Cardinal Francis George has expanded on
his remark comparing gay rights activists to the Ku Klux Klan.
George, the head of the Catholic
Conference of Illinois and the Archbishop of Chicago, is under fire
for saying during a Fox Chicago interview that he believes a Gay
Pride parade route in Chicago should be altered to avoid passing in
front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel's front doors.
“I go with the pastor,” George
said. “He's telling us that he won't be able to have services on
Sunday if that's the case. You don't want the gay liberation
movement morph into something like the Klu Klux Klan, demonstrating
in the streets against Catholicism.”
George defended his stance when the
host called it “a little strong.”
“It is, but you take a look at the
rhetoric. The rhetoric of the Klu Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of
the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The
Catholic Church.”
In an interview on Christmas Day,
George softened his remarks.
“Obviously, it's absurd to say the
gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan,” he told ABC
7. “But if you organize a parade that looks like parades that
we've had in our past because it stops us from worshiping God, well
then that's the comparison. But it's not with people and people –
it's parade-parade.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of
this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
(Related: Cardinal
Francis George called on to resign over KKK-Gay Pride comparison.)