I would invite the cardinal to repent and thank God that we all receive more mercy than we deserve. What a horrible, ignorant, hateful thing to say.

To what Bill says, I'd add this -

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the most at-risk group for AIDS is women who are faithful to their husbands. Does the Cardinal think this is how God punishes? And in childbirth, mother-to-child transmission - does the Cardinal imagine this is God punishing the newborn?

And what of those who contract who HIV/AIDS through no fault of their own: the unknowing spouse of an adulterer, a child born of an infected mother, the recipient of a tainted blood transfusion, a paramedic trying to save a hemorrhaging gunshot victim? Is "God's wrath" or some sort of "immanent justice" being poured out on them too?

Did this archbishop ever think that HIV/AIDS is not necessarily a punishment for sinners, but a natural disease that is actually a test for Christians, to see whether we reach out and care for "lepers" as Christ Jesus did or stigmatize and avoid them as the Pharisees did -- and that, for the most part, we are failing this test miserably?

"As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who had been born blind. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, why was this man born blind? Did he or his parents sin?' Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned. Instead, he was born blind so that God could show what he can do for him. We must do what the one who sent me wants us to do while it is day. The night when no one can do anything is coming. As long as I'm in the world, I'm light for the world.' (John 9:1-5)

Oh, if only we were light for the world and did what God wants us to do while it is still light outside: show mercy, mercy and more mercy. Lift up, not cast down. Heal, not condemn. Let God's love be known and felt concretely in our attitudes and deeds.

Given the extent of Roman Catholicism's shocking aiding and abetting of sexually abusive clergy that is now coming to light, the archbishop and his Vatican colleagues would do better to look at the planks in their own eyes, rather than point out the specks of sawdust in the eyes of others, and replace their sumptuous vestments with sackcloth and ashes, their high and mighty moral judgments of others with weeping and wailing bemoaning their own sins. Repentance is a virtue best preached by practicing it.

If this kind of commentary doesn't stop soon, no one is going to believe the Church has any morals left! What arrogance to pronounce God's judgment against anyone. Who can presume to speak for God?

Well, John, one of the functions of ordained ministry, and especially one of the functions of the episcopate, is to "speak for God" -- prophetically, charismatically, and, well, authoritatively.

The problem is not that there are bishops who teach, or that they teach moral theology. It's not even that morally compromised bishops teach moral theology -- unworthiness of the minister and all that -- or that they teach from the context of a morally compromised community. How many communities aren't?

The problem is that bishops (and priests and deacons and laypersons) teach asinine bullshit like this.

Good for the Archbishop.

Good for the Archbishop.

In what way, Father McQueen?

As one who works on HIV/AIDS issues, I find the Archbishop's statement to be both factually inaccurate and morally reprehensible. I'd like to know why/how it resonates with someone who represents himself as a priest/pastor?

Paige Baker

Because the Abp. has the courage to stand up and state without hesitation that sin has consequences. He has the courage to declare that those who call good that which God calls sinful are in spiritual, physical, and moral danger both in this life and in the life to come.

And I don't just "represent" myself as a priest, I am a one. But I'm also a sinner in need of God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness. That's what I preach and teach to my flock.

It takes no courage at all to say sin has consequences. It takes incredible hubris to assume that one knows precisely what they are. And it takes a profoundly vicious theology to conjure a God who is willing to create an epidemic that claims millions of blameless lives to punish sin.

But I'm also a sinner in need of God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

You are also in need of a basic epidemiology course--and, apparently, some Clinical Pastoral Education.

That's what I preach and teach to my flock.

Note to self: Run away, as quickly as possible, from any priest who refers to parishioners as "my flock"...

Or, what Jim Naughton said.

Paige Baker

that which God calls sinful

Interior locution, Fr Will? (Since we know you're not speaking from Scripture or Tradition!)

JC Fisher