Clear mind was a gift to the Church

A FEW years ago, on Dec 23, I got a morning call from RTÉ.

Reuters news service had just reported that Pope Benedict had compared the threat posed by homosexuality to humanity as similar to the destruction of the rainforests. Would I come on air to discuss it?

I wasn’t free, as it happened, but I did tune in to the media coverage that followed. There was widespread scorn, outrage, and free-ranging criticism of the Pope. It took ages for the truth to emerge — Benedict had spoken about the “ecology of the person” and the importance of recognising the difference between the sexes. A criticism of certain gender theories, it was. A swipe at homosexual persons, it was not.