A version of this article appeared in the February 22 edition of California Catholic Daily.
Photo credit: Bill Wilson, Bay Area Reporter.
On Saturday, January 28, the Cathedral of St, Mary’s of the Assumption hosted an interfaith service and press conference. The event was held in support of AB 1081, a measure challenging the Federal “Secure Communities” program.
“Some 2,000 people, many of them Latinos who feel disproportionately targeted by what is known as the ‘Secure Communities’ program of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, attended an interfaith rally at St. Mary’s Cathedral Jan. 28 to ask Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris to support reform being drafted by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.”
Catholic San Francisco chose not to mention that Ammiano was actually in attendance at the event, let alone that he was actually allowed to speak in the Cathedral, but other media outlets did. The media page of the PICO National Network mentioned that Ammiano addressed the pews. The homosexualist Bay Area Reporter jumped on the event in an article accurately titled “Archbishop, Ammiano Share Stage.” They not only mentioned Ammiano’s role, but included a photo of him (and Bishop Bill Justice and Archbishop George Niederauer) speaking in the Cathedral sanctuary, which is reproduced above.
Given Ammiano’s history of attacking the Catholic Church, CSF’s reticence is understandable. Of the many California politicians who have attacked the Catholic Church, Ammiano stands out. A complete list of his attacks on the family, on the Catholic Church, and on common decency would take more space than this article allows, but include:
1997: Ammiano was instrumental in forcing the Archdiocese of San Francisco to pay benefits to the “domestic partners” of employees of San Francisco’s Catholic Charities. The plan eventually crafted by then-Archbishop William Levada caused Ammiano to say “I think this is a very positive step for the two entities -- the archdiocese and the city - to try to coexist without devaluing each other's principles.'' The insincerity of this remark is illustrated by the following examples.
1999: over the objections of the Church, the Board of Supervisors, at Ammiano's request, granted the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence a street-closure permit for the purposes of staging an event mocking the crucifixion on Easter Sunday. This now-annual event is the “Hunky Jesus” contest in which the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus is ridiculed. The 2011 event was held in the city’s Dolores Park. It included one man dressed as “Jesus” being masturbated on stage by one of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, in front of a large crowd which included children.
March 14, 2006: Ammiano introduced Resolution 168-06, which objected to the Catholic Church’s refusal to allow one of its organizations, Catholic Charities of San Francisco, to place children in homosexual households. Among other things the resolution stated that the teaching of the Catholic Church “is absolutely unacceptable to the citizenry of San Francisco”; that it amounted to “hateful and discriminatory rhetoric”; and that then-Cardinal Levada “is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former city”; further, it urged Archbishop Niederauer and Catholic Charities to “defy” Cardinal Levada.
Resolution 168-06 was a foretaste of the current HHS Mandate. It resulted in a lawsuit by faithful San Francisco Catholics, which made its way through the courts, although the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear it. The suit’s last stop was the Ninth Circuit, where Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in dissent: “The 'message' in the resolution, unlike, say, the message that might be inferred from some symbolic display, is explicit: a Catholic doctrine duly communicated by the part of the Catholic church in charge of clarifying doctrine is 'hateful,' 'defamatory,' 'insulting,' 'callous,' and 'discriminatory,' 'showing 'insensitivity and ignorance,' the Catholic Church is a hateful foreign meddler in San Francisco’s affairs, the Catholic Church ought to 'withdraw' its religious directive, and the local archbishop should defy his superior’s directive. This is indeed a 'message of . . . disapproval.' And that is all it takes for it to be unconstitutional.”
Law Professor Jonathon Turley, although he personally agrees with the city’s adoptions policy, noted the same thing: “The resolution has the Board directly calling on Catholic leaders to defy the Cardinal and directly objects to the Vatican policy. That would seem to take an 'official position on religious doctrine.’”
It was resolution 168-06 which caused the homosexualist San Francisco Bay Times to run a March 16, 2006 article headlined “Gay Supervisor Bitch-Slaps New Cardinal,” in which Ammiano was quoted as saying “Cardinal Levada is everything that’s wrong with the Catholic Church.”
Following the implementation of the disastrous adoptions “compromise” between Catholic Charities and Family Builders by Adoptions, Ammiano complimented Catholic Charities then-executive director Brian Cahill, a longtime opponent of the Church's teaching on homosexual adoption, for “crafting this” compromise, and invited everyone to move “…onward and upward, and gayly forward.” Faithful Catholics declined Ammiano’s advice, kept the pressure on, and in 2009 the Archdiocese severed all relations with Family Builders.
2008: Ammiano introduced resolution 408-08, which “celebrated commended, and congratulated” the infamous Folsom Street Fair, and declared September 28 to be “Folsom Street Fair” day. Ammiano’s resolution was adopted by the full Board of Supervisors on September 23, 2008.
Welcoming Ammiano into the Cathedral, unless he is there go to confession, is an abomination. Their Excellencies and the Cathedral staff should be ashamed of themselves.
Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney
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