In what can only be described as a dangerous escalation in the declared war on the world’s gay population, the Vatican Health Secretary compared gay families to that of “cockroaches or cats.” Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico made the analogy in a newspaper interviews published October 12th while condemning same-sex marriage in his effort to carry out the Papal edict concerning all things gay.In what can only be described as a dangerous escalation in the declared war on the world’s gay population, the Vatican Health Secretary compared gay families to that of “cockroaches or cats.” Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico made the analogy in a newspaper interviews published October 12th while condemning same-sex marriage in his effort to carry out the Papal edict concerning all things gay.

It seems that the prospect of Roman Catholic Spain legalizing same-sex marriage has severely rattled various Vatican cages as the government and people of Spain prepare to ignore Vatican demands that same-sex marriage not be legalized as proposed. The advent of gay marriage in Spain has brought the Vatican to the edge of hysteria and it is showing more and more each day.

This tactic of comparing human beings to animals is certainly not new. In the 1930’s and 1940’s, the Third Reich dehumanized the entire Jewish population asserting that they too were less than human, comparing them to pigs, rats, and other animals. This was the Nazi way of desensitizing the German people to the impending slaughter of six million Jews throughout Europe, while the same Roman Catholic Church looked the other way.

If one ceases to think of a particular class of human beings as people, it is far easier to acquiesce to the notion that their lives hold far less value then the rest of the population. Once this notion takes hold, genocide can and has occurred in a supposedly “civilized society.”

In a rather bizarre but telling statement, Cardinal Lozano went on to say that “one of the great goals of the culture of death is destruction of the family.” What has not become evident in any statement issued by any official organ of the Vatican is how allowing two people in love who want to commit to each other the rest of their lives threatens in any manner the “family.” This statement has no more validity than the assertion that gay marriage destroys straight marriage. By allowing gay people to marry, families are created, not destroyed, in spite of the Roman Catholic Church.

This never-ending downward spiral of hate and repression can only lead to tragic consequences for both the GLBT community and the Roman Catholic Church. Why any Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, or Transsexual continues to be a member of the RC Church is beyond reason. In fact, any “family” that has a gay child or relative and also continues to belong to a church that would compare their loved ones to cockroaches, is quite unexplainable. How any gay or lesbian person can continue in the Roman Catholic Church as clergy is also quite extraordinary. To not only be a member of an organization that hates them, but also to serve it in its perpetuation of bigotry is the height of hypocrisy. It is time for the entire community to wake up, smell the coffee, and react to this latest outrage with their feet.

Archbishop Simpson is an openly gay Catholic Priest who rejects fundamentalist Christian arguments that homosexuality is inherently sinful. His life story, which can be read in his new book “The Gay Face of God,” is truly fascinating; his career path has lead him from the United States military to the police force, then to time as a federal agent. After being rejected by the Roman Catholic Church on account of his sexual orientation, Archbishop Simpson found his final calling with the Old Catholic Church, where his primary ministry is Social Justice.