The Catholic Church in Belgium has been battered by scandals and missteps over the past year, and now its new leader, the conservative Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Brussels, has sparked a fresh controversy with comments declaring that people afflicted with AIDS are receiving “a sort of immanent justice” for their sexual practices…
While I think I understand what he’s trying to say, considering the current environment in Belgium he should choose his wording more carefully…The reaction against Léonard’s comments has been swift and sharp.
Also, some of these people are drug addicts who get aids from needles, and nurses and doctors also have a danger of getting this from patient’s blood.politicsdaily.com/2010/10/15/aids-is-a-kind-of-justice-for-promiscuous-sex-belgian-catholi/
While I think I understand what he’s trying to say, considering the current environment in Belgium he should choose his wording more carefully…
Q: What do you think about AIDS? Do you consider the disease as a 'punishment from God for the sexual revolution?
These comments were made in 2006, were they not? Maybe he didn’t know what Belgium’s current political environment was going to be when he answered the question.A: “Someone once asked John Paul II if AIDS was a punishment from God,” Léonard says. “He then wisely answered that it is very difficult to know God’s intentions. I myself don’t reason in those terms at all. So I do not see this epidemic as a punishment, but at the most as a sort of immanent justice, sort of like how, in ecology, we are faced with the consequences of what we are doing to the environment. Maybe human love also responds when she is treated badly, without the need of a transcendent source. Maybe it is a sort of immanent justice, but as far as the concrete causes are concerned, doctors should some day be able to say how this disease came to be, how it was initially transmitted and then spread further…But considered more generally, I stick to something in the order of a sort of immanent justice. Badly handling physical nature causes it to treat us badly in turn and badly dealing with the deeper nature of human love will ultimately always lead to catastrophes on all levels.”
No, its a new book that was recently published.These comments were made in 2006, were they not? Maybe he didn’t know what Belgium’s current political environment was going to be when he answered the question.
As far as I can tell the Archbishop did not distinguish between homosexual or heterosexual promiscuous sex.Let me guess, is he part of the “gay plague” group?
I have a funny feeling that if the AIDS virus was first detected in a group of heterosexual, happily married people that it would not have been called a punishment for promiscuous sex.
He didn’t claim it was divine punishment. He compared it to abuse of the enviornment and natural consquences.Gosh, are we really going back to the dark days when all illnesss are punishments from God and that other causes are just part of God’s method for dishing out the punishment? Sigh. The undeserving sometimes get ill too, you know.
PLet me guess, is he part of the “gay plague” group?
I have a funny feeling that if the AIDS virus was first detected in a group of heterosexual, happily married people that it would not have been called a punishment for promiscuous sex.
Gosh, are we really going back to the dark days when all illnesss are punishments from God and that other causes are just part of God’s method for dishing out the punishment? Sigh. The undeserving sometimes get ill too, you know.
I understand what he’s saying, but it implies that God hates the sinner. He doesn’t, and its a message which the Church struggles to make clear sometimes. The general public seem to think we “hate” gays, for example.
Fornication is hardly the only way to contract the disease though. Some people even contract it while doing everything in their power to save lives.P
Fornication is fornication, no matter who conducts it.
Why should homosexuals be set apart and given a free pass? Why should anyone?
Huh? What exactly are you arguing here?P
Fornication is fornication, no matter who conducts it.
Why should homosexuals be set apart and given a free pass? Why should anyone?
No one’s talking about people who contact it by accident.Fornication is hardly the only way to contract the disease though. Some people even contract it while doing everything in their power to save lives.
I would agree the comments were unwise based on the thought that If I started suggesting that when people undergoing difficult situations on these boards were undergoing an exercising of God’s justice I could see it upsetting quite a few people. If it was doctrine he was quoting then it wouldn’t be so bad, but Christ even directly stated that not all bad conditions are a result of God serving out justice, remember the man born blind?
A plague has been discovered among heterosexuals, and it is also a result of promiscuity: that plague is called STD’s (and with increasing promiscuity, their explosion and their increasing resistance to treatment). But yes, on the point of “plagues” striking the innocent, they do indeed. And that, i.m.o., emphasizes the need for everyone to be responsible for their habits, lifestyle, health on a “shrinking” globe. The irresponsibility we show today may infect and even kill a stranger on another day.I have a funny feeling that if the AIDS virus was first detected in a group of heterosexual, happily married people that it would not have been called a punishment for promiscuous sex.
Let me guess, is he part of the “gay plague” group?
I have a funny feeling that if the AIDS virus was first detected in a group of heterosexual, happily married people that it would not have been called a punishment for promiscuous sex.
Gosh, are we really going back to the dark days when all illnesss are punishments from God and that other causes are just part of God’s method for dishing out the punishment? Sigh. The undeserving sometimes get ill too, you know.
I understand what he’s saying, but it implies that God hates the sinner. He doesn’t, and its a message which the Church struggles to make clear sometimes. The general public seem to think we “hate” gays, for example.
Amen.all this talk in trying to defend homosexuality would have been moot if the truth would have been told back in 1947 and 1967. on these dates Scientist and Doctors from the CDC Investigated lung illnesses in two homosexual men from San Francisco and three from N.Y.C., These illneses later were found out to be HIV Virus. TRUE Statement? to not offend the Gay community ,the Doctors kept this info Secret… and now look what we got?a full blown epidemic. one in 5 homosexual males have Hiv virus, Their is no Cure for this homosexual Disease, My gripe is that I Suffer from 4 Chronic Diseases and the funding for all of them doesn’t get close to the government funding for homosexuals with HIV virus… in fact funding for patients with HIV IS $39,000 PER, WHEREAS Heart,lung,Diabetes patients is $1500 per patient,I Think the Bishop was right , its a punishment from God, that Americans have not heeded, wake-up America! homosexuality is a Mental Disease giving us a Physical Disease.
Hmm… no, I don’t think that is a true statement. I remember the widespread confusion in 1981 as the medical community tried to figure out what was happening, as clusters of what is now known as AIDS developed in New York and San Francisco. No one knew what the cause was. In truth, doctors didn’t discover the cause of AIDS until 1983, when HIV was identified as the culprit. Here is a news article from 1981, which gives a sense of what a mystery AIDS was back then:all this talk in trying to defend homosexuality would have been moot if the truth would have been told back in 1947 and 1967. on these dates Scientist and Doctors from the CDC Investigated lung illnesses in two homosexual men from San Francisco and three from N.Y.C., These illneses later were found out to be HIV Virus. TRUE Statement?
No, that isn’t true either. While a study was recently released with that figure, it was a study of 21 cities chosen for their high rates of HIV and the persons screened where those who had the highest risk factors for contracting HIV. The study was not a representative sample of gay men.one in 5 homosexual males have Hiv virus
Fornication is hardly the only way to contract the disease though. Some people even contract it while doing everything in their power to save lives.
I would agree the comments were unwise based on the thought that If I started suggesting that when people undergoing difficult situations on these boards were undergoing an exercising of God’s justice I could see it upsetting quite a few people. If it was doctrine he was quoting then it wouldn’t be so bad, but Christ even directly stated that not all bad conditions are a result of God serving out justice, remember the man born blind?
http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/492/7433669281.pngSource: [Centers for Disease Control](http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#hivaidsexposure)And you think that their sins are worse than yours and you are more deserving than you are? How utterly selfish of you. Not only that, but it’s not your place to judge who deserves the treatment more.all this talk in trying to defend homosexuality would have been moot if the truth would have been told back in 1947 and 1967. on these dates Scientist and Doctors from the CDC Investigated lung illnesses in two homosexual men from San Francisco and three from N.Y.C., These illneses later were found out to be HIV Virus. TRUE Statement? to not offend the Gay community ,the Doctors kept this info Secret… and now look what we got?a full blown epidemic. one in 5 homosexual males have Hiv virus, Their is no Cure for this homosexual Disease, My gripe is that I Suffer from 4 Chronic Diseases and the funding for all of them doesn’t get close to the government funding for homosexuals with HIV virus… in fact funding for patients with HIV IS $39,000 PER, WHEREAS Heart,lung,Diabetes patients is $1500 per patient,I Think the Bishop was right , its a punishment from God, that Americans have not heeded, wake-up America! homosexuality is a Mental Disease giving us a Physical Disease.
So you think that trying to “convert” homosexuals to a hetrosexual/celibate lifestyle is going to genuinely work better in the government’s mind compared to making contraception available?Of course, outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases are made worse by the practice of sexual promiscuity. But it seems that prevention has never been primarily directed at curbing the behavior which is at the root of the problem, but rather at making the causal behavior more “safe” by providing condoms–which even when used perfectly, have about a 2% failure rate, and a much higher rate as actually used. “Safe” sex, indeed.