A Chicago priest has burned a rainbow
banner despite orders not to do so from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times,
Rev. Paul Kalchik, pastor at Resurrection Catholic Church, burned the
banner, which featured a cross superimposed over a rainbow, outside
the church on Friday. Seven parishioners joined Kalchik in a prayer
of exorcism as he torched the banner in a portable fire pit.
In the church's September 2 bulletin,
Kalchik announced that he planned to burn the flag on September 29
for “the feast of Saint Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.” A few
days later, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that it had blocked
Kalchik's plan, saying that he had agreed “not to move forward with
these activities.”
In the same bulletin, Kalchik
also stated: “We cannot let the current troubles keep us from
our mission to go make more disciples for the Lord, nor should modern
day distractions like global warming, LGBT 'rights' or even
immigration issues ever take precedence over that mission.”
“That banner and what it stood for
doesn't belong to the Archdiocese or Cardinal [Blase] Cupich,”
Kalchik
told the Sun-Times.
“It belongs to the people of this parish who paid for it. What
have we done wrong other than destroy a piece of propaganda that was
used to put out a message other than what the church is about?”
Kalchik said that he burned several
priestly vestments adorned with rainbow colors when he arrived in
2007. But the flag, which once hung in the church, remained in
storage.
“The people of this parish have been
pretty resilient and put up with a lot of B.S.,” Kalchik said, a
reference to the church's previous outreach to the LGBT community.
“And it was just by accident that this banner that was made to
celebrate all things gay … did not get destroyed when I first got
here.”
Kalchik went on to say that the
Catholic Church's sex abuse crisis was a “gay thing.”
“I can't sit well with people like
Cardinal Cupich, who minimizes all of this,” Kalchik said. “Excuse
me, but almost all of the [abuse] cases are, with respect to priests,
bishops and whatnot, taking and using other young men sexually. It's
definitely a gay thing.”
“Scripture is crystal clear,” he
said of gays in the church. “It's against God's law.”