It’s discouraging to note that the violent anti-LGBTQ riots that broke out in Poland this summer were rooted in the language of the Catholic Church. LGBTQ advocates in Poland are taking the Church to task for creating an atmosphere that normalizes antipathy and leads to violence, but so far, Church leaders are digging their heels in.

One bishop even upped the savage rhetoric, referring to LGBTQ people in Poland as a rainbow plague, using language that Poles understood to draw comparisons to the Soviet domination of Poland during the Cold War.

Of course, it’s all rooted in the fact that Church leaders truly believe that we’re depraved, disordered, and morally evil. They keep the language because they think it’s truthful.

Thank goodness that about 70% of American lay Catholics reject that doctrine, but given that the language remains, harm continues.