That’s the view not of some crank Santorum volunteer in Iowa, but of Cardinal George of Chicago. He was referring to the fact that next year’s Gay Pride Parade in Chicago would have passed by a Catholic church during services. For some reason, he seems to believe that this is an attack on the church:
“You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism … The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church.”
He subsequently appeared to back down, especially when a civil resolution of the question was achieved and the route altered a little. But then he issued a statement that made it all much worse:
“[T]he organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940’s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus.”
A couple of obvious points. Since when does a street march “stop us from worshipping God”? By that logic, no parades could be permitted. As Rex Wockner notes:
“The Chicago gay pride parade attracts 800,000 people. It proceeds through a heavily congested, dense urban cityscape. Absolutely positively everything in its wake is disrupted … No, cardinal, the gay pride committee is not targeting the Catholic church. ‘The gay liberation movement’ is not targeting the Catholic church either. Your church building is affected in no way any different from hundreds upon hundreds of buildings for miles in all directions (Lake Michigan notwithstanding). You really do need to get out more.”
And, of course, George is simply wrong that American Catholics stand outside the “American consensus” on gay civil rights. They are in the vanguard of the American consensus:
On the issue of marriage, the report [PDF], compiled by the Public Religion Research Institute using past polls and studies, showed “nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.” The report also showed strong Catholic support for other gay rights issues with 73 percent supporting laws against workplace discrimination and 60 percent favoring adoption by gay and lesbian couples.
The body that stands outside the consensus of the entire developed world is the Vatican hierarchy, a tiny group that has so abetted and enabled the rape of so many children it beggars belief it dares utter a word about the alleged sins of others. George is supposed to submit his resignation next week, as he is now 75. My hunch is that Benedict may well ask him to stay on – to fight the “KKK.”
The Dish 