Among the leading contenders:
Francis Arinze: "In a commencement address this year at Georgetown University, Arinze drew protests by saying the institution of marriage is 'mocked by homosexuality.'"
Joseph Ratzinger: "He once called homosexuality a tendency toward 'intrinsic moral evil.'"
Diogini Tettamanzi: "He has taken a tough line against what he terms 'homosexual culture.' In one article, he wrote that the church was called 'together with every person of good will, to denounce the very grave personal and social risks connected with accepting such a culture.'"
Almost all the contenders seem to have made ignorant and dehumanizing statements about homosexuality (as reader Alan commented on the item below regarding the late pope, "I don't know that he could even envision 'gay people' as anything other than individuals who perversely engage in homosexual acts").
Also like the late pope, a common thread is demonizing free markets and global trade (i.e., "globalization") as a form of imperialism that keeps the poor impoverished, when in fact it is the key to helping underdeveloped nations rise out of poverty.
Tettamanzi, the Washington Post tells us, described as "positive" the anti-globalization rioters at the Seattle World Trade Organization conference in 1999 who prevented a new trade accord, while another contender, Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, told his fellow Latin Americans that "Neoliberal capitalism carries injustices and inequality in its genetic code," while condemning the U.S. for promoting free-market economic policies and "exporting" liberal views on matters such as contraception.
Some reactionaries are just wrong all round, but it's no
surprise that those who oppose personal freedom would also be
against free markets.
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