Liberal U.S. Catholics Dismayed at Choice of Pope

BOSTON (Reuters) - Liberal U.S. Catholics on Tuesday expressed dismay at the choice of a conservative new pope and doubted he will heal an institution racked by disillusionment and tarnished by a sex abuse scandal among the clergy.

The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI rankled those who advocate married priests, a bigger role for women within the church and softening its policy on homosexuality, birth control, euthanasia and abortion.

Are those who advocate homosexuality, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, and womyn priestesses really "Catholic"? Some would maintain that the outright and obstinate refusal to assent to the teachings of the Church would make those persons material heretics and that they may have, depending on one's level of advocacy, formally defected from the faith.

"Gay and lesbian Catholics are going to be very hurt by this election because Cardinal Ratzinger was the lightning rod for so much of the anger they felt under the previous pope," said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry, a national ministry for lesbian and gay Catholics.

The anger they feel is due, no doubt, to some underlying or subconscious guilt which is brought to the surface when one speaks the truth.

Catholics for a Free Choice, a progressive group based in Washington, laid out an action plan for the new pontiff to pursue in his first 100 days with the goal of healing fractures within the church.

It urged the new pope to appoint a commission to review church policy on condoms, to establish a pontifical academy on women's rights in the church, and to welcome back those marginalized over the last quarter-century -- including gays and lesbians.

No doubt His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, will make this his first order of business...

More lunacy here.