Posted on 10/18/2008 4:50:36 PM PDT by SmithL
...seemed San Francisco's Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church had found the perfect balance between the teachings of the church and gay and lesbian parishioners - at least until Proposition 8, the state initiative to ban same-sex marriage, made the ballot.
Holy Redeemer bills itself as "your Catholic Church in the Castro," and says it embraces all comers "regardless of their background, gender, gender identity, race, social status, or sexual orientation." The Rev. Donal Godfrey, who wrote a book on the church called "Gays and Grays," said roughly two-thirds of the Holy Redeemer parishioners are gay or lesbian. And not only are many of the same-sex couples married, some of their children have been baptized in the church.
So it was a shock to get an e-mail flyer from the office of San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer urging a yes vote on Prop. 8 because public schools would have to promote gay marriage.
"It is really out of right field," said Matt Dorsey, a member of the Holy Redeemer Parish Council. "I would expect this from Karl Rove, but not from the spiritual leader of (several hundred thousand) Catholics."
Why, with all the worldwide concerns - from war to starvation to genocide - the Catholic Church decided to insert itself into this debate is a mystery. But now that it has, as is so often the case, San Francisco is on the cutting edge of a cultural divide. If you'd like to visit ground zero, it can be found on Diamond Street, within the clean white walls of Most Holy Redeemer.
"I was born Patrick Mulcahey on St. Patrick's Day," said a church member who joined Holy Redeemer in 1994. "My Catholicism is as much a part of me as my fingers and my toes. We're not there to be gay.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
now the catholics are condoning abortion by backing obama.
Does the Church regard the Bible as the word of God?
not anymore than you would find those southern black churches supporting hussein...or the Jews supporting him.....
Somewhere in Russia, an Orthodox priest had a gay “wedding” in his church. The Orthodox were so appalled, they deconsecrated the church and bulldozed it to the ground.
This sacrilegious freak show in SF is long overdue for similar treatment.
A-P-O-S-T-A-C-Y. BTW, when can we declare SanFransicko a foreign country?
Are we talking, THE Catholic church? You know, with the Pope and all. I find it rather hard to believe.
I'm not Russian, and I'm not Orthodox. But it takes an unmitigated gall to accuse the Russian Church of "weak and fragile faith" when because of that faith they were rounded up by the Bolsheviks and shot dead in the streets.
On the other hand, I've not seen many groups that are more weaker, more fragile, and less tolerant of challenge than the seething bully-boys of the gay movement.
So nice try.
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