"Springtime of Vatican II"
Update

The Consequences of "Free Speech"

Cardinal Sued for Speaking the Truth About "Gays" and "Democracy"

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        On January 21, 2004 the online version of The Scotsman reported that Cardinal Gustaaf Joos, 80, of Belgium stated that "Up to 95% of lesbians and gays are not really homosexual but ‘sexual perverts.’" The Cardinal even went so far as to declare: "I demand you write it down. If they come to protest on my doorstep, I don’t care. I will not open the door." The Cardinal also went on to observe: "They are people with a serious problem and have to learn to live with it. And if they err, they will be forgiven. We must help those people, not condemn them."

        The feisty Cardinal also offered this trenchant comment on the utter absurdity of what our "leaders" like to call "democracy": "Politics, democracy. Don’t make me laugh. The right to vote, what is that all about? I think it is curious a snot-nosed, 18-year-old has the same vote as a father of seven. One has no responsibilities whatsoever, the other provides tomorrow’s citizens."

        Marvelous! But, of course, anathema to the forces of political correctness, whose mission is to keep anyone from noticing the obvious: that homosexuals are perverted and that "democracy" is a joke. And now the PC thought-police are coming for Cardinal Joos. On January 25 the Reuters news service reported that "the Center for Equal Opportunities and Struggle against Racism said it would sue the cardinal for violating anti-discrimination laws." This "human rights organization" was outraged — outraged! — that the Cardinal would have the audacity not to grovel in apology for his remarks, but instead "stood by his comments, not apologizing and repeating them elsewhere in the media and in front of cameras." Imagine that!

        Naturally, the Belgian Bishops’ Conference was only too happy to grovel: "Cardinal Joos was speaking in a private capacity," said the Belgian bishops, who lamented that they did "not have the power to reprimand the cardinal because he was answerable directly to the Vatican."

        And Joos is not the only Cardinal being sued for holding the wrong opinions. CWNews reports that "Earlier this month, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid was sued in his native Spain by a homosexual activist group for preaching against homosexuality in a homily on the Feast of the Holy Family."

        Whatever happened to "freedom of speech"? Precisely what Pope Leo XIII predicted would happen in his monumental encyclical Libertas (1888): "If unbridled license of speech and of writing be granted to all, nothing will remain sacred and inviolate; even the highest and truest mandates of nature, justly held to be the common and noblest heritage of the human race, will not be spared. Thus, truth being gradually obscured by darkness, pernicious and manifold error, as too often happens, will easily prevail."

        That is, if "freedom of speech" is given without restraint to the purveyors of evil opinions, sooner or later falsehood will gain dominance over truth, and the truth will be persecuted. In the end "freedom of speech" means, paradoxically enough, no freedom for the truth. Just ask the two Cardinals who are being hauled before "human rights" tribunals merely for speaking the truth about the homosexual perversion.

        Before Vatican II turned the Church from militant to mushy, a long line of great popes wrote great encyclicals warning the faithful about where "modern liberty" was leading society: to ruin. What a tragedy it is that so many post-conciliar Churchmen have become enthralled by the same false notions of liberty condemned by these great popes.

        It’s all part of the diabolical disorientation of the Church of which Sister Lucy of Fatima has spoken, in light of the Message of Fatima. In these days of darkness, however, we can take comfort in the prophetic conclusion of that same Message: "In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph" — but only when Our Lady’s requests are heeded.