A "GLOBAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST GAYS"???
The Chicago Sin-Times Lies About the Vatican's "Considerations" Document

In the wake of Pope John Paul II's July 31 document opposing the current growing trend towards legalizing gay unions and redefining marriage by lifting civil bans against gay "marriage," the liberal pro-homosexual Chicago Sun-Times lost no time spinning this modest and very reasonable response by the Vatican to a legitimate moral issue into some kind of imaginary pogrom against gays themselves.

In response, Chicago's Cardinal George sent an open letter of apology to the Pope on behalf of the people of Chicago and lambasted the Sun-Times from his pulpit. The Catholic News Service reports on this as follows:

Headline saying pope attacks gays draws ire of Chicago cardinal

By Catholic News Service

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago used an Aug. 3 homily to defend Pope John Paul II against a newspaper headline that charged the pope with launching a campaign against homosexuals.

Cardinal George said an Aug. 1 headline in the daily Chicago Sun-Times that read "Pope launches global campaign against gays" was a "false accusation" he felt compelled to defend.

The headline on the front-page article appeared a day after the Vatican released a 12-page document that called on lawmakers to offer "clear and emphatic opposition" to same-sex marriages, which it said were contrary to human nature and ultimately harmful to society.

In releasing the document, the pope was re-affirming the "nature of marriage," the cardinal said.

"Marriage is a lifelong union of a man and a woman who enter into a total sharing of themselves for the sake of family," he said.

The cardinal said the nature of marriage was decided by biology, predates the church and that neither government nor the church had the authority to change it.

"What the Holy Father concluded from the fact that there is neither biological nor moral equivalence between heterosexual marriage and homosexual unions is that there should be no legal equivalence either in a well-ordered and wholesome society," the cardinal said.

Cardinal George said the drive to legalize same-sex unions was because of "morality based upon desires" supplanting a "morality based upon the truth of things," and that those who oppose the unions are denounced as "homophobic."

"Because of a concerted effort 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," he said.

The cardinal said he wrote a letter to Pope John Paul apologizing for the headline, and that he hesitated before signing his title to the letter.

"I'm ashamed that this false accusation against the pope was made in our city. At the very least it is unfair, and we pride ourselves on fairness," he said.

Cardinal George said many who attacked the pope were anti-Catholic, but stopped short levying that charge against the Chicago Sun-Times.

"What I must say today is that a line has been crossed, and Chicago Catholics cannot ignore what has happened," he said.

The Sun-Times defended its headline, saying that when read in its entirety it "accurately reflects the church's view on same-sex marriage and the role the church requires Catholic politicians to play in this issue."

The paper said that the full headline read, "Pope Launches Global Campaign Vs. Gays," followed by the subhead, "Vatican: Catholic pols have 'moral duty' to oppose homesexual (sic) rights."

END

In our view, it's time for all rational and fairminded people to start flooding the offices of the Chicago Sun-Times with letters of protest.