The child abuse that is religious indoctrination

The following letter was published in this week’s Irish Catholic in response to the claim by the Pope’s right hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, that there’s a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia.

The letter demonstrates how the child abuse that is religious indoctrination can destroy the happiness of an innocent human being.

Dear Editor,

Is what Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said true? I really find it hard to believe.

I am a Catholic who happens to be homosexual, through no choice of my own. I was taught as a child that I was evil and that God hated me, I believed it. I used to ask him why he hated me. I used to tell him that I had done nothing wrong, that I couldn’t understand his animosity. My bedtime prayer was, ‘please let me die’.

Was it right that an innocent six-year-old child should experience such a complete absence of love? Was it not another form of child abuse? For over 40 years, I have done everything to try and force God to love me. I have been celibate with all that entails – a life lived in solitary confinement, a heart that has never loved or been loved.

I go to Mass and pray the Rosary every day. I read the Bible every day and some other spiritual book. I am alone in a Church that gives the best impression it can that it despises homosexuals.

For 2,000 years, no Pope has ever publicly said one word of support or encouragement to people like me, never denounced the murderers or imprisonment of men who cannot help who and what they are. The few words reserved for us are always condemnatory.

And now, this. If it is true, why hasn’t the Pope come out strongly against it? Perhaps he agrees with him. Christ never mentioned us, never condemned us either. Are they just continuing His silence and adding their own slant to it?

The only people who ever show charity and understanding are lapsed or non-Catholics. Doesn’t that say it all?

After being persecuted by the Romans why did they have to begin persecuting others themselves? Shouldn’t they have known better? I don’t think it will ever change.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. There never will be.

Yours etc.

(Name and address with editor)