Another Sign of the Times: Liberal Minnesota Archbishop

Back in June of 2008 Bill Donahue of the Catholic League recently gave a glowing report of Archbishop Nienstedt's efforts to curtail the promotion of Homosexuality at the parish of St. Joan of Arc. Despite his timely intervention, the parish's administration and problematic direction remained. It's as though a surgeon only treated the symptoms of a cancer destroying his patient's immune system, leaving the root cause of the disease untreated. So, two weeks ago, the Parish of St. Joan of Arc hosted the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus to "celebrate the inner child".

It is becoming more clear as his administration continues that Archbishop Nienstedt is erecting a Potemkin Archdiocese to appease local and vocal conservative voices, and Rome, while attempting to avoid at the same time alienating big liberal donors like the Pohlads. He previously permitted a pro-homosexual speaker, organized by Terri Griep, facillitator of CCCR and a writer at the Archdioces' paper, the Catholic Spirit, to speak at Our Lady of Grace Parish.

Celebrating their Inner Child

There was no outcry when the Gay Men's Chorus used St. Joan of Arc Parish and Archdiocesan property, promoting homosexuality against the Archdiocese's speaker policy, Bill Donahue's posturing notwithstanding a year ago, nothing has been done.

Here's what was said then, so much for those empty words; the same problems are well in place:

Catholic League president Bill Donohue supports Archbishop Nienstedt [to maintain the sole appearances of Catholicism]:

“The annual prayer service at St. Joan of Arc was never held to honor gays as equal members of the Catholic community, rather it was held to celebrate the LGBT lifestyle. That’s not a small difference. The Catholic Church welcomes people of all sexual orientations, but it is not obligated to celebrate sodomy anymore than it is obligated to celebrate fornication.

“The attacks on Archbishop Nienstedt are vicious. One local gay Catholic leader, David McCaffrey, has said that Nienstedt is guilty of ‘yet another volley of dehumanizing spiritual violence directed at LGBT persons and their families under [his] reign of homophobic hatred.’ This is a remarkable comment given that Nienstedt didn’t take over as archbishop until last month.