Does Walmart like Catholic Charities Promote Anti Gay Family Values?

2011-11-17T16:59:00.001-08:00

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), among the nation's largest human services organizations working to reduce poverty in America, announced today the receipt of a $760,000 gift from the Walmart Foundation to fund expansion of hunger relief programs in rural communities at 12 local Catholic Charities agencies across the country.

The Rainbow Sash Movement challenges the Walmart foundation to insure their contribution to Catholic Charities USA is not used to promote further discrimination against Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) families who live in poverty. We have seen how Catholic Charities USA has bowed to the pressures to promote discrimination against Gay Families when it comes to adoption/foster care.

As a Roman Catholic organization we understand that good works can at times be used to hide a hideous outrage as was the case with the Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal. But certainly GLBT families have a right to be treated with dignity and respect. Catholic Charities USA has tried to promote discrimination against our families in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington DC only to be stopped by those respective state laws.

Rev. Larry Snyder, President of CCUSA puts his discriminatory dogma above the genuine needs of gay families. Poor Gay families living in rural communities are often overlooked in addressing hunger in the US. This is the same challenge that is often overlooked in urban centers where their geographical location usually makes their needs easier to dismiss by Catholic Charities.

We are asking that the Walmart Foundation to be more responsible in their alms giving so as not to rob sincere charity in the name of discrimination.

We are calling on Walmart to follow its own best business practices when it comes to discrimination and not support organizations such as Catholic Charities USA who are hiding their bigotry behind their good works.

. Catholic Charities USA supports the mentality that Gay Families must leave their identity and children at the door in order to get food for GLBT families. It is our hope that Walmart will join with us in condemning such a mentality, and that their future contributions be representative of their corporate human rights values.

As we approach the Advent season it is our hope that Walmart will recognize the dignity of all families, and not just the families we like.

Bishop Lori’s Trick or re-treat Echoes the Pope’s Halloween Letter in Congressional Testimony

2011-10-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

“All Saints” aka Halloween, is a Holy Day of Obligation inthe Roman Catholic Church. The Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church onthe Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, (also known by its opening wordsHomosexualitatis problema or, disparagingly, as "the HalloweenLetter") is a letter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ofthe Roman Catholic Church written in 1985 and delivered in Rome on 1 October1986 by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger ( Pope Benedict XVI) and ArchbishopAlberto Bovone. The letter gave instructions on how the Clergy should deal withand respond to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Pope John Paul II approvedthe letter and ordered its publication.

What does this letter have in common with the recent testimonyof Bishop William Lori, head of the newly created ad hoc committee on religiousliberty at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), who recently testifiedbefore Congress? According to Bishop Lori the Catholic vision of ReligiousFreedom should be paramount and associated with the Vatican’s perceived threatsto religious liberty. Further that action in support of any legislation thatpromotes equality for Lesbian/Gay People would be an attack a Catholics rightto practice his/hers religion. The Rainbow Sash Movement response to such aview is that it is totally unreasonable, un-democratic and homophobic.

Like the 1986 Halloween Letter Bishop Lori promotes the ideathat propagation of religious belief as a justification for discrimination againstGay people should be lawful. Both continue to promote the Catholic Church’s condemnationof homosexuality under the guise “Religious Freedom”. This will only result in thecorresponding denial of “Religious Freedom” to Gay people as is exampled by theDefense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Halloween letter did not remove violenceagainst gay people if they try to legalize our rights.

The US Council of Catholic Bishops imperial religious behaviorin respect to Gay Marriage has only sought to deny equality and fairness bypromoting individual attacks on the rights of gay people generally, on GayCatholics and their allies specifically. The Bishops seek to promote throughthe prism of “Religious Freedom” an atmosphere where promoting individualrights of conscience and equal rights for Gay People are somehow at odds with “ReligiousFreedom” which is a total fabrication of reasonable thought.

Both the Halloween Letter anniversary and Bishop Loritestimony only show how out of touch the bishops are when it comes to the livesof real people. Clearly the Bishops can no longer speak for the Catholic voteron these issues as poll after poll has shown.

Bob Anderson
Rainbow Sash Movement