Florida Bishop Blames Orlando Massacre on Catholic ‘Contempt’ for Homosexuality

The Catholic Bishop of St. Petersburg, Fla, has blamed Catholic disapproval of homosexual acts for the brutal slaughter of 49 people in the Pulse nightclub on Sunday.

In a blogpost Monday, Bishop Robert Lynch said that Catholicism “targets” and “often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people.” The seed of contempt, he said, turns into hatred, “which can ultimately lead to violence.” Unless this attitude changes, he states, “we can expect more Orlandos.”

In his post, the bishop made no attempt to explain how a 29-year-old Muslim who never stepped foot in a Catholic Church would have been motivated to carry out his deed by a supposed Catholic “contempt” for homosexuality.

Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” but that homosexual persons “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and that every “sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

It is “religion,” Lynch wrote, “including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence.”

Regarding the shooter’s affiliation with Islam, the bishop said that Muslims wishing to enter the country should not be treated differently than people of any other faith, which would be “un-American,” adding that there are “as many good, peace loving and God fearing Muslims to be found as Catholics or Methodists or Mormons or Seventh Day Adventists.”

Through its media outlet Amaq, the Islamic State has publicly taken responsibility for Sunday’s massacre.

In his statement, Bishop Lynch also takes issue with modern interpretations and applications of the Second Amendment.

“Our founding parents had no knowledge of assault rifles which are intended to be weapons of mass destruction,” he said. In crafting the second amendment to the Constitution, “they thought only of the most awkward of pistols and heavy shotguns.”

“I suspect they are turning in their graves if they can but glimpse at what their words now protect,” he said.

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