Oh, What Might Have Been Had John Paul I Lived

"Never be afraid to stand up for what is right, whether your adversary be your parent, your peer, your teacher, your politician, your preacher, or even your God." so spoke Albino Luciani (who was John XXIII first choice as a Bishop, then Paul VI's first choice as a Cardinal, and was finally known as JPI.)

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The future Pope John Paul I, "did much to encourage single persons to adopt parentless children. It was his lobbying in the Italian Parliament that made it legal for single persons to adopt children in Italy. (I have frequently stated on this blog that my biggest fear with the gay marriage initiatives is their potentially devastating effects on adoption.)

When an opposition member of the assembly challenged his proposal: "But, that would make it legal for homosexuals to adopt children," Luciani responded, "The desire to parent children is a basic human need . .. Until the day comes that we can guarantee basic human rights and dignity to the tiniest minority, we cannot truthfully call ourselves a democracy. "

Yet, his adversary objected, `But homosexuals have a record of splitting up after the `honeymoon' is over and this would cause children to lose either one or both parents."

Luciani responded: "There are two major forces involved in making for long term loving relationships and regardless of what Rome might believe, sex is not one of them. As a matter-of- fact, sex is most often a declining force in many relationships. It often has very little to do with the long term survival of a union. The longevity of a relationship of two people who parent children that is so important to protecting the rights of children until they reach adulthood depends not on sex, but rather on the two major forces that create long term relationships, love and companionship.

When one considers the latter, the homosexual has a great advantage. Two people of the same sex who fall in love with each other make much better companions of each other because they are more likely to share common interests. It is for this reason that children parented by homosexual couples are less likely to undergo the trauma of arguments in marriage and of divorce. "

His opponent had still another objection: "Nevertheless, homosexuals are pedophiles. This will put children in great danger."

"To begin with, " Luciani responded, "homosexuality has nothing to do with pedophilia; one is sexual orientation and the other is sexual perversion. Yet, in that most cases of pedophilia involve incest, we must consider the question. If our objective is to prevent pedophilia in adoption then the only logical action is to permit only homosexuals to adopt children who are only of the opposite sex. This would reduce incest to zero. If we permit heterosexual couples to adopt children, then children would be at risk. "

Within a few years of the passage of that measure, more than a half-million children, who had previously been confined to the streets, were provided loving and economic support by single parents. Some of these were homosexual couples, in which case one of the parents had adopted the child, as it remained illegal for two people of the same sex to adopt the same child.

Very little is known of Luciani's involvement with homosexual parents other than a few short notes written in connection with his orphanages, "We have found that homosexual couples will take handicapped and less than healthy and attractive children. Most importantly, they will take bastards. Heterosexual couples, on the other hand, go for the cutest babies as if they were shopping for a puppy in a pet shop. "

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The following letter was written to Lucien Gregoire, the author of the book "Murder In The Vatican". It illustrates the point John Paul I makes about the truths of gay adoption.

"Dear Mr. Gregoire,

My name is Tommy. I read Murder in the Vatican.

I was born with one eye and had a wrinkled face so nobody wanted me. I think I scared them. Then one day when I was five years old my father showed up and took me home. I remember the kids used to laugh at me in the playground. Then my father's sold everything they had including the house and I spent a long time in the hospital and the doctors and nurses made me look good. We have still many bills to pay. But now I am quite a ladies man at school. I hit my first home run last summer and this year I am going to hit forty more.

My parents love me. That is, they used to love me. Now only one of them loves me. Because the other one is dead. He gave his life trying to win freedom for Iraq. He died on my fourteenth birthday. I noticed in your book that General Patton said some words over the grave of another soldier who like my father was gay and gave his life to save some Italian school children.

As you know I won't be getting any benefits from the army or from social security to pay for my education or my medical bills because my parents did not have the freedom to marry and I was adopted by the father that is still with me. I didn't even get his purple heart or bronze star. The army gave them to his parents who hated him and sold them in a tag sale. I would have liked to have them.

My father tells me not to feel bitter because according to the last census there are more than a million children in gay families and they are in the same boat. But, of course, I am not listed with them because of the don't ask don't tell policy. My father says that there are also over fifteen million other children in single parent families, many like me who are of gay parents who are not counted in the census because they are fearful of losing their jobs too. So we are talking about a lot of children here, million s of them, not just me.

Both my father and I are sure that your book will be a best seller, I want to ask you a favor. I want to ask you when you are on Larry King Live, could you please read my letter. I think it might help people to understand our problem.

I was planning on being a baseball player. But your book has made me change my mind. Instead I am going to study hard and I am going to become president. Well, maybe not president, but I am going to help other people. Like me."

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One of the things which must be understood about John Paul I's influence on the Italian Parliament about single parent adoption is that his reasoning about homosexuality and relationships was years ahead of the American Psychological Association. That may have been his problem, he was years ahead of almost everyone around him. Sometimes we call these kinds of people prophetic.

It's hard to imagine what the Church would be like now if he had had more time for his version of Catholicism to flourish. I have no doubt we would not now be subjected to Catholic culture warriors who think nothing of trampling on the rights of single parents in order to get at gays. You know, those Catholics who think chopping down the entire forest is the perfect solution to eradicating one kind of tree. The kind who kill prophets.

John Paul I had other strange ideas as well. He is on record as a parish priest as having requested the excommunications of Hitler and Mussolini, comparing them to the mandatory excommunication of divorced Catholics. "I am greatly tormented that Mother Church would see it as her duty to close the Gates of Heaven forever to so many innocent people who have at last found true love and yet on the other hand see it as her duty to leave them open to the likes of such tyrants." JPI is not the only Catholic who has wondered about this one.

When every other Cardinal saw the devil in the creation of Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, JPI wrote to her parents and said this: "My congratulations to you on the birth of your little girl. I (the church) have no right to condemn you for what you wanted. Be assured that there is reserved for your child a place in Heaven."

Many church watchers felt that JPI would rescind the teachings on birth control and they had reason, as he had lectured fellow Cardinals on the links between poverty, famine, abortion and unwanted pregnancies. He stated that the Church had a responsibility to stop being a primary cause of these problems and become a solution.

It's sort of funny, but when I think about it, the Vatican seems to operate out of a self sustaining paranoia. During World War II Pius XII bent over backwards to sacrifice the Message for the sake of the messenger. In other words, he never excommunicated any of the multitude of Catholic fascist dictators--- to protect the Church--or so the Vatican says. He muzzled the message in order to save the muzzled messenger. Imagine if Jesus had muzzled Himself in order to save Himself.

I guess now that it's safe to shout their message again, all we hear is condemnation of progressive policies and politicians. But then the Vatican has always been johnny on the spot when it comes to the left, but johnny come last when it comes to the right. I don't imagine that has a thing to do with the fact that progressive policies do not support divinely appointed authoritarian structures.

I wonder what the Vatican would look like now if JPI had lived. I suspect there would be more women walking the Vatican halls with something other than dust rags and mops. In the meantime JPI's and Tommy's real life understanding of gay adoption must be shouted from the rooftops. Kids lives depend on it.