Cardinal Newman - a funny old Catholic chap who lived with another man he was ever so close to for 32 years, but they didn't have sex, oh you know, about to be beatified by the Pope - was definitely not gay, claims Opus Dei fan on Cif this week.
Dr Jeffrey John - a funny looking CofE chap who has lived with another man he's ever so close to for 34 years, but they don't have sex - was definitely not blocked by the Archbishop of Canterbury from becoming Bishop of Southwark because he was gay, claims bishop on CiF this week.
Religious joke corner
What's the difference between a gay saint and a gay martyr?
About 150 years.
Boom boom!
Posts
"Sadly, what intrigues most people today is not Newman’s imaginative view of Christianity (“With Christians,” he wrote, “a poetic view of things is a duty”) but his sexual orientation. He was a feminine soul, deeply attached to his mother and sisters, who dreaded marriage. Intimate male friendships were a theme in his life and he shared a grave with the closest of these attachments, Father Ambrose St John. Did they have sex? My guess is no. Was Newman gay? Probably, but who cares? Certainly not the merciful God in whom Newman believed and wrote of in his long poem, “The Dream of Gerontius”. Elgar’s powerful oratorio uses the text, and of all Newman’s works this may prove his most abiding."
ReplyDeleteSally Vickers reviewing Newman’s Unquiet Grave: the Reluctant Saint by John Cornwell in today's Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7881512/Newmans-Unquiet-Grave-the-Reluctant-Saint-by-John-Cornwell-review.html