"WJWD:What Jesus Wouldn't Do" Call to Action News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2010
Media Contact:Jim FitzGerald, Executive Director, O: 773.404.0004 x262
Nicole Sotelo, Communications Director, O: 773.404.0004 x285
WJWD: What Jesus Wouldn't Do
(Chicago) Call To Action stands in solidarity with those who over the last month have experienced a series of oppressive actions by the Catholic hierarchy over sexual identity. In Washington DC, Catholic Charities discontinued its foster care services so that it could avoid placing children with loving same gender couples. Additionally, Catholic Charities, rather than give healthcare benefits to same gender couples, cut off all future healthcare benefits to spouses, gay and straight alike. Equally disturbing is the decision by some church leaders to bar a child from a Catholic school in Boulder, CO solely because the child's parents are two women.

"We as a church may debate about what Jesus would do," says Jim FitzGerald, Executive Director of Call To Action, "but I think we know what he would not do. Jesus would not deny people healthcare, he would not cease foster care services for vulnerable youth and he certainly would not deny education to a child.
"Jesus said 'Let the little children come to me.' He didn't say 'Let the little children of some parents come to me.' It is appalling that a church that prides itself on caring for children and vulnerable populations would harm children by using them as pawns in political power plays.

"Catholic Bishops are already half way down this slippery slope of their own making. Will they next deny food to a woman and her children in the bread line because of who the mother loves? The behavior of Catholic leadership is contrary to all that Christ stood for and is offensive to Catholic families-gay and straight alike.

"May we Catholics remind the bishops of their own teaching: "There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human life: for example, food, clothing, housing, the right freely to choose their state of life and set up a family, the right to education,... the right to act according to the dictates of conscience and to safeguard their privacy.... (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, #26)."
"It may be difficult to know what Jesus would do in some situations, but we firmly believe he would not be putting people's well being at risk. We only hope the Bishops could do likewise."
For more information, see:
"Citing same-sex marriage bill, Washington Archdiocese ends foster-care program" (Washington Post, February 17, 2010) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021604899.html
"Same-sex marriage leads Catholic Charities to adjust benefits" (Washington Post, March 2, 2010) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR2010030103345.html
"Catholic School Rejects Child Because of Lesbian Parents" (The Denver Channel, March 7, 2010) http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22769137/detail.html
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Call To Action (CTA) is a Catholic movement working for equality and justice in the Church and society. An independent national organization of over 25,000 people and 53 local chapters, CTA believes that the Spirit of God is at work in the whole church, not just its appointed leaders. Visit our website at www.cta-usa.org.
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