“Gay Festival” Targets Jerusalem

According to the Associated Press (March 16, 2005), Protestant groups and rabbis in the United States “joined forces with ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel ... to fight plans to hold an international gay festival in Jerusalem this summer.” This festival is the World Pride Parade, which was last held in Rome in 2000, and is described as “a 10-day event including street parties, workshops and a gay film festival.”

Jerusalem has been the site of local homosexual parades since 2002. The first one drew a crowd of 4,000 and sparked debates in which many religious city council members, as well as city residents, expressed their opinion that the event was inappropriate for the holy city. Former Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert withheld city funding for the event, after failing to convince organizers to hold the parade in the more secularized city of Tel Aviv, where it has been traditionally held for years (during 2004’s “Seventh annual Gay Pride Parade” which was held in Tel Aviv, the Deputy Mayor of that city, Yael Dayan, welcomed American homosexual attendees by informing them that “Tel Aviv is more than San Francisco”).

However, the Jerusalem municipality was later ordered by the Supreme Court to pay the organizers 40,000 shekels (approx. $9,000) for the event, in keeping with the amount the municipality contributed toward other city marches.

The Jerusalem Post reported (June 3, 2004) that, during the second parade, in 2003, the Jerusalem Municipality hung “gay parade flags” along the flag route. For the third annual parade (2004), which drew a crowd of 1500, the parade organizers – The Jerusalem Open House – hosted a week of events based on “the theme of love and tolerance.” These events included a celebration of “queer cinema,” featuring films such as Keep Not Silent (about the internal struggle of lesbian Orthodox women) and Family Matters (the story of two men, a woman and a baby).

 "An event of this magnitude has never occurred before anywhere in Israel," said Jerry Levinson, chairman of Jerusalem's Gay and Lesbian Center, speaking of the upcoming 2005 World Pride Parade. Deputy Mayor Eliezer Simhayoff said he wasn't concerned about the planned event. "This is a fantasy that won't be realized,” said Simhayoff.  “There are many ways to encourage tourism to Jerusalem, and this is not one of them. We don't need to bring here tourists who will only create provocations.” But Natan Sharansky, Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, said he welcomes "the international event taking place in Jerusalem that would bring thousands of tourists to the city from all over the world.”

On March 30th, Jerusalem’s top religious leaders – Sheikh Abed El Salem Menasera, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Eirineos, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Armenian Patriarch Turkum Manijian, Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkanezaic Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger – held a news conference during which they issued a declaration warning that holding the homosexual event in Jerusalem would "desecrate its sanctity and character and cause a breakdown in public order," and they called on Israeli authorities to prevent it.

Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who is the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric in the holy land, said at the news conference: "The limit of any freedom is the freedom of the other. We call as one ... to respect the holiness of this city, not to provoke the religious feelings of all the believers in this city." Unfazed by the appeal, Hagai El-Ad, executive director of The Jerusalem Open House homosexual rights center (organizers of the World Pride event) replied to this meeting of religious leaders:  “Jerusalem is sacred when people celebrate diversity.  This is a democracy, not a theocracy.”

COMMENT: A 2000 homosexual extravaganza in Rome, the Seat of St. Peter, where “throngs of shirtless men in shorts and bikini briefs congregated on the streets, some of them holding hands” (World Net Daily, March 24, 2005)? A similar event planned for Jerusalem, a city steeped in religious tradition and populated as it by Christians, Jews and Muslims?

According to the organizers of the 2005 World Pride Parade, the theme for this year's Jerusalem gathering is "love without borders," with the goal of bringing a "new focus to an ancient city through a massive demonstration of LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered] dignity, pride and boundary-crossing celebration.” The organizers go on:

In these times of intolerance and suspicion, from the home of three of the world's great religions, we will proclaim that love knows no borders. The struggle for acceptance and pride is particularly pointed in Jerusalem, a city that is home to three of the world's great religions. The greatest traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism affirm the dignity of all human beings and our creation in the divine image. Yet these same faiths have often been sources of hostility and intolerance for LGBT people.

No, it is not “religion” that will proclaim God’s love (after all, what is religion but a stew of “hostility and intolerance?”); it is a gathering of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) individuals that will do so. It is not “religion” that will teach us about “our creation in the divine image”; no, it is now a collection of bikini-brief-clad activists that will do so. Oh, joy.

By their own admission, the organizers of the 2005 World Pride Parade perceive it as a challenge: “World Pride 2005 will bring thousands of us to Jerusalem to confront preconception with reality, prejudice with an opportunity for understanding, in a way that will capture the attention of the world.” The greater good and the religious sentiments of the people of Jerusalem are not even afterthoughts.

Never mind what the people of Jerusalem want. Taking that into consideration would require more “tolerance” than the LGBT crowd can muster. Now, polls can be tricky things (just look at the questions asked in a recent ABC News poll about Terri Schiavo, which were worded so as to cajole participants into declaring that Terri should die). However, the results of a new poll conducted by the Rabbinical Alliance of America are worth noting. The results of this poll (World Net Daily, March 24, 2005) show that “nearly 70 percent of the general Israeli population of Jews, Christians and Muslims are opposed to current plans for Jerusalem to host World Pride 2005.”  It shows that “nearly 100 percent of the Orthodox Jewish segments surveyed said they were opposed to the event.” Surprisingly, it also showed that a majority of "non-religious" Israelis are against the event. "We weren't surprised to learn Orthodox Jews oppose holding World Pride in Jerusalem,” said Rabbinical Alliance of America representative Ori Keidar, “but that secular Israelis oppose the event is extremely significant.”

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, director of Jews for Morality, has criticized the Israeli government, saying “some in the Israeli government want this homosexual event to happen.” He has also blasted the Orthodox Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, for refusing yesterday to put his name on a petition sponsored by the alliance protesting World Pride that was signed by several Jerusalem city councilmen. Just last summer, Lupolianski said of a homosexual parade: “It is not only ugly, it's also a provocation.”

Is it really about “tolerance,” or about the indulging of a strange mania for (and apparent delight in) offending as many people as possible? Is it all about “love,” or is it merely another chance for these activists to flex their muscles? In practical terms, it amounts to an assault on the “Eternal City” in 2000, followed by an assault on the “Holy City” in 2005. I asked a Jewish acquaintance, Julia Ulano, to look over this story and she offered a very apt observation on this proposed “gay parade”: 

By allowing them to present – under the guise of "love and tolerance" – their warped understanding of G-d's message of consideration for one's neighbor, they garble the truth and justify to others the decision to stray from the path of His laws. And in particular, to want to do this in Jerusalem, the Holiest city on earth, is a flagrant affront to G-d. Let them go to the ancient site of Sodom and Gomorrah, and have their unholy celebrations there, if they dare!

Should the organizers of this “World Pride” event continue to push to have their 2005 debacle in Jerusalem, it is a safe bet to say that all eyes will be on the holy city this summer.

A “Dead Language” Hits The Airwaves in Britain

On March 26, 2005, Britain’s BBC Radio 3 aired a program titled “Between The Ears - Pliny's Naturalis Historia,” consisting of readings from the Naturalis Historia, a 37-volume encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), encompassing such fields of interest as geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, horticulture and pharmacology. Radio 3 made history that night by broadcasting the entire program in the original Latin.

According to Louis Jury of The Independent (March 25, 2005), the idea to present the program entirely in Latin “was prompted by Mel Gibson's successful film, The Passion of The Christ, last year, which told the story of Jesus in Aramaic and Latin.” The broadcast focused on Pliny’s descriptions of the animal kingdom (Books 8-11), with readings set against soundscapes provided by various composers.

"It's a bit strange and only a bit mad," said the show's producer, Kate McAll. "But there's something glorious about hearing these words even if you can't quite make out every single one."

COMMENT: Long live dead languages! It is somehow encouraging to know that, even with modern translations of the ancient classics available by the score, the sounds and cadences of Classical Latin came to life once again, if only for a brief time. The term “dead language” is a misnomer. A language is not “dead” as long as it can still convey something meaningful. Traditional Catholics know this better than anyone.

The world is full of treasures, and Pliny’s Natural History is one of them. I’m glad they chose this one, because it is easily one of the most entertaining books I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. The nuggets of ancient wisdom contained in it include such observations as:

• The dolphin is an animal that is not only friendly to mankind but is also a lover of music, and it can be charmed by singing in harmony, but particularly by the sound of the water organ.

• Snakes are especially fond of wine when they have the chance, though otherwise they need little drink.

• Lion's breath contains a severe poison and the bear's is pestilential.

• The largest land animal is the elephant, and it is the nearest to man in intelligence .... [elephants] embrace goodness, honesty, prudence, and equity, (rare qualities I may tell you to be found in men) and hold in religious reverence (with a kind of devotion) not only the stars and planets, but they also worship the sun and moon.

• The cuckoo seems to be made by changing its shape out of a hawk at a certain time of the year.

Fanciful, yes, but the Natural History is also a treasure trove of information about life in ancient Rome. And more than that, it brings us back to a time when our world was younger, when science didn’t pretend to have all the answers, and when the far-flung corners of the earth were still hidden and mysterious enough so that anything was possible, even “religious” elephants! In the age of the internet, satellite photography and robot surgery, it’s a trip into the past well worth taking.

As for Pliny himself? He remained the dedicated naturalist until the very end. A senator and commander of the imperial fleet in the Bay of Naples, Pliny was determined to investigate the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (79 AD). Overcome by the fumes unleashed by the volcano, he died in the town of Stabiae, where he had beached his ships.

St. Judas… Pray For Us?!?

Catholic Church Conservation reports (March 22, 2005) that an Ursuline Church in the town of Linz, Austria installed an art exhibit for Lent titled “Requiem for a Friend, Judas Iskarioth (Iscariot).” Created by Walter Gschwandtner, and presented under the auspices of the Forum St. Severin for Christian Spirituality, Formation and Art (the Catholic Academic Association of the Diocese of Linz), the installation was located in the crypt where the Ursuline Sisters are buried.

The exhibition was inaugurated with a Mass, and was open every Sunday before Mass during Lent, in addition to a special showing on Good Friday, prior to the presentation of a "Spiritual Concert." A notice posted outside the Church implied that the opening Mass was a requiem for Judas Iscariot.

According to Catholic Church Conservation:

The text accompanying the exhibition says that Judas should be made a saint and that he did not commit suicide but was done away with by the other apostles. It claims that the installation shows Judas with a halo. He is the intercessor for all suicides, for all those excluded, excommunicated, mocked, for all witches and apostates!

Although the Ursuline Church no longer offers the traditional Good Friday liturgy, candles have been lit there for Judas Iscariot. A text accompanying the exhibit read:

Jesus and his dark friend his shadow

Jesus and Judas - a melting of good and evil.

Light and Darkness- a splitting of the unity of God

COMMENT: In 1995, the group “We Are Church” began in Innsbruck, Austria, calling for a “more loving, democratic, and generous church.” Oh, “in the spirit of Vatican II,” of course! Wishing to “bring about the renewal and reform of the Roman Catholic Church” (their words), they advocate:

	The building of a Church of brothers and sisters that recognizes the equality of all the baptized, including the inclusion of the People of God in the election of bishops in their local churches.
	Equal rights for men and women, including the admission of women to all Church ministries.
	Free choice of either a celibate or married life for all those who dedicate themselves to the service of the church.
	A positive attitude toward sexuality, and a recognition of an informed moral conscience in personal decision-making.
	A message of joy and not condemnation, including dialogue, freedom of speech and thought. No anathemas and no exclusion as a means of solving problems, especially as this applies to theologians.

A truly ecumenical Council of all Christian Churches, which will regard each other as equals in their search for peace and friendship among themselves ....A Council marked by dialogue and respect for all religions – at the service of the world.

And now, from Austria, comes what amounts to a pilgrimage site to the betrayer of Jesus Christ. No, it doesn’t mean that Austria is the worst example of Catholicism in the world! But it does provide an example of the relationship between sound Catholic doctrine and a sound Catholic sensibility.

Of course, the idea of an artistic shrine to Judas Iscariot being housed in a Catholic Church is ludicrous. No Protestant preacher would be caught dead with such a thing in his temple, and if you were a normal Catholic priest and someone suggested such a thing, you would laugh in his face. But it happened. And it happened because the concept of “blasphemy” has all but disappeared from the minds of those who are sworn to protect the Faith from such assaults.

“Blasphemy” is not a medieval holdover. It is simply “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God,” or an “irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable.” Sound doctrine is the best preventative against blasphemy from within, the most insidious kind. “We Are Church’s” ideal Church – where all religions are equal, where heretical theologians are not censured, where the priesthood becomes an androgynous ministry – is not a far-fetched idea these days, and the very desire for such a thing provides the perfect soil in which a shrine to Judas Iscariot can grow.

When “Catholics” sever themselves from sound doctrine, there is only one direction in which to go – down:  “Jesus and his dark friend, his shadow?”  “Jesus and Judas – a melting of good and evil?” “Light and Darkness – a splitting of the unity of God?” The word heresy doesn’t do this stuff justice. The canonization of betrayal? It is as though the modernists have run out of ideas on how to mangle the Faith. And, yet, in a perverse way, a shrine to the most notorious betrayer in history almost makes sense in such a context.

Without a return to rock solid doctrine, there will be no renewal of the Sensus Catholicus. At the start of the “Reformation,” England had the Latin Mass, and the country still fell into spiritual darkness. All our Indult Masses, Traditionalist societies and Independent chapels will avail us little if sound doctrine does not become the ultimate goal for those who sincerely love the Faith of our forefathers. The enemies from within will always be with us (“Saint” Judas was, after all, an Apostle). However, if the shepherds are well-armed, the wolves will scatter. Where doctrine shines, blasphemy withers.