RELIGIOUS SEXUAL AFFAIRS

Apart from a Geordie talent show hostess whose talents - and in all likelihood regional speech - the Americans have not taken to, the other recent non news item was a feature on, Shock,horror, senior clergy, Bishops no less, in the Church of England who are said to be closet homosexuals. With the homophobia that is extant in the churches, (this is not exclusive to the Anglican Community or Christianity) it is not surprising that there are people who keep their sexual orientation firmly private. However pluralistic and tolerant we profess to be in the UK, the the vigorous vocal phobic clerical detractors do mirror society. Are these the same clergy who are intolerant to women taking an active and responsible role in faith? I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the same tactics used against women officiating at all levels in the Church of England, are now being employed about the sexual orientation of some of the senior clergy, by a vociferous few.

It is just possible that there is a caucus of churchmen, (it is men who are fronting up media arguments) who are determined to force a schism in the Church Of England by any means at their disposal. If so, the politics of it are positively medieval. 

It would be curious if the latest wave of dissenting clergy try to absorb themselves into the other church, the Roman Catholic See. Perhaps they would not be invited, because it might be that their views would be considered too 'controversial'.

GOOD HEAVENS! CATHOLIC WOMEN COULD BE CRIMINALS

Dear heavens! At the risk of offending the Catholic community marginally less than the papacy, can anyone tell me why so many people, in particular women, remain affiliated to the Catholic Church?

Some of their celibate male clergy in various parts of the world have been in trouble for a long time, amusing themselves at the cost of the good physical and mental health of the children that they are supposed to care for and cherish. Sexual abuse has been extant and swept under ecclesiastical carpets.

Now, anyone who aids and abets women to take a leading role in the clerical echelons of the Catholic Church will be committing a crime. This is the same language that the Papacy has used for the sexual abuse scandals with its male clergy that it is, clumsily, attempting to diffuse. The papacy has been pushed, kicking and screaming its resistance to dealing with the crimes that it has been instrumental in hiding, mishandling, and colluding with, for longer than we probably know about.

This is the church that is supposed to venerate the mother of Christ as an example to women, and is supposed to be a means of showing the church's respect for women. Yet women who want to participate more than at a subservient level, like scrubbing the stone steps of the church entrance and cleaning the alter, or keeping the priest contented, are what...accessories to crime?