Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President of the USCCB, issued a statement that called the violence [in Orlando] "unspeakable." Interestingly, his statement did not mention that the victims of this attack were gays and lesbians, nor that the attack, whatever else it was, was an exercise in homophobia. It did not happen at a Walmart. Of course, many bishops have a hard time even saying the words "gays and lesbians," preferring the offensive and bizarre locution "people who experience same-sex attraction." As my colleague David Gibson points out, after last year's attack on Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C., Archbishop Kurtz had no reluctance in naming the victims nor in denouncing the racism that motivated the killing. Really: If you are so tone deaf that you do not realize that the refusal to refer to people as they refer to themselves is offensive, especially when that same group of people has just been the object of a violent and murderous attack, stop pretending to any claim to moral leadership in the society and just go away.
– Michael Sean Winters
Excerpted from "The Murders in Orlando"
National Catholic Reporter
June 13, 2016
Excerpted from "The Murders in Orlando"
National Catholic Reporter
June 13, 2016
For Michael Sean Winters' follow-up NCR op-ed, "Questions for the USCCB," click here.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Two Powerful Calls for the Catholic Hierarchy to Fully Acknowledge the LGBT Victims of Anti-LGBT Violence
• Quote of the Day – June 12, 2016
• "I Pray, I Pray"
• Catholic Church Can Overcome Fear of LGBT People
• The Blood-Soaked Thread
• The Ashes of Our Martyrs
• Catholic Theologian: "Heterosexism, Not Homosexuality, is the Problem"
Related Off-site Links:
After Orlando, Archbishop Blasé Cupich Pledges to LGBT Communities: “I Stand With You” – Bob Shine (Bondings 2.0, June 14, 2016).
Florida Catholic Bishop: "It is Religion, Including Our Own," That Targets LGBT People – Robert Lynch (The Washington Post, June 13, 2016).
In Orlando’s Wake, Catholic Ministry Calls on Church Leaders to Condemn Anti-LGBT Violence – New Ways Ministry (June 13, 2016).
Chicago Archbishop Decries Targeting of Gays in Orlando Attack – David Gibson (Religion News Service via The Catholic Register, June 13, 2016).
Orlando Is an Extension of Right-wing Christianity's Marriage Battle and Bathroom Wars – Kristen Becker (The Advocate via Common Dreams, June 13, 2016).
World Responds to Orlando Mass Shooting – Yahoo! News, June 13, 2016).
Those Holding "Anti-Gay" Sentiments Need to Stop Making Things Worse by Expressing Outrage Over the Florida Massacre – Mark Baer (The Huffington Post, June 14, 2016).
These Are the Victims of the Orlando Massacre – Jack Mirkinson and Casey Tolan (Fusion, June 12, 2016).
UPDATES: On Orlando: Why Can't Catholic Bishops Say "Gay"? – Francis DeBernardo (Bondings 2.0, June 12, 2016).
Damning Silence: After Orlando Pulse Massacre, Pope Francis Prays Away the Gay – Ben Brenkert (The Daily Beast, June 16, 2016).
U.S. Catholic Bishops' Silence on Guns and Gays – Patricia Miller (Religion Dispatches, June 17, 2016).
Image: Austin Ellis, a member of Metropolitan Community Church, carries a cross with a sign in memory of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting as he marches in the 2016 Gay Pride Parade on June 12, 2016 in Philadelphia. (Photo: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)
The U.S. Catholic journal Commonweal has a blog posting about Orlando. It contains not a single reference to the fact that those killed in this act of mass murder were mostly LGBTQ people at a gay bar.
ReplyDeleteHere's how one reader, Jack Marth, responds:
"I am dismayed that a blog posting on this site with the headline 'Orlando' not 'Orlando and Guns' (the first posting on this topic, btw) fails to even mention that this act of gun violence was directed at the LGBTQ community. Given the need for our Church to repent of the sin of homophobia and atone for our Church's responsibility for creating a climate of hatred it is hard not to label this posting as oblivious. It is easy for Catholics to be self-righteous about gun issues. Our Church and its leaders are actually generally on target on this issue. When gun violence was directed at people because of their race, our leaders were not at all hesitant to speak of racism. Kudos. But for a few exceptions (Cupich, Lynch and McElroy are the ones I am familiar with), our Church leaders have ignored the fact that LGBTQ people were the targets of the Orlando violence or have used offensive terms like 'personal lifestyle' (Cordileone) to describe our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Catholics don't need to prove they are pro-life about gun violence right now – we need to prove that we stand in full solidarity with the LGBTQ community."