The Selfish, Sanctimonious, Narcissistic Rightwing Catholic Church -- Oh, and I did I mention selfish, selfish, selfish?

Where's Pope John the 23rd when you need him? Where's Thomas Merton? What has become of all the church's good guys?

Yes, I understand that the current Roman Catholic Church has a big-time cheap labor shortage problem, but -- hey, can't you guys keep that to yourselves?

Get this.

A Commencement Turns Ugly

When people cry at graduation, it’s supposed to be the happy kind of tears.

That wasn’t the case Saturday at the University of St. Thomas, when the student speaker at the Saint Paul, Minn., institution’s graduation ceremony used his address to denounce as "selfish" those women who use the birth control pill. St. Thomas has been divided this semester by a debate over whether the Roman Catholic institution was correct to ban unmarried employees traveling together with students from sharing a room, so issues of sexual morality have been front and center at the institution. The student speaker also denounced as selfish those unmarried couples covered by the policy who had wanted to share a room with a partner.

Students and family members were shocked by the speech — and some left their own graduation in tears. Others booed or shouted. Still others are angry that the university administrator who followed the student speaker appeared to many to endorse his views. The university denies that, and the St. Thomas president and the student speaker have apologized. While St. Thomas officials said that they hope the apologies will put the matter to rest, many students and faculty members doubt that can happen.

A portion of the controversial speech has been posted online at YouTube (be forewarned that several loud expletives from audience members are also audible). The speaker is Ben Kessler, who was elected by students and faculty members as "Tommie of the Year," earning the right to address his fellow graduates. Kessler was a 4.0 student and a star on the football team. He is moving to Rome to study for the priesthood.

In his speech, Kessler asked about the couples who traveled with St. Thomas students and who set off the debate over the travel policy. The issue gained the attention of St. Thomas administrators when a choir director who is lesbian wanted to take her partner and their son on a class trip to France, as married couples on university travel had done in the past. Not only was that trip barred, but the university started barring those traveling with students from sharing rooms with their partners if they were not married — whether the relationships were straight or gay. Kessler said that those wanting to share rooms were "selfish" . . . He then went on to call using birth control selfish, and specifically cited only one form of birth control: the pill.

Yes, sir, failing to bear children who will become abused and/or neglected is indeed the height of selfishness.

It is far better for the Church to be ordering more children brought into the world with all the forethought one might give to, say, ordering another glass of milk.

One may be sure that the compassionate Jesus would certainly agree, would He not?

Video here at YouTube.

[Update: here's the miscreant's apology. Will the Church's official apology be far behind? Yes, it will. Meanwhile, take a gander at a few of their canned propaganda messages supporting forced maternity, here. It's really awful.]