| But power amplifies hypocrisy—and
its cousin, irony.
Consider the plantation owner in 1853 Alabama that
wouldn’t allow field slaves into his antebellum
mansion, even though those field hands built it.
Then there’s the rich woman in her 2005 Greek
Revival Beverly Hills mansion that shudders when a
repair person with worn, dusty boots enters it, even
though working folks built her mansion, working people
that demonstrated creativity, strength, and grit beyond
her kin and ken.
A pulpit can further hypocrisy and irony.
Consider the Pope—and his pals.
The Vatican already keeps pairs of queer guys and
girls from ‘I do-ing’ before altars. Now
there’s the recently released Vatican document
that semi-bans queer guys from standing on altars.
It says, “the church, while deeply respecting
the people in question, cannot admit to the seminary
and the sacred orders those who practice homosexuality,
present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support
so-called gay culture.”
“So-called” gay culture? Puh-leeze.
All culture is queer-marbled. But Roman Catholic culture
is so queer that it’s cut in stone, figuratively
and literally.
Consider Michelangelo’s Pieta, which sits
in St. Peter's Basilica. It was carved by a gay guy.
And consider the Catholic Church’s 2 other
great icons: the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and
the fresco, The Last Supper. Both were painted by
queer guys.
If the Catholic Church keep queers from standing
on the altar, from tendering their lives in ministry,
for the sake of consistency, shouldn’t the Church
also refuse other forms of queer-tainted ministry,
such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Perhaps
the scaffolding used to restore the Ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel should go back up…and the ceiling
should come down.
Now, it is possible that Michelangelo wasn’t
gay. But following the “looks like a duck, quacks
like a duck, is a duck” reasoning, he looks
about as straight as a circle. There are the love
poems a hoary Michelangelo composed for a fella.
Consider these lines:
“The love I speak of aspires to the heights;
woman is too dissimilar, and it ill becomes
a wise and manly heart to burn for her.”
As far as da Vinci, other than his very public sodomy
trial, there’s his painting, ‘Angel
in the Flesh).’ When you view, compare the
face, the chest and the crotch. And remember the title.
The Pope’s a smart guy. So, he knows about
da Vinci and Michelangelo. But he keeps the gifts
of their creative ministries because, well, they’re
purty. (Okay, more than purty. I’ve seen the
Pieta. It reduces everyone to whispering. It makes
you proud to be of the same species as Michelangelo.
And you decide that the next time you see a falling
star, you’ll wish, if only for a day, to see
the world through Michelangelo’s eyes.)
The Pope seems like the plantation owner that considered
his darkies to be inferior: the man remained in his
slave-built mansion because it was purty. Comfy too.
But more importantly, that mansion marked him as superior,
even though it wasn’t his sweat, tenacity and
creativity that built it.
Perhaps the Pope should do what Lazlo Toth did.
For those too young to remember, Lazlo Toth was the
Hungarian-born, Australian geologist that perhaps
baked a little too long in the Outback. He came out
believing that he was He: Jesus Christ. And he came
out swinging—at Michelangelo’s Pieta.
At 33 years of age, Toth took a sledgehammer to Mary.
He amputated her arm, gave her the common Jewish American
Princess nose reduction, and chipped an eyelid.
As he swung 15 times, he shouted, “I am Jesus
Christ!”
Perhaps the Pope should do the same, shouting, “I
am the Vicar of Jesus Christ!”
Then the Pope can climb the re-erected scaffolding
and scrape the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Or is the Pope like so many others? He doesn’t
want a guy to marry a guy, but he sure is happy to
have “those” guys decorate his home.
There are those that assert that gay guys shouldn’t
be allowed into the priesthood for the sake of devotion
and normalcy. Well, the Vatican didn’t demand
celibacy for the sake of devotion. The origin of priest
celibacy was about money and power (Sigh.
Must nearly everything be about money and power?).
To keep priests’ sons from inheriting Church
property, Pope Gregory bastardized all priests’
sons: they were declared illegitimate. Later, Pope
Innocent II voided all marriages of priests, necessitating
divorces. Hey, how did Catholic dogma demand divorce?
Then there’s the hypocrisy of normalcy: in its
recent statement, the Vatican refuses the ministry
of publicly gay men because homosexuality isn’t
normal. O-kay. But what’s normal about 1000
men, the population of the Vatican, living without
sex? What’s normal about 1000 men living in
drag (Okay, okay, they’re robes, but they’re
not far from moo-moos.)?
To close my diatribe, I admit that I was raised
Catholic. I was devout, attending mass every morning.
And I still contemplate a monastic, ascetic life:
a life of service and deprivation. Nuns, powered by
faith, often thrive where the world is most wretched.
Such articulation of faith might be the antithesis
of life in the Vatican, the world’s grandest
mansion.
So, I’m gonna pinch the Great Communicator’s
greatest line, referring to the Berlin Wall.
Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall!”
Mr. Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, also has a
famous wall.
It is one of 4 walls of the refectory in the Convent
of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. From
1495 to 1498, a gay guy, Da Vinci, articulated his
love for God by adorning that wall with a fresco:
The Last Supper.
So Mr. Ratzinger, if you refuse the ministry of
queer people, tear down that wall!
Or do you love your treasures more than your dogma?
Katie
McKy is the author of It
All Began With a Bean, which answers a child's
true query: "What would happen if everyone in
the world passed gas at once?" Her work can be
found regularly on Raw Story. You can visit her online
at KatieMcKy.com.
|
