I wish it were multiple choice
-Life must be protected at all costs while IN the womb but once you're out, go F*** yourself
-hypocrisy is appalling
Catholic Diocese halts funding homeless agency because its new director's views supporting abortion rights and gay marriage.
☥☽✪☾DAW ☽✪☾
2012/03/08 21:52:34
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The Catholic Church would rather see you homeless and starving to death than disobedient to their dogma. That can't be any more fucking apparent, can it? What will they do next to turn our stomachs? A puppy kicking contest?
SACRAMENTO, CALIF -- SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento no longer will fund programs at Francis House, a nonprofit agency that serves homeless people, because of its new director's views supporting abortion rights and gay marriage.
In a letter last month, the diocese's director of social services said the Rev. Faith Whitmore's public statements on the issues clash with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Therefore, said the Rev. Michael Kiernan, the social services director, it is "impossible for the diocese to continue funding Francis House" as part of its annual Catholic Appeal.
Each morning, dozens of poor people line up at Francis House, located in Sacramento's homeless services epicenter, for help with basic services such as housing and transportation. Now in its 42nd year, the organization is one of the largest homeless services agencies in the Sacramento region, serving upward of 25,000 people. It has an an annual budget of about $500,000.
For at least two decades, Francis House has received annual donations from the diocese ranging from $7,500 to $10,000, said Michael Miiller, a member of the agency's corporate advisory board.
The diocese's letter made it clear that it was shifting policy and removing Francis House from its fundraising campaign because of Whitmore's affiliation with the group.
Whitmore, a United Methodist minister, took over leadership of Francis House in April after the sudden death of longtime executive director Gregory Bunker.
Within her own denomination, she has been a strong advocate of same-sex marriage. In 2008, during a short period in which gay marriage was legal in California, Whitmore openly defied church law by marrying same-sex couples. She has said publicly that she supports a woman's right to obtain an abortion.
In an interview Wednesday, she called the diocese's decision to discontinue its support "surprising and disappointing."
"I have never represented any of those positions on behalf of Francis House," said Whitmore, formerly the senior pastor at St. Mark's United Methodist Church. "I was speaking as an individual. So for me, this came out of the blue."
The Catholic Church has in recent years stepped up its political involvement on issues that reflect fundamental church teachings. It was among the primary financial backers of Proposition 8, the California measure that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
More recently it challenged President Barack Obama's efforts to require employers, including church-affiliated organizations that object to contraception on religious grounds, to cover birth control in workers' health plans with no out-of-pocket charges.
In its letter to Whitmore, the Sacramento diocese said it respects the work Francis House does and cannot expect every organization it supports financially to "actively promote Catholic teaching."
"We can expect, however, that they or their leaders not publicly oppose Catholic teaching and that, unfortunately, is the situation in which we find ourselves," the letter reads.
Diocesan spokesman Kevin Eckery said the decision to drop Francis House as a beneficiary of the pastoral center's annual fundraising appeal stemmed in part from public confusion about the agency's affiliation with the church. Although Francis House was born at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic parish in Sacramento, it has long been non-denominational and no longer is part of the church.
However, "a lot of people still think Francis House is a Catholic charity," he said, and some are concerned that Whitmore's views are a reflection of those of the church.
Eckery said he was unsure whether the diocese had received complaints about its donations to Whitmore's agency. "But if we haven't had one yet, we would get one," he said. "We like to get out in front of these things.
"Francis House is a great charity, and we respect the fact that the director's views are different from the diocese's. But money collected during the annual appeal is very much Catholic parishioner money," said Eckery.
"Why would we ask someone to contribute money to an organization and ask them to overlook all of those things that undermine the church's teachings?"
Eckery noted that the Catholic Church is "the largest provider of charity in the country."
"It's the diocese money, and they get to decide how to spend it," he said.
The move is a small but powerful example of the line that the Roman Catholic Church walks on hot-button issues important to its parishioners.
"Clearly the bishops have been very vocal on their views about some of these issues," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Catholic priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.
"But if the bishops are going to de-fund every organization headed by someone who disagrees with their views on gay marriage, birth control and abortion, they are going to find very few agencies to fund."
Bishop Jaime Soto approved of the decision to stop funding Francis House, said Eckery.
Kiernan, the diocesan social services director, broke the news to Whitmore in person on Jan. 24, presenting her with the diocese's letter. Whitmore notified her agency's board of directors.
The board "stands firmly, 100 percent behind Faith," said Miiller. "She had some big shoes to fill at Francis House, and she has done that very well."
Miiler said the agency "really appreciates the diocese's support over the years. But the issues raised in their letter are not our issues."
"We serve the poor," he said. "We don't have a litmus test for homeless people when they come in. We don't ask them for their position on choice and gay marriage. We just help them. But for whatever reason, the diocese made those issues a higher priority than the mission."
Whitmore said the funding hit "is not huge for us," but is nevertheless significant, especially in a stagnant economy.
"All nonprofits are struggling right now, and we can only give our clients what others are willing to give to us, so it's disappointing," she said.
Yet she has no regrets about her outspokenness on such issues, she said, and will continue to share her views.
"I feel strongly about the positions that I have taken," said Whitmore. "They are consistent with my commitment to justice, so I would never take back anything I've said, publicly or privately."
Read More: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/07/3476071/catho...
Top Opinion
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Eddie_says_OrlyTaitez_is_nutz 2012/03/08 22:43:41
Tim Tebow score a touchdown....
i bet other Religions would too if the Damn Catholics didnt nearly Wipe them all out
or Cause the problems thats why they have charirites
the Wars in Africa the starving the disease AIDS/ HIV Terrorist Groups like Lord's Resistance Army the WARS the Genocides RAPES and other Terrible things are Caused by Organized Religion
then they pimp out the survivors to make you feel Guilty into giving money to help them
or Ted Bundy ( Christian ) or John wayne Gayce ( Baptist )
or Moses ( murderer / Rapist ) these people are in the Abraham Religion
and they have all done Terrible things Damnher said he ate people because God gave him dreams to do it Ted bundy loved the thrill he got when he read the bible where it orders men to take women by force and he enjoyed killing Gayce loved playing and tormenting his victims and reading bible quotes to them
all these men are supposely going to heaven for Repenting thier sins to god
and Athiests/Agnostics and Pagans / Wiccans and Hindus and Buddhists who Give to Chairity who help others who never harm anyone or steal or cheat others
are going to hell for all eternity
Something Does not make any Sense
why should i be forced to worship a God who allows this
there is an afterlife of sorts but more like the afterlife is a rest stop your soul rests and you look back on what you have done in this life time and others and see where your going spiritually and what you need to work on and improve mentally and spiritually
then your reborn again
The orginization picked this person as director knowing what teh church would do becasue teh church always does this... the people are not going to starve or freeze they will either go to another orginization still funded by the church or they will go to a government funded orginization.
That the church still funds anything social anymore is statement enough seeing as how everyone wants to see them taken down and made insignificate; replaced by government. Strange how when a government closes a shelter or cuts funding there is no uproar like this no cries about how government wants to kill puppies. And there is total silence when government steps in and closes church shelters as it has done 4 times in teh last year.
Now you are telling me they have the right to stand up for what they believe in? That is hilarious!
The HRC has a problem policing its own but so does government yet I see no condemation of government like with teh church and at least the church is working to fix those mistakes as of now it is against church law to not report and allow procusion of crimes committed by INDIVIDUALS with in the orginization... let me know when the same can be said about government.
Yet it was him alone that wrote the letter to all the bishops telling them not to report any abuse to the police. The pope is just as guilty as if he had abused those children himself. He went even further and publicly reprimanded the bishops for ther lack of action in reporting cases to the police.
Just in case you have not noticed, government officials have not been convicted by the thousand of pedophilia.
no Indeed not thousands, tens of thousands more likely. Where have you been hiding the last decade?
NEW STATS: 10% of Catholic Priests Were Pedophiles and Still Counting, 20 to 200 Times More Than General Population
The number of pedophile priests found so far in the U.S. Catholic Church is “extrapolated” to be as high as 10,969 according to Bishop Accountabillity.org, and they are still counting.
The international numbers get higher as courts order release of documents in American and European dioceses. “The percentage of paedophile priests is 20 to 200 times higher than the incidence found in the secular population,”
“To hand a child over to a clergyman means to expose him/her to a risk which is at least twenty times higher than that of handing him/her over to a teacher, to a neighbour, to a family friend,” writes Gaito from Italy. “In regard to what the Church wants you to believe; i.e., that the risk is the same, you only have to analyze the figures to realize that it is not true.”
The percentage of paedophiles amongst clergymen in Ireland is thirty times higher than the percentage of paedophiles amongst the common people.
http://www.molestedcatholics....
It is people like you who are just as guilty of perpetuating the abuse on the innocent children by hiding the facts. The filth and debauchery in the catholic church is pervasive and always has been.
A copy of the letter to the bishops can be seen at the following link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wor...
I will acknowledge that the church is prepared to take full responsibility when the pope gives a full apology for his personal role in the scandal and for the conspiracy he had a major role in perpetuating for decades. Without him and the previous pope this could have been stopped in the early 1960`s. Passing the blame onto the bishops and other clergy members is a blatant misuse of power yet again.
Pedophile clergy in Religions hide the Pedophile priests around from parish to parish and cover up evidence of a crime was committed everything from threatening the family with lawsuits to keep quiet to making threats that they will not enter the gates of heaven for accusing a priest of wrong doing
Priests ,Ministers, Pastors, Cardinals, in all Christian denominations
and Evidence this has been going on for DECADES
so a single pedophile priest now has had access to hundreds if not thousands of children
I hope considering the vitrial here that the church pulls out of every single charity work it does everywhere I hope the church starts only taking care if its own those who go in and worship and those who put in the collection plate I hope everyone who is so spiteful and hateful and cling so desperatly to the past they can not even seperate issues and work with each as best suited have to pick up the slack... lets see how well everyone does when the church no longer will make sure a family's whose house has burned down has a place to go and things to see them through... red cross certainly can't handle teh load by itself... but if teh church is soooo bad as you seem to be pushing then lets just say NO to any help they give.
in boston the ARchdoices was Embarrassed back in late 90s and early 2000 when it all came out about Thousands of Sex abuise cases of pedophile priests and how high ranking church offices knew and did nothing and the Cardinal bishop law LEFT massachuets after evidence found he knew and covered it up
THE POPE KNEW AND DID NOTHING
These are individuals who did what it is HUMAN, not christan, not catholic, not HRC, not religion... HUMAN nature to do try to keep dirty laundry in the house. EVERY group and person does this.