In his statements, Pope Francis has indicated that the Church needs to embrace gay and lesbian Catholics, along with the remarried divorced and single mothers. The recent synod of 183 Catholic bishops and Cardinals in Rome heard the Pope's message of inclusion, but the conservatives among them managed to water down a final report from the synod, effectively neutering the Pope's message.
One of the participating conservative Cardinals was New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who earlier in his career presided over a protection racket for pedophile priests in the Milwaukee diocese. A frustrated pretender to the Papacy, Dolan projects the avuncular demeanor of a simple Irish priest, but is one of the most masterful, media-savvy BSers in the Church's hierarchy. Appearing on ABC this past weekend, Dolan, while discussing how benevolent the bishops were, managed to slur gay and lesbian parents when he suggested they were less noble than heterosexual parents:
"...on the definition of marriage given us by God and faithfully handed on by the church, one man, one woman, lifelong, life-giving, faithful, bringing about new life and children. All right, their enthusiastic response to that. And then the other side, George, was how can we, though, embrace and never alienate those who are unable to live up to that noble ideal? (emphasis added)How about this, Cardinal Dolan: in whatever time you have left, try living up to the ideal of protecting the Church's children, before you lecture others. It's too late to ask you to repair the damage.
