The Rainbow Sash Movement (National LGBT Catholics) Board of Directors have voted to award the bigot of the year to not only Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York for his vile activity and mean-spirited opposition to Gay Marriage in New York, but also to his fellow bishops for their abhorrent attack on women’s rights. The Bishops of Pennsylvania released an unmistakably partisan letter to local voters declaring that the White House’s policies on contraception, abortion and gay rights meant the nation was ‘losing its soul by little steps.’
Legal equality for gays, the letter implied, would defy God, and contraception and abortion should not be contemplated under any circumstances.
In Wisconsin, Bishop David Ricken wrote a letter to parishioners saying that the Democratic platform was evil and attacking choice. The party’s support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage and other ‘intrinsic evils’ made it impossible for Catholics to support the party without putting their souls at risk. Vote for Mitt Romney and the Republican Party or burn in hell, Bishop Ricken suggested.
In Alaska, Bishop Edward J. Burns wrote a column in the local newspaper on October 27 comparing Vice President Joe Biden’s support for abortion rights to supporting slave owners in the antebellum South, and he reportedly questioned both Biden’s character and his Catholic Faith.
The bishops from Newark, New Jersy to Springfield, Illinois to Colorado Springs have made similar party political appeals. Although they stress they are not endorsing any particular party or candidate they usually start with their opposition to abortion and marriage equality and other policies that Republicans support and Democrats generally oppose.
Meanwhile Cardinal Francis of George is asking all the priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago to remind out loud to all parishioners of the Archdiocese on the last Sunday before the election that it is the Republican party and not the Democratic party that is more aligned with the polices of the Vatican.
Sadly this minority group of bishops has a stranglehold on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops with their fear that American society is ready to embrace more rights for both women and lesbian and gays.
The bishops opposition to these rights is only driving more and more reasonable Catholics away from the Church generally and youth in particular.
Sadly, these Catholic Bishops are more interested in following in the footsteps of earlier bigots such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson rather than Jesus Christ. This is why the Rainbow Sash Movement Board of Directors have voted to award them bigot of the year.
What happened to you? You used to be able to tell when people were giving you shit. Now, you're no better than SH, or Clenz if you mention a purple shirt. 