Has anybody been following the controversy that has recently blown up in Belgium over the comment about AIDS by Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard?

Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard

Archbishop Léonard is the successor to Godfried Cardinal Daneels, who has recently been embroiled in controversy and scandal regarding his failure to help a victim who was sexually abused by a bishop-friend of his. Danneels tried to tell the victim, that he had some guilt in the whole matter.

Godfried Cardinal Daneels

Archbishop Léonard has recently said that AIDs is a matter of “immanent justice.”

As per normal with a topic such as this, people have misrepresented what he said, or twisted what he said, or are just too stupid to understand what he meant, or just plain unjust themselves and failed to clarify with him as to what he meant.

These are the things that he has said across time:

“AIDS is not a punishment from God, but it is more a kind of immanent justice, somewhat like ecology and the environment: as when we have to pay the bill for what we have done to the milieu.”
“Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite.”
“It is an imperfectly developed stage of human sexuality which contradicts its inner logic. Homosexuals have encountered a blockage in their normal psychological development, rendering them abnormal.”

Jürgen Mettepenningen, Léonard’s spokesman, tried to clarify what the archbishop meant by “immanent justice.”

“AIDS flows logically from the facts: from a loose lifestyle. It is a bit like the person who smokes. That person has a greater chance of getting lung cancer.”

Now read this piece of trash writing from A Dick over at the National Catholic Reporter.

Instead of reporting on what was actually written, and trying to understand Léonard’s actual words, Mr A Dick twists and misrepresents what the Archbishop said: e.g., “Prelate asserts AIDS is punishment for gays.”

Is this what Léonard said?

Léonard said:

Loose lifestyle will lead to disease
Homosexuality is abnormal affective disorder
Homosexual acts are the use of the sexual capacity for unnatural ends
Acts against nature will have consequences
Homosexual acts will lead to disease

This is “immanent justice” for Léonard. Did he say anything about God punishing homosexuals? No. In fact he said the opposite.

Instead of trying to understand what “immanent justice” is within the natural world, as written and intended by Léonard (quite clearly too), the writer, J A Dick (a supposed theologian), drags Léonard’s statements about “immanent nature” into a transcendent theological statement, implying that Léonard said that “God punishes homosexuals with AIDS.” He said nothing of the sort.

A Dick then propagates this distorted view, and seeks out quotes from others who are replying to this misunderstanding, and within his opinion piece at NCR, sets up a dialectical construction, a dramatic juxtaposition, a false dichotomy, in order to create controversy and scandal, rather than quoting and analyzing what Léonard actually said. It’s like these people want to have a go, and deliberately twist what is said. It is unjust. A Dick should watch out, immanent justice might find him. If one lives by the sword of deception, one may die by the sword of deception. Didn’t Jesus say something like that.

What Léonard has said, is not rocket science: If one messes around with sexual stuff in a way that is not according to the human body’s natural rhythm, and natural internal structure, as easily discovered by science, then things will go wrong with the body at some point. From a scientific point of view, it is incontrovertible that the sexual organs are for reproduction of the species, no matter what your view is on evolution, or design, or nature. The female reproductive system is explicit in this regard. If the natural functioning of the body is continually disregarded, and pushed aside, and even twisted, and used in a way that is clearly against its finality (natural end), then expect defects to occur, and issues to arise.

Twist the natural physical laws (cf. genetic engineering) in complex organisms away from their observable ends, don’t be surprised when unexpected things happen; and things go wrong within nature: disease, or by products which cause defects.

An example within the sexual sphere is incest. Sleep with your mother, brother, dad, or sister, and at some stage, a little monster will be born.

Links are being discovered between abortion and breast cancer, stress and cancer, psychological anxiety and stomach ulcers, long work hours and cancer, lack of sleep and cancer, etc. There is a link with our psychological affective dispositions, and physical issues – such is the deep interconnection within the human being. There are also deep links in our intellectual life, and our love life, with our emotional well being, and our physical states. A person who refuses over a long time to forgive a friend, can end up carrying that pain physically, and having it manifested in all sorts of physical issues. These links between our internal states of mind and will, with our emotions, sensitivity, and feelings, and our physical wellbeing are co-natural links – which arise from the deep unity in our being, holding together all the complexity of life in us, as one living, knowing, and loving subject: one person.

From Léonard’s point of view, there is definitely a “nature” in the world, a natural way that beings act, and according to which they act (which is denied by many today), and when this nature is deliberately not adhered to by rational beings, then things will end up going wrong; and his spokesman uses the apt image of smoking.

If one fools around sexually one increases one’s chance of getting an STD. Simple logic. If a husband and wife are faithful to each other, there is less chance of getting an STD or HIV; or of the family falling apart. Fidelity to a person, and to nature, is a sure way of living healthily.

If one fools around (for whatever reason: curiosity, psychological stuff etc) with sexuality in a manner that is completely disconnected from life, and its origins, then the body will end up being oriented towards death. If we don’t want life, and value it, then at some stage this will manifest itself, not just in our mind and heart, but also in our bodies. I know of old couples, who, when one of them died, the other lost the will to live, and died shortly after. Our spiritual, and emotional life can be manifested in and through our body.

These things are connected in human life. There is a deep unity between the vegetative, sensitive, and spiritual levels of life in the human person.

Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

J A Dick should be ashamed of himself.