Cardinal George of Chicago, a few weeks ago made a comparison between the gay rights movement and the Ku Klux Klan. The quote was "You know, you don't want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism." The remark was made in the context of concern over the planning of next summer's gay parade, which had been scheduled to be in front of a local Church on Sunday morning. Perhaps he had in mind the December 1989 incident at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York when gay protesters disrupted a Mass celebratd by Cardinal O'Connor, chaining themselves to pews, shouting and flinging condoms about. (Read about the incident here, and scroll to the "legacy" section).
Yesterday the cardinal issued an apology for those remarks. We'll leave aside for the moment the obvious calcium deficiency in his spinal column, for what he said next was truly breathtaking for the disregard for Church teaching displayed. He said (and be sitting down for this!), "The question is, 'Does respect mean that we have to change our teaching?' That's an ongoing discussion, of course. … I still go back to the fact that these are people we know and love and are part of our families. That's the most important point right now."
"Ongoing discussion"?!?!?!! Really!?!??!!? Seriously!?!?!?! Ladies and gentlemen, this is a prince of the Church stating that the teaching of the Magisterium on homosexuality is subject to "ongoing discussion". Could it be that the local power bosses leaned on him and applied the "Chicago way" to him (like they probably did with the Pfleger and CCHD situations)?
Cardinal George, act as the bishop that you are, and tell those practicing the gay lifestyle that what they do is mortally sinful and that the teaching of Jesus Christ as transmitted through the Magisterium is not fodder for "ongoing disussion". If the hacks of Chicago politics start sending you dead fish, it's just as well for Lent will soon be upon us. Remember the words of your brother Cardinal during that disgusting display of gay gestapo tactics: "I must preach what the Church preaches, teach what the Church teaches."
Thomas, if you'd like to retry that comment, this time without snide vulgarities about the source of my ideas, I just might publish it.
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