One board member of the dissenting homosexual advocacy group
Catholics for Equality says it is “imperative” for activists to unite
against “the anti-gay bishops,” whose opposition to same-sex marriage he
calls “appalling.”
Eugene McMullan of San Francisco, a doctoral candidate in history at
Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley, talked to the LGBT newspaper the
Bay Area Reporter about Catholics for Equality’s strategy of organizing
brunches after Mass to try to convince Catholics to back homosexual
political causes.
“We love brunch," he commented. "And what could be more subversive,
since we don't have equal access, while at the same time most of us at
the parish level are pro-LGBT and utterly unsympathetic to the erring
bishops. And we already have a brunch captain signed up for the parish
of the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, no less, in Oakland
Bishop Cordileone's own backyard."
Proponents of same-sex “marriage” have blamed Bishop Salvatore
Cordileone for supporting the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the
successful 2008 California ballot initiative which again defined
marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
"It is imperative that we come together against the anti-gay
bishops," McMullan told the Bay Area Reporter.
"We have to do it for
ourselves, as a matter of principle, and to save the church we love. The
anti-gay, anti-marriage activism of our 'shepherds' is appalling and
brings discredit to the Body of Christ.”
McMullan also founded the group Catholics for Marriage Equality in
California and serves on the board of the local Dignity affiliate.
The group Catholics for Equality was founded by dissenting groups
such as New Ways Ministry and Dignity USA with cooperation from the
homosexual advocacy group Human Rights Committee (HRC).
It aims to
“support, educate, and mobilize equality-supporting Catholics to advance
LGBT equality at federal, state, and local levels.”
The group also charges the Catholic hierarchy with favoring
discrimination and having an “anti-equality voice” that does not
represent Catholics.
HRC spokesman Fred Sainz told the Bay Area Reporter that the HRC lent
Catholics for Equality meeting space and supported some start-up costs
totaling less than $10,000.
Former HRC media manager Phil Attey is the
group’s acting executive director.
In a Sept. 20 statement responding to a CNA inquiry, Archbishop
Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for Military Services said Catholics
for Equality “cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic.”
Rev. Joseph Palacios, a Georgetown University adjunct sociology
professor who identifies as a celibate gay man, told the Bay Area
Reporter that the group is relying on a “strategic use of social media”
to advise followers how to discuss the issue and how to “challenge
misinformation in our parishes.”
He said the organization is not a “church reform group.”
"We are not going to handle doctrine. We can't change that. That is
the church's thing. We don't even have the illusion that we as Catholics
can do that," he commented.
Fr. Palacios said the group is engaged in “public education on public
issues” and is trying to help the “Catholic movable middle rethink
their positions.”
While the Bay Area Reporter identified Rev. Palacios as a priest of
the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, his exact status was not clear by
publication time.
The media relations office of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told CNA
on Thursday that he had been a priest of the archdiocese before joining
the Jesuits.
According to the 2010 Catholic Directory, Fr. Palacios is presently a priest of Los Angeles serving outside the archdiocese.
The priest previously organized the group Catholics United for Marriage Equality to back same-sex “marriage” in Washington, D.C.
SIC: CNA/USA