There has been a great deal of commentary on Cardinal George’s unfortunate linking of “some” gay activists and the KKK, here and at many other LGBT sites.
The assessment that follows is important because it does not come from LGBT sources, Catholic or other, who could be seen as speaking from a place of personal affront. Nor is it written as an emotional reacion, in the heat of the moment. It is rather, a sober, level-headed reflection written well after the event, as an editorial at the reputable National Catholic Reporter.
Read it.
Cardinal’s comparison is nonsensical
Whether Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George went into a Dec. 21 television interview intending to compare the gay community with the Ku Klux Klan or impulsively gave voice to something that popped into his mind at the moment, it is clear that he welcomed any opportunity to pick a fight.
His incendiary comment, spur of the moment or not, betrays a larger context that, in the cardinal’s universe, is no secret. And that context is that anti-Catholic hordes — gays, materialists, certainly The New York Times, politicians who won’t hew their views and strategies to the Catholic line, and other societal forces — lurk around every corner and are largely responsible for all the church’s troubles.
Serious issues — of conscience and principle, of clashes between the state’s obligations and church teachings — do indeed exist and are fair game for religious leaders to address.
But a cardinal who assesses a conflict between the time and route of a Gay Pride Parade and a Catholic Mass with the line, “You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism,” diminishes any standing the church might still have in the public arena. The important issues get buried beneath the understandable outrage such comments invite. His words were not only embarrassingly imprudent, they are nonsensical as historical comparison.
-full editorial at National Catholic Reporter.
Related articles
- TWO Petition Asking Cardinal George to Resign Reaches Goal of 5,000 Signatures (Bilgrimage)
- Cardinal George Says Gays = Klan, but What Does the Klan Say about Gays?(Bilgrimage)
- I Hear from Cardinal George: It Is Sinful That Gays Are Harassed (Bilgrimage)
- Gay Pride = A KKK Rally? (Andrew Sullivan)
