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San Francisco City Government Calls Catholics 'Hateful, Discriminatory, Insulting, Ignorant'

Top Cardinal is "decidedly unqualified", says resolution

By John-Henry Westen

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In one of the most startling attacks on the Catholic Church coming from a governmental body in the United States in half a century, the governing body of the city of San Francisco - the Board of Supervisors - voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a non-binding resolution blasting the Catholic Church for its opposition to homosexual adoption.

While many city's residents agree with the Church's stand against homosexual adoption, the resolution stated "It is an insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great city's existing and established customs and traditions, such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need."

The city supervisors levelled an ad hominem attack on former San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, who has been appointed to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), one of the most senior posts in the Church.  " Cardinal Levada is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city, and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear,'' the resolution stated. 

The supervisors also demonstrated their childishness as they attempted another dig at the Cardinal by indicating in the resolution that the CDF was once known as the Office of the Inquisition.  "That the Board of Supervisors urges Cardinal William Levada, in his capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican (formerly known as Holy Office of the Inquisition), to withdraw his discriminatory and defamatory directive that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households," reads the resolution.

The resolution attacked the teaching of the Catholic Church that homosexual adoption does "violence" to children since they would be placed in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.  The resolution blasted the teaching as "hateful and discriminatory rhetoric (that) is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors.''

Demonstrating their own profound ignorance, at least in terms of biological realities, the supervisors contend, "Same-sex couples are just as qualified to be parents as are heterosexual couples."

Concluding, the board urged current San Francisco "Archbishop Neiderauer and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy all discriminatory directives of Cardinal Levada."

Members of the Board of Supervisors and their contact information follow:
Jake McGoldrick
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=4635
Michela Alioto-Pier
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=22396
Aaron Peskin
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=4637
Fiona Ma
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=12725
Ross Mirkarimi
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=29087
Chris Daly
http://www.sfgov.org/daly
Sean Elsbernd
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=26661
Bevan Dufty
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=12723 
Tom Ammiano
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=7251
Sophie Maxwell
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=4641
Gerardo Sandoval
http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_index.asp?id=4643

See related LifeSiteNews.com story on recent, major French government study which concludes that raising of children by same-sex couples should not be allowed:
Reasoning Behind France's Rejection of Same Sex Marriage Published in English
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032004.html

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