Posted on 06/04/2003 2:42:22 AM PDT by kattracks
CNSNews.com) - The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts is seeking state and federal hate crimes charges against homosexual protestors who "disturbed" Sunday's Mass at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
"This was a bigoted expression of contempt for Catholics," C.J. Doyle, executive director of the league, told CNSNews.com. Doyle referred to the protest as "a premeditated assault on the First Amendment religious freedom rights of Catholics" and "a very crude intimidation tactic intended to silence Catholic opposition to same-sex marriage.
"But it was also a crime," Doyle said.
The protest, staged by 11 members of QueerToday.com - a self-described Boston-based online community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and allies nationwide - was triggered by four Massachusetts bishops who called on priests Sunday to remind their parishioners of the Church's stance against same-sex marriages.
Parishioners were also asked to urge their state legislators to vote in favor of a proposed amendment to the state's constitution that would legally define marriage as the union between a male and a female.
Doyle said that as Monsignor William Roche began to read the bishops' statement in favor of traditional Catholic marriage, the protestors "stood up and turned their backs on the pulpit.
"A number of them embraced one another, held hands, and at least two male homosexuals kissed each other," Doyle said. "A number of parishioners had to get up and actually move because either their view of the sanctuary was being blocked or because they felt somehow threatened or menaced by these protestors, who then - after a short time - walked out."
Mark Snyder, the 20-year-old founder of QueerToday.com, said he "did not break any laws at the church.
"There were police present in the back watching to make sure that the service was not disrupted, and because it was not disrupted, I was not arrested, and nobody in our group was arrested," Snyder told CNSNews.com.
According to press reports, fellow protestor and former altar boy Carl Sciortino said: "I'm not turning my back on my church or my God, I'm turning my back on the bishops who are promoting this discrimination.
"As a Catholic, I find it disgusting that I have to protest my own church to have equal rights under state law," Sciortino told the Boston Globe Monday.
Snyder told CNSNews.com that any kissing "was very subdued - like a kiss on the cheek or a hug." He was quoted in the same Globe article as saying that when he "kissed his friend Diego Maldonado" during the protest, it "was meant to symbolize the kiss that straight couples are allowed when they are married in a church."
According to Doyle, the issue is not whether the protesters "disrupted" the Mass, as some in the press reported. "The law doesn't say 'disrupt,' the law says 'disturb,' and (Commonwealth of Massachusetts General Law) Chapter 272, Section 38, says: 'Whoever willfully interrupts or disturbs an assembly of people met for the worship of God shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than $1,000."
Doyle also cited General Law Chapter 265, Section 37, "which prohibits people from interfering with anyone in the exercise of a constitutional right, such as the right to worship in peace, unmolested."
According to Doyle, letters were to be sent Tuesday to state Attorney General Thomas Reilly and Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, urging them to investigate the Holy Cross incident for potential hate crimes charges against the protestors.
"We're also writing to U.S. Attorney (for the state of Massachusetts) Michael Sullivan because there is a provision of...the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act which also prohibits interference with churches," Doyle said.
Boston Archdiocese spokesperson Fr. Christopher Coyne told CNSNews.com that while there were "concerns that there was a protest inside the church," the archdiocese would not "pursue any kind of legal remedy based on something like a hate crime or disruption of a worship service.
"People who come to the church specifically to protest, we'd ask them to stay outside the church and not disrupt in any way - peaceful or otherwise - the worship."
A spokesman for Sullivan had no comment on the matter.
Snyder said he found it "hurtful and offensive that I'm being accused of a hate crime because I've been a victim of hate crimes before growing up."
Snyder, a senior public relations major at Boston's Emerson College, recalled being "verbally and physically harassed on a daily basis" while attending a Pennsylvania high school.
Protests are not unusual at Holy Cross. According to Doyle, parishioners of the church have "been under siege for about 15 months now" from protests over charges of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston area. He said church attendees went to Mass "amid a heavy police presence and through a gauntlet of protestors, some of them with bullhorns shouting at them."
Doyle added: "We have a long history of these kinds of hate crimes going on here in Boston." He mentioned a 1990 incident where "condoms were thrown at priests, and obscenities were shouted at worshippers during ordinations" and a 1991 incident where "mock homosexual weddings were taking place on the steps of the cathedral.
"In 2001, we had a group of homosexual militants who harassed signature gatherers outside of Catholic churches when they would attempt to gather signatures for a protection of marriage amendment," Doyle said. "So we have a long history of very thuggish, very aggressive behavior."
Most recently, Doyle said, a woman with children complained to him about an incident by "anti-Catholic hate groups" with bullhorns at Holy Cross.
"One of these psychopaths actually shouted at her for the children to cover up their genitals because Catholic priests were present...something you would expect more from Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia than in a free society," Doyle said.
Remarking on the possibility of the protestors being charged with hate crimes, local WRKO AM radio talk show host Howie Carr told CNSNews.com:"For once in my life. I'm with the Catholic Action League."
Carr, who said he doesn't personally favor hate crimes laws, said: "We have too many sets of double standards in this country.
"If you're going to have hate crimes for one section of the population, you've got to have hate crimes for all segments of the population," Carr said. "Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
See Earlier Story:
Homosexual Marriage Debate Heats up in Massachusetts
E-mail a news tip to Steve Brown.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Pass it on.
"As a Catholic, I find it disgusting that I have to protest my own church to have equal rights under state law," Sciortino told the Boston Globe Monday.
I find this segment particularly telling. A former altar boy in Boston is now a 'homosexual' activist.
Why is he a 'homosexual'? Because he was very likely molested by 'homosexual' priests right there in Boston. And they say it's not contagious.
Rather than get healed and restored he now wants the entire world to accept his sexual deviancy.
Remember the golden rules of 'homosexuality':
1.)'Homosexuals' don't reproduce, they recruit
2.) To a healthy person (heterosexual), sex is what they do
To a mentally ill person ('homosexual'), sex is what they are.
3.) Any exposure of children to homosexual behavior is child abuse
This is the way to "win friends and influence people"?
"One of these psychopaths actually shouted at her for the children to cover up their genitals because Catholic priests were present...something you would expect more from Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia than in a free society," Doyle said.
New York Gay Legislator Advocatesdiscrimination Against Catholic Priests Thomas Duane, a gay state senator from New York, declared yesterday that all Catholic priests should be barred from leading a prayer in the legislature.
"The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution Of The Christian Churches"
The Poisoned Stream "Gay" Influence in Human History. Volume One. Germany 1890-1945. View as HTML
The Gestapo readily had recourse to the charge of homosexuality if it was unable to find any pretext for proceeding against Catholic priests or irksome critics" (Kogon:44).
Igra's primary value to us today is that he was an eyewitness to the changes that occurred in Germany; an eyewitness with a uniquely prophetic sense of the danger of "gay" influence in society. I consider it a great privilege to be able to review his work for the modern reader.
Igra's Thesis: Homosexuality Was at the Root of Nazi Evil
A Psychological Profile of Adolf Hitler Walter C. Langer, Office of Strategic Services,Washington, D.C.
"I am one of the hardest men Germany has had for decades, perhaps for centuries, equipped [Page 7] with the greatest authority of any German leader... but above all, I believe in my success. I believe in it unconditionally." (M.N.O. 871)
The great difficulty is that this form of identification early in life carries the individual in the direction of passive homosexuality. Hitler has for years been suspected of being a homosexual, although there is no reliable evidence that he has actually engaged in a relationship of this kind. Rauschning reports that he has met two boys who claimed that they were Hitler's homosexual partners, but their testimony can scarcely be taken at its face value. More condemning would be the remarks dropped by Foerster, the Danzig Gauleiter, in conversations with Rauschning. Even here, however, the remarks deal only with Hitler's impotence as far as heterosexual relations go without actually implying that he indulges in homosexuality. It is probably true that Hitler calls Foerster "Bubi", which is a common nickname employed by homosexuals in addressing their partners. This alone, however, is not adequate proof that he has actually indulged in homosexual practices with Foerster, who is known to be a homosexual.
The belief that Hitler is homosexual has probably developed (a) from the fact that he does show so many feminine characteristics, and (b) from the fact that there were so many homosexuals in the Party during the early days and many continue to occupy important positions. It does seem that Hitler feels much more at ease with homosexuals than with normal persons, but this may be due to the fact that they are all fundamentally social outcasts and consequently have a community of interests which tends to make them think and feel more or less alike. In this connection it is interesting to note that homosexuals, too, frequently regard themselves as a special form of creation or as chosen ones whose destiny it is to initiate a new order.
The fact that underneath they feel themselves to be different and ostracized from normal social contacts usually makes them easy converts to a new social philosophy which does not discriminate against them. Being among civilization's discontents, they are always willing to take a chance of something new which holds any promise of improving their lot, even though their chances of success may be small and the risk great. Having little to lose to begin with, they can afford to take chances which others would refrain from taking. The early Nazi party certainly contained many members who could be regarded in this light. Even today Hitler derives pleasure from looking at men's bodies and associating with homosexuals. Strasser tells us that his personal body guard is almost always 100% homosexuals. [Page 196]
He also derives considerable pleasure from being with his Hitler Youth and his attitude towards them frequently tends to be more that of a woman than that of a man.
There is a possibility that Hitler has participated in a homosexual relationship at some time in his life. The evidence is such that we can only say there is a strong tendency in this direction which, in addition to the manifestations already enumerated, often finds expression in imagery concerning being attacked from behind or being stabbed in the back. His nightmares, which frequently deal with being attacked by a man and being suffocated, also suggest strong homosexual tendencies and a fear of them. From these indications, however, we would conclude that for the most part these tendencies have been repressed, which would speak against the probability of their being expressed in overt form. On the other hand, persons suffering from his perversion sometimes do indulge in homosexual practices in the hope that they might find sexual gratification. Even this perversion would be more acceptable to them than the one with which they are afflicted.
On the whole, one could say of many of the German troops what Rauschning said of Hitler: [Page 242] "...there lies behind Hitler's emphasis on brutality and ruthlessness the desolation of a forced and artificual inhumanity, not the amorality of the genuine brute, which has after all something of the power of a natural force."
Interesting. That's one for the archives, thanks.
. . .It is my view that no one should be left behind. In addition to variously oriented sexual deviants, there are many others among us who might qualify for hate crime coverage by virtue of substantial public scorn and hostility.
How may we exclude such publicly despised contenders as cigar aficionados, tobacco executives, members of the militia, drunks, conservative columnists, trial lawyers, IRS agents, used-car salesmen, politicians and skinheads? Are they not equally worthy in the eyes of the law?
And in the spirit of our president's [Clinton's] call to arms against crimes of hate, surely, anyone who assaults, maligns or harasses a proud and practicing Southern Baptist should get triple punishment, including enforced attendance at a brain-scrubbing sensitivity seminar designed by Jerry Falwell.
Alas, the new hate crime proposal does not include white heterosexual males as a protected category. If one were so inclined, one might think that excluding this particular group of Americans reflects a hate so deep as to suggest there is nothing either special or hateful about dragging one of them behind a truck.
"As a Catholic, I find it disgusting that I have to protest my own church to have equal rights under state law," Sciortino told the Boston Globe Monday.
If that's the way you feel about it, you ought to turn your back on them, and walk out the door, never to return. No one is keeping you in that bad old church with those nasty bishops who don't rip up certain passages of the Scriptures that don't suit them.
This is a free country. We have freedom of religion and freedom of movement.
MOVE.
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