"Your
Holiness,
Your
archdiocese here in Philadelphia stands alone as the only archdiocese in the
nation to charter buses to the March for Marriage, an
anti-LGBT rally in Washington, D.C. At the rally there will almost certainly be
speakers who label the LGBT community as dangerous, a people of sin, immoral and
inhuman - and these, your Holiness, are the polite terms.
This effort
has a price tag of $5,000 for the chartered buses, and the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference (PCC), in lockstep with the archdiocese, is also providing
promotional efforts for the event. When Philadelphia Gay News called to ask for comment, the archdiocese
claimed to have received the $5,000 through a donation, and offered no further
details.
This occurs
at a time when the archdiocese is closing churches and schools. It seems that
the PCC is taking time away from their previous high-priority tasks: requesting
state tax dollars for church-sponsored organizations and lobby ing state
representatives not to change the statute of limitations so that the church is
not liable for the older cases of child abuse.
Archbishop
Charles J. Chaput (right) says: "Laws that defend the traditional definition of
marriage were enacted for sound reasons-namely to defend the rights of children
and contribute to the well-being of the larger community." By that very
statement he insults the children now living in same-sex marriages and makes
their lives much more difficult. The church should be embracing families, not
insulting them. He further went on to describe gay relationships as working
against human dignity.
The law in
Pennsylvania has been changed, and the legal battle over marriage equality is
over. And with Pennsylvania, 44% of the nation now has marriage equality, and
each remaining state without it has similar court cases in the pipeline, a fact
that the opposition should note.
In the last
15 cases, each of those 15 courts - including many judges appointed or
recommended by Republicans - have found that in the U.S., denying marriage to
LGBT people is unconstitutional. Why must the Archbishop continue to enrage the
community?
The
Archbishop has yet to even meet with members of the LGBT community, and he
continues along with PCC to stand in the doorway of enacting non-discrimination
in Pennsylvania.
It's time for
talk, not hate."
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