Sunday, June 28, 2009

Speaking of MHR: Talk About Chutzpah!

Earlier this week, we received this email claiming to be from Mr. Joe Cooper, webmaster for Most Holy Redeemer parish, and a member of the MHR Pastoral Council:

Dear Mr. Cooney,

Please remove any and all photos used from the Most Holy Redeemer website from the following web page: http://johnmalloysdb.blogspot.com/ There was no permission asked or consent given to use these photos.

In the future, please refrain from the use of any verbiage or photos from the website for any of the websites administered by yourself or Fr. John Malloy, including but not limited to:

http://johnmalloysdb.blogspot.com/
http://www.sanfrancisco-catholic.com/

I would appreciate your cooperation in this matter. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at this address.

Thank you.

Joe Cooper
Most Holy Redeemer Web Administrator

Here's comes the chutzpah: the email was cc’d to His Excellency Archbishop George Niederauer; as well as to Most Holy Redeemer pastor Fr. Steve Meriwether; Mr. Maurice Healy, Executive Editor of Catholic San Francisco; and Fr. John Itzaina, pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Church.

We find it delicious that in the very week His Excellency Archbishop Niederauer was awarded a “Pink Brick” at the instigation of Most Holy Redeemer Pastoral Council member Matt Dorsey (see “Niederuaer Deserves Pink Brick” in the Bay Area Reporter) for his "remorseless" support of natural marriage, another member of the MHR Pastoral Council, Joe Cooper, chose to copy the Archbishop on this email.

We hope His Excellency, and Mr. Healy, and Fr. Itzaina had an opportunity to view the photos in question. (Since MHR is Fr. Meriwether’s parish, he probably doesn’t need photos.) They are instructive: one shows two openly same-sex "married" persons, plus a very open and active member of the "leather community" serving at Mass, one shows a "transgender" MHR Eucharistic Minister presenting the MHR Young Adults Group as "debutantes "at the 2007 "SF Transgender Cotillion", and one shows Fr. Donal Godfrey, Executive Director of Campus Ministry at USF with his arm around another guy at the 2003 Gay Pride parade. We don't blame Most Holy Redeemer for being touchy--as we have pointed out before, they are the only parish in the history of the Roman Catholic Church to have photos of parish events posted on a website that requires an obscenity disclaimer.

We respect Mr. Cooper's request, but we think the creation of a counter-church in the Castro is a very important event, and one that deserves full coverage. And it's our opinion that material which is posted on a non-commercial website which is then posted (with proper credit) on another non-commercial website for purpose of criticism, comment, and education, constitutes fair use.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

2 comments:

Unknown said...

May I say "Attaboy, Father!"?

The narcissists of the same sex persuasion want everything their way.

Dietrich said...

Unbelievable! Chutzpah? There isn't a word to describe this. If I were you, I'd welcome this with open arms. It's a gift. I hope this really stirs it up! It's time for the Archbishop to choose sides. I'd follow up with his office to MAKE SURE he sees that email and force his hand. Either way, you win.