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The Vatican wakes up to the wisdom of Oscar Wilde

by Babel-Fish | July 17, 2009 at 08:07 am

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With his outrageous wit, clear disdain for figures of authority and openly homosexual lifestyle, Oscar Wilde is an unlikely pin-up for the Catholic Church. Persecuted and imprisoned for his sexuality, gay rights campaigners have long idolised the 19th century writer as one of their own.

But the Vatican, it seems, is equally enamoured of Ireland's greatest wit. In a glowing review of a new study of Wilde by the Italian writer Paolo Gulisano, L'Osservatore Romano – the Vatican's official newspaper – praises the Irish playwright for being "an aesthete and a lover of the ephemeral".

Is this a move by the Catholic Church in reforming its views on homosexuality? I do not however consider they will make Wilde a saint however Saint Oscar has a nice ring to it.

What is the Vatican upto? Is it because the pope is a fan of Oscar;s writing or is it to partly appease the gay communities? The Vatican some times works in mysterous ways.

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Roy C

at 12:15 on July 17th, 2009

Italians have never been as anti-gay as the Protestant north of Europe. There was a fairly high level of acceptance when I lived there. We all knew who the gay politicians were and it didn't seem to interfere with their political careers.

If the Vatican Observer had the comment, it doesn't make it an official position of the pope. It just means that that attitude or opinion is accepted within the general framework of debate.

Certainly, to point out that Oscar Wilde had value as a writer and commentator is not an endorsement of his sexuality.