Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Bishop Kaleta said tourism is important to the Vatican. Although there is no centralized tourism department to advertise and promote such visits. The Bishop said: “If you think about Europe, most of its architecture is connected with churches. It would be good to educate the people to honor these places.” He added that religious tourism in the form of pilgrimages is seen as a very good development, because “they are mostly connected not with the most rich of society; most are of average to the lower incomes.”
However, gay or lesbian tourism is viewed as an abuse of the Vatican.
When asked about gay and lesbian tourist groups, the Bishop bleated the typical homophobic rhetoric we’ve come to expect from Papa's Catholic church:
“The church teachings are from the Bible. If we change this teaching, we will not be the Catholic Church. Don’t expect the Catholic church to change these issues, because it is our identity. I consider if someone is homosexual, it is abuse of our buildings and our religion. If you have different ideas, go to a different location.”
Noted, Bishop Kaleta. No chance I will ever set foot in St. Peter’s Basilica.
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Comments
End of story
Gay and lesbian tourists are certainly welcome to the Vatican and at Catholic churches all over the globe. I have yet to see a single sexual orientation check at the door of a Catholic church anywhere.
Bishop Kaleta is also wrong about non-Muslim tourists not being welcome at mosques--this is a matter of local custom, not a universal practice. In most of the Arab world, this is true. In most of Europe, North America, and Turkey this is not true and the rules are basically the same one would have for visiting any house of worship.