RU 02/2008 - SPAIN, AUSTRIA

Here are 2 terrifying news which put to us immediately into the bath, right from the beginning of 2008.

- SPAIN: The “Spanish State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals” (FELGT) has filed a criminal complaint against the Catholic bishop of Tenerife, Bernardo Alvarez, for making statements which he pronounced in strict conformity with the eternal doctrine of the Church. Here is what he declared during an interview with the Spanish newspaper LA OPINION DE TENERIFE at the end of December 2007, after having been questioned about his position on homosexuality: “It is necessary to be very careful these days, because one can’t say that someone suffers from homosexuality. It isn’t politically correct to say that it is an illness, a lack of something, a deformity of human nature itself. Something that all the dictionaries of psychiatry said ten years ago, can’t be said today.” He continued: “It is very clear that, in this sense, my thinking is that of the Church: the greatest respect for people; but logically, I believe that the phenomenon of homosexuality is something that damages people and society. Eventually we will suffer the consequences just as other civilizations have.” The bishop went on to say that children needed to be inculcated with the virtues of masculinity and femininity, defending his position by noting that children receive guidance to avoid various pathologies, including violent behaviour. He said that in most cases homosexual orientation is not biologically determined and is a search for sexual ‘novelty’, comparing it, in this sense, to pederasty. - What did he say! The FELGT, by its president Antonio Poveda, responded this week by filing formal charges against the bishop with state government prosecutors, denouncing the bishop for “identifying homosexuality with the sexual abuse of minors” and for “promoting an attitude of violence and discrimination” against homosexuals. “It seems that he is justifying the abuse of minors, coming from an institution that has been condemned the most times in the world for sexual abuse”, said Poveda. he continued: “It is necessary for the hierarchy to be respectful and to know that as citizens they have freedom of expression, but they also have to respect the standards that are set by the laws in this country, and in this case they have passed that boundary.” - Who voted for this law? The very catholic deputies of the Spanish Parliament. Who signed this law? The very catholic King Juan Carlos. Lenin was right when he said: “They will provide the cord to hang them.” Here we are, and not only in Spain. - (Ru; cf. LifeSiteNews.com Jan. 15)

AUSTRIA: Worse, in Austria it’s the Church which leads the attack against those who still dare to say the truth. Last week, Mrs. Susanne Winter of the FPÖ (founded by Jörg Haider), during the present campaign for the municipal elections at Graz, had spoken, in connection with Islam, about the prophet Mohammed as a “child abuser”, and had warned against a “tsunami of Islamic immigration”. That was too much. On January 14th the catholic authorities rang the fire alarm bell. The person of the Catholic Bishops Conference who is in charge of interreligious dialog, auxiliary bishop Mgr Helmut Krätzl in Vienna, declared over the radio that he was horrified by the fact “that top level politicians could speak with such a lack of respect about the convictions of others”. He feared that by that the common life between people of various opinions or religions in Austria would be considerably damaged. Also the president of the League of the Catholic Academicians of Austria, Paul Schulmeister, severely criticized the anti-Islamic declarations of the politician of Graz. “Her words can only be classified as an incentive of the population to hatred”, he declared in the Austrian news agency KATHPRESS on Jan. 14th. And to add: “All the public persons who are on duty at Graz, must immediately and unambiguously condemn such remarks which are comparable to calls to religious war.” Schulmeister is cofounder of the platform “Christians and Moslems”. – One can see here that the enemies of the truth are not necessarily in the camp opposed to the Christians. After these facts - in Spain and Austria – one is obliged to conclude that the future will not be bright: the upright standing Christians will be heckled by the enemies of the Church on one side, AND THE AUTHORITIES OF THE CHURCH HERSELF on the other side. Happy New Year 2008! - (Ru; cf. NEWS ST JOSEF Jan. 14th)

- - O.A.M.D.G. - -