Pressure on Cardinal Francis George to
resign over comments comparing gay rights activists to the Ku Klux
Klan continues to increase.
Gay rights group Truth
Wins Out called on George to step down in a full page ad that ran
in Sunday's The Chicago Tribune.
“Hey, Francis George, gay is not like
the KKK,” the ad's headline states.
George, the head of the Catholic
Conference of Illinois and the Archbishop of Chicago, commented
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.”
George defended his remarks in a
statement: “Organizers [of the Gay Pride Parade] invited an obvious
comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle
the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization
is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940s, paraded through
American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also
to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American
consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.”
Joe Murray, executive director of the
Rainbow
Sash Movement (RSM), on Sunday renewed his call for an apology.
“I would remind Cardinal George that
there is no Catholic teaching to support selective fairness,”
Murray said in a statement. “Even Archbishop [Timothy] Dolan,
current president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in
the aftermath of the passage of gay marriage in New York that he
apologizes to the New York gay community. He is quoted in the
National Catholic Reporter as saying, 'to the gay community, I love
you very much.' And felt compelled to apologize for statements that
might of implied otherwise.”
Wayne Besen, executive director of
Truth Wins Out, said his group took out the ad because George
“compounded his initial smear with further insults disguised as an
apology.”
“It seems the sin of pride is keeping
George from saying he is sorry,” Besen added in a statement. “At
this point, the only road to redemption is his resignation.”