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PROTESTERS SLAM McCARRICK OK OF GAY CIVIL UNIONS

A conservative Catholic group protested outgoing Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s recent condoning of homosexual civil unions and condom usage, handing out flyers on June 18 outside a Mass honoring his six years as archbishop of Washington.

The flyers distributed by Faithful Catholics of MD/DC also expressed concern over incoming Bishop Donald Wuerl’s record as head of the Pittsburgh Diocese.

Reaction from people entering or leaving the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was mixed.

“Is this positive?” one woman remarked as she accepted the flyer.  When she saw that it wasn’t, she threw it in a nearby trash can.

The flyer charged that Cardinal McCarrick “has consistently subordinated his duties as a Roman Catholic bishop to political and financial interests.

“Within the past month he publicly stated his approval of gay civil unions and condom usage.”

Both positions are sharply at odds with the moral teachings of the Church.

Eight or ten young seminarians on their way to Mass accepted the flyers, but then returned as a group to tell the protesters that what they were doing was “mean.”

When the protesters responded that the truth isn’t always “nice,” one of the seminarians countered, “This is a day of celebration.  You should do it on some other day.”

“What day is a good day?” a protester queried.

“You should pray about that,” the seminarian replied.  He said he would not name his seminary and didn’t want his picture taken.

Actions by Bishop Wuerl as bishop of Pittsburgh causing “great concern,” according to the flyer, include:

• retaining as “master catechists” gay rights activists and clergy from other religions
• allowing the gay-rights group “Dignity” to hold “Masses” in Catholic churches
• foisting graphic sex education on Catholic children, over the objections of parents.

Cardinal McCarrick publicly voiced his approval of homosexual civil unions in a June 7 interview by Wolf Blitzer on the CNN show, “The Situation Room.”

Responding to a question by Blitzer, McCarrick said that the “ideal” is “to enter a union with a man and a woman and bring children into the world.”

But, he added, “If you can’t meet that ideal, if there are people who for one reason or another just cannot do that or feel they cannot do that, then in order to protect their right to take care of each other, in order to take care of their right to have visitation in a hospital or something like that, I think you could allow, not the ideal, but you could allow for that for a civil union.”

McCarrick reportedly gave his stamp of approval to condom use at a May 9 “Theology on Tap” lecture in Washington, D.C.

Asked about the current debate over condom use when one married person has AIDS, the Cardinal “emphatically declared” that such usage was completely permissible, according to a June 9 article by Kenneth J. Wolfe in the Seattle Catholic.

Shortly after the protesters started handing out flyers, a disgruntled Basilica security guard approached them, waving a flyer.

“We can’t condone this!” he declared.

“You don’t have to condone it,” replied protester Janet Baker.  “We’re on a public sidewalk.”

The guard later returned and acknowledged that the sidewalk around the Basilica was public property, but warned, “Just stay off the church sidewalk.”

Cardinal McCarrick’s actions have come under conservative fire before.

Catholic pro-lifers have protested the Cardinal’s

• co-hosting a February 2003 Catholic Charities Gala with John Sweeney, president of the pro-abortion AFL-CIO
• condoning the naming of pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy as co-host at a September 2003 fund-raising dinner for inner-city archdiocesan schools
• refusal in 2004 to deny Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

 The flyer referred readers to the Faithful Catholics of MD/DC website, www.restore-dc-catholicism.com, for more details and for suggestions on “how to bring about a true restoration of the Faith in Washington, D.C.”