"Public Ridicule and Defiance"

The blatant defiance of Church teaching over at Most Holy Redeemer is being noticed far and wide. The latest is yesterday's column by Deacon Keith Fournier, over at Catholic Online:

Excerpts:

"Expose and Engage the ‘Fifth Column’ in the Catholic Church"

"On Wednesday, I wrote a story for Catholic Online entitled 'Archbishop Niederauer to be Mocked by Homosexuals for His Support of Marriage'. Itconcerned the plan to publicly ridicule the Archbishop for his clear and courageous defense of marriage. This will be done within the context of the 39th San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade on June 27 and June 28th. Homosexual activists will give him the so called 'Pink Brick award' and publicly
mock him.

To regular readers of Catholic Online, the extreme antics of some within the homosexual community in San Francisco should come as no surprise. However it is evident from some of our recent letters with our rapidly growing readership that some of our newer readers were shocked by one dimension of this story. That was the participation of some Catholics from the Most Holy Redeemer Parish of San Francisco in this act of public ridicule and defiance.

Here is an excerpt from just one letter we received: 'Dear Catholic Online Editor, Do I understand correctly that there is a Catholic Church (Most Holy Redeemer) in San Francisco that supports the LGBT lifestyle? … Is the whole parish approving of the LGBT? Has the Archbishop denounced the Parish, if this is the case? I don’t understand. Am I the only Catholic left in a total quandary by your posted articles on the activities at Most Holy Redeemer Church and the Archbishop of San Francisco?'

Deacon Fournier responded to the questioner:

'First, I do not know whether it can be said that the Parish 'supports' the lifestyle. However, a trip to the website is quite informative (http://www.mhr.org/). Even a cursory review of its history and public posture seems to point in that direction. However, I do know that a member of their Parish Council, Matt Dorsey, in a May 28, 2009 opinion piece he wrote for the 'Bay Area Reporter', proposed the awarding of this Pink Brick to his own Archbishop."

We are a little less unsure than Deacon Fournier. For all intents and purposes, the proper answer to the question is "yes." We refer readers of our post of January 4, 2009

"Most Holy Redeemer Pastor Sympathizes with Prop. 8 Vandals--Just Sorry They Picked His Church."

The post included this all-too-believable quote given by Pastor Steve Meriwether to KCBS radio:

"Pastor Steve Meriweather told KCBS his parishioners actually share the vandals' sentiment against Prop 8. 'I think it's unfortunate that they selected ourcommunity to attack,' said Meriweather, 'because it's the wrong one.'

We continued:

"So one can understand Fr. Meriwether's surprise and chagrin at "his" church being attacked. He's got seven (at least) lectors, acolytes, and/or Eucharistic Ministers on staff who have "married" persons of the same-sex and at least five current and former Pastoral Council members who donated to the 'No on Proposition 8 Campaign.'

I mean, what more does he need to do to prove his credibility to the gay community?"

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney