Ratzinger, who is renowned for his zeal in enforcing doctrinal orthodoxy, will prove to be even more homophobic than his predecessor. The Vatican’s defamatory statements about homosexuality and its endless agitation against the rights of gay people, including civil partnership legislation, will be renewed and toughened under this new pope.”
Mr Broadhead said that the Catholic Church has shot itself in the foot by electing such a hard-line reactionary. “The reason the Catholic Church is declining so rapidly in Europe is because more and more people are repelled by its inhumane policies, including its opposition to abortion under any circumstances, to voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill, and – even more heinously – to the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS.”