brief candle

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 25, 2004

Horror hits central Massachusetts.

The new leader of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester stunned gay rights supporters by writing in a church newsletter that Catholics, especially public officials, pushing to legalize same-sex marriage are "in cooperation with evil."

"Oh my God. Wow," gasped Marianne Duddy-Burke of Boston Dignity, a group of gay Catholics. "It's an appalling statement on so many levels. It disregards a civil servant's duty to the entire community."

OK, we all know that Leila's Law will kick in and Bishop McManus will issue an escalating series of assurances that the "evil" he referred to has no connection with the lives of gays and lesbians but was a reference to legal protocols established by the Treaty of Westphalia, etc. Still, the momentary illusion of conflict is the kind of fire you can warm your hands at for the fifteen minutes of its life.

[A point of etiquette. One notes that the former Miss Marianne Duddy has, since May 17th, styled herself Ms. Marianne Duddy-Burke. Should they need to refer to her by name in responding to her accusations, will the bishops and their spokesmen continue to use the older form so as not to concede the validity of her pseudo-marriage? Or will they do a Boston College and take it lying down?]