The group Catholics for Marriage Equality is starting to replace the funds by raising $17,400 for Homeless Voices for Justice. One of the group's co-founders, Anne Underwood, said Bishop Richard Malone is punishing the homeless because of politics.
"This is petty vindictiveness," she said. "After the election is over, suddenly the money is revoked from poor people because of a political opinion held by the bishop."
Underwood said that many Catholics in Maine will now think twice before donating money to the church to help fight poverty. "People who are homeless should not be used in political games," she said.
..... Preble Street decided to join the coalition that opposed Question 1 because issues of sexual orientation are the single greatest cause of homelessness among youths.
Comment: I just shook my head. I think perhaps the good bishop is listening to Glen Beck. He seems to be agreeing that the church shouldn't preach social justice.
8 comments:
Preble Street sent a letter to Bishop Malone and there's a link to that and other correspondence on the newspaper's web site.
One aspect of this is very good:
It´s very revealing the depth of shallowness and defensiveness at any cost that many ¨spiritual¨ leaders are willing initiate as they strike out against other human beings.
Dangerous lot, no matter how you view them.
Len, they are a dangerous lot. Bishops are supposed to be pastors of their flock. They are leading people into very dangerous territory rather than into green pastures.
I take it there's nothing in Leviticus or Paul's Epistles about feeding the hungry?
I only pay money to the church for its physical and administrative upkeep. Everything else goes to dedicated charities regardless of its religious position or lack of one.
Wade, I suppose only hungry celibate gays get fed.
D-P, that's very smart. I did an interim in a parish that actually tithed its income for outreach. I don't remember any discussions that would limit its generosity to organizations that took specific positions. It was merely a matter of where was there a need.
The Roman bishops are the modern Pharisees whom Jesus constantly criticized for their self-righteousness, their presumptive and faulty assertions of infallible “Truth", their inability to think outside-the-box of tradition and legalism, and their dearth of spirituality and compassion.
Like Jesus, we are called to separate our faith in God from the abuses of hierarchy. As Fr. Mychal Judge said, "Don't let the institutional church get in the way of your relationship with God."
Fr. Mychal Judge, you’ll recall, was the beloved, openly gay FDNY chaplain who died on 9/11. He also often asked, “Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?!”
See http://SaintMychalJudge.blogspot.com
In March, Roman bishops have expelled children from school because their moms are gay, and cut funding to homeless agencies in retaliation for their support of civil rights for gays. What’s next in their obsessive crusade against gays?
A Franciscan friar friend is convinced that there is a Divine hand behind the timing of these stories with the latest Vatican scandals -- revelations that the Pope personally enabled serial pedophiles, and the male prostitution ring operating out of the Vatican. "What goes around comes around," he says.
Redtown, I think that somehow God's hand is at work even in the darkest places. It's just that we have such a difficult time recognizing it. Your Franciscan friend may well be right. And thank you for pointing out the blog commemorating Fr. Judge.
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