Chicago Cardinal Defends Pope over Homosexual Union Document

CHICAGO, August 5, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chicago Cardinal Francis George has penned an awe inspiring defence of Pope John Paul II.  For the first time in his six year term as Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal George issued an official statement as Archbishop from his official Cathedral defending the Pope against false accusations made in the Chicago Sun Times headlining “Pope Launches Global Campaign against Gays.”  Cardinal George defended the latest document on homosexual unions as “a statement which repeats what every Pope has taught for two thousand years: marriage is the life-long union of a man and a woman who enter into a total sharing of themselves for the sake of family.”  He warned that a government which claims the authority to change the nature of marriage “becomes totalitarian.”“Because of a concerted campaign in movies and TV shows in recent years to shape public imagination and opinion into accepting same sex relations as normal and morally unexceptional, obvious truths now are considered evidence of homophobia. Because a morality based upon desires has largely supplanted a morality based upon the truth of things, a teaching which limits sexual self-expression of any sort becomes oppressive,” said the Cardinal.  In a dire warning to Catholics he said, “Divulging disinformation about the Pope, engaging in anti-papal propaganda, attacks all Catholics and is usually, in history, a preparation for active persecution of the Church.”  The Cardinal clearly rebuked those who would call themselves Catholic while rejecting the Church’s stand on homosexuality.  “The Holy Father makes up nothing that he teaches. His is not the “opinion of the Vatican.” His is the teaching of Jesus Christ, because he is the primary witness to the faith that unites us to Christ. In matters that are received over the ages and proclaimed by the Pope in ours, no person who disagrees to the point of denial can claim to hold the Catholic faith. Disdain for and hatred of the Pope are sure signs of anti-Catholicism.”  See Cardinal George’s full letter:  https://www.archdiocese-chgo.org/cardinal/letter/letter_080403.shtm