Cardinal George explains comparison between Gay Pride parade, KKK rallies

December 28, 2011

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George has defended a public statement in which he compared organizers of a Gay Pride parade to the Ku Klux Klan.

In response to a reporter’s questions about an effort to shift the route of the Gay Pride march, Cardinal George had allowed that he was concerned about the parade organizers’ anger over a pastor’s request to shift the parade route so that the march would not block. the front door of a Catholic church at the time of a scheduled Sunday Mass. “You know, you don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism,” he said. The cardinal had come under heavy fire from gay-rights activists for making the comparison.

In a statement released by the Chicago archdiocese of December 27, Cardinal George explained that the parade organizers’ unwillingness to consider the pastor’s plea “invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church.” He continued:

One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940's, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.

Cardinal George expressed relief that the conflict had been resolved, and the parade will not pass the church at a scheduled Mass time. He said that it is “terribly wrong and sinful that gays and lesbians have been harassed and subjected to psychological and even physical harm,” but said that public efforts to redress that problem need not conflict with religious services.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Statement from Francis Cardinal George, OMI? (Chicago archdiocese)
• Cardinal defends comparing gay parade organizers to Ku Klux Klan (Chicago Tribune)
• Anger after Cardinal George compares some gay activists’ rhetoric to Ku Klux Klan (CW, 12/23)