A photograph of an “LGBTQ pride” flag in Chicago’s officially “gay parish” which was the center of a controversy.
Until recently the Catholic Church had at least officially been opposed to homosexuality and related issues, however diocese in many areas have already been involved in such agendas for decades, including endorsing all types of homosexuality and transgenderism, including even for priests.
This article explains the history of such issues in Chicago, which founded the nation’s first officially gay Catholic parish in 1988. The article focuses on issues with the current Cardinal Blase Cupich and a previous Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.
[Note: Many other diocese in the U.S. and in other parts of the world have similar issues, but I’ve chosen this one to present as an example.]
This is a part of the article: “The Catholic Church is becoming more tolerant of harmful LGBTQ+ agendas”
ISSUES WITH CHICAGO’S CURRENT CARDINAL BLASE CUPICH
Image from Wikipedia.
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Chicago’s Catholic Cardinal Blase Cupich is often reported in the mainstream media as being a “progressive” church leader and a “defender of LGBT rights.” His policies are very much in line with the extreme anti-traditionalist views of Pope Francis, where he is often called “America’s Pope Francis” and he refers to himself as being “a product of the Second Vatican Council.”
Following are issues that show Cupich is a strong supporter of all types of extreme “LBGTQ+” agendas as well as harmful Establishment agendas in general.
— In 1997, Father Daniel Montalbano, an openly homosexual pastor of Chicago’s first officially “gay parish” was found dead in his rectory bedroom while attached to a homemade sex machine that actually killed him, as was claimed by a priest Fr. Paul Kalchik. Kalchik explained that following the discovery of his naked body, two closets full of homosexual porn materials were found that had to be carted out along with the sex machine. Kalchik explained the circumstances of Montalbano’s death in 2018 media interviews, after he became the center of a controversy for burning a rainbow flag with a cross superimposed on it that Montalbano displayed when he performed mass. Soon after news of Kalchik burning the flag was reported in the media, Chicago’s heavily pro-“LGBTQ+” Cardinal Blase Cupich told the media that either Kalchik must agree to receive psychological counseling for what he had done or he would be arrested for trespassing on parish grounds, and he soon expelled Kalchik from the diocese because of it. (link, link, and link.)
— Cupish allows a priest who advertises on the internet as a “gay masseur” who does “man to man bodywork” to host an openly homosexual group at his Catholic priory. (link)
— Cupich supports a radical pro-homosexual priest Fr. James Martin, inviting him for speaking engagements and calling him the “foremost evangelizer” of young people in the church today. (link, link, and video)
— Cupich has known a male transvestite Alexander Whitney for years, who had claimed in social media posts that he advises Cupich on “transgender issues,” such as saying, “For years I have communicated with Archbishop Cupich and advised him on the concerns of transgender Catholics. I wish to announce my gratitude for the opportunity the Archbishop gave me to speak freely with him and the speed with which he removed Fr. Kalchik. Thank you, Cardinal.” (link)
— Cupich rejects the idea that homosexuals are more likely to commit sexual abuse, where he acknowledged the fact that the vast majority of clergy abuse is homosexual, but he claimed homosexuality is “not a cause” while not providing an explanation for the overwhelming disparity. (link)
— Cupish referred to the former Bishop of Pittsburg Cardinal Wuerl who allegedly protected 32 predatory priests “a man of good conscience.” (link, and link)
— When Cupish was asked by NBC News about allegations by a former high ranking Church official who claims Pope Francis knew about sexual misconduct of Theodore McCarrick before promoting him to Cardinal, he replied, “The Pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.” The church official also said McCarrick was responsible for the Cupish’s appointment in Chicago.
— Cupish invited U.S. Bishops to a series of conferences in 2016 that featured speakers who advocated for issues such as same sex marriage, and featured a speaker who had written an essay on a Jesuit website where she said, “any claim that there are only two kinds of humans, male and female, is simplistic.” (link)
— Cupish believes that priests should not refuse giving Communion to anybody, including politicians who advocate for agendas that are very contrary to the Church’s teachings. (link, link, and link)
— Cupish led a youth conference in Vatican City in 2018 where he questioned the Church’s emphasis on the traditional nuclear family, saying that the Church should be more accommodating of other forms of “unusual familial circumstances.” (link)
— Pro-life leaders in Spokane, Washington are saying Cupich urged diocesan priests and seminarians in a meeting to not go ahead with plans for peacefully praying in vigils outside of abortion clinics. (link)
— Cupich is an aggressive advocate for gun control. (link)
— Cupich agrees with Pope Francis’ stance about advocating for Establishment climate change agendas, saying “the ecological crisis” is “essentially a spiritual problem .. an ecological sin that requires repentance and firm purpose of amendment. .. Ecological sin is due to human greed, .. [we should] re-think our over-cooled and overheated homes and workplaces.” (link)
— Cupich said critics of Pope Francis “Quite frankly … don’t like him because he’s a Latino.” (link)
ISSUES WITH CHICAGO’S PREVIOUS CARDINAL JOSEPH BERNARDIN
Image from Wikipedia.
Joseph Bernardin was the Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996. During his term he launched the nation’s first diocesan gay office, he appointed openly gay priests, and recently he had been exposed in a scandal of hiding abuse by priests in his diocese.
ABC News article: “Cardinal Joseph Bernardin helped hide priest abuse in Chicago, documents show”
Following is a summary of this January 21, 2014 WCPO Cincinnati ABC News article:
As head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was previously credited in the media for instituting reforms and getting rid of of guilty priests in child abuse scandals, however more than 6,000 pages of internal documents have been released in January 2014 showing that he actually helped to cover up for sexual abusers. (link)
Joseph Bernardin was Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996.
The documents include internal communications between church officials, testimony about specific abuses, and letters from distressed parishioners.
The documents were released through settlements between attorneys for the archdiocese and victims, where they show that the highest levels of the archdiocese moved accused priests from parish to parish while hiding the clerics’ histories from the public, where Cardinals John Cody, Joseph Bernardin, and Francis George approved the reassignments.
The documents cover only 30 of the at least 65 clergy for whom the archdiocese says it has substantiated claims of child abuse, and Vatican documents related to the cases were not included under the negotiated terms of the disclosure.
Following are some of the claims made in the documents:
— Bernardin not only refused to pursue a canonical trial to remove from the priesthood Rev. Norbert Maday, who was a convicted child molester, he actually increased his salary to help him in prison after loaning him $100,000 for his criminal defense. In 1996 letter to Maday in prison, Bernardin wrote, “I have decided I will not seek your dismissal from the clerical state … I do not judge that justice and equity would be served by so severe a sanction. You have suffered enough by your present deprivation of ministry and your incarceration.”
— Bernardin knew that Rev. John Curran molested children as early as 1990, but he promised not to disclose his knowledge of the allegations, and Curran continued to have access to children until 1995. Bernardin then ordered Curran to go to treatment, and he was finally suspended in 1996 because he refused treatment rather than because of abuse.
— Rev. William J. O’Brien, a priest who allegedly raped a nun, abused a seminarian and had sexual relationships with married women was allowed to remain a pastor after the vicar for priests told Bernardin that demoting him would destroy O’Brien’s career and be “demoralizing” for him. The first memo about the issue was written in 1991, and he was finally removed as a pastor in 2005 after continued sexual accusations, and he resigned from the priesthood in 2006.
— Bernardin removed Rev. Kenneth Ruge as a parish pastor and sent him to a hospital for “personal issues” after he was accused by nine boys of molesting them. In 1992 the archdiocese was served a grand jury subpoena about him, and he was sent to treatment, but by 1994 he was working again at Catholic Charities.
— The vicar for priests wrote in a 1989 letter to Bernardin that he worried about parishioners discovering the record of the Rev. Vincent E. McCaffrey, who was moved four times because of abuse allegations. McCaffrey admitted to molesting more than a dozen victims between 1976 and 1990, and was sentenced to 20 years for child pornography. He wasn’t defrocked until 2010.
— A 13 year old boy reported in 1979 that a priest raped him and threatened him at gunpoint to keep quiet, and the archdiocese assured his parents that the priest would receive treatment and not have any further contact with minors. However Rev. William Cloutier, who already had been accused of molesting other children, was returned to ministry a year later and went on to abuse again before he resigned in 1993, two years after the boy’s parents filed a lawsuit.