No matter what point you’re trying to make, drenching a holy man who doesn’t agree with you with water while he’s engaged in prayer is perhaps the worst way to get your point across.
A group of naked women bum-rushed Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard while he was speaking in Brussels and doused him with water from bottles shaped like the Virgin Mary on Tuesday.
Photos of the event show Leonard patiently sitting quietly with his eyes closed and hands folded in prayer as the women empty bottles of water on his head and clothes.
And what could this all have possibly been over?
[Archbishop] Leonard had told a Belgian newspaper in March that homosexuality is “a given that people find in themselves and whose origins remain somewhat mysterious,” and said he urges Christian homosexuals to adopt a life of celibacy.
So for expressing a tolerant point of view that would be welcome anywhere, the Archbishop gets assaulted.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan addresses how tolerant the Catholic Church is, raising up a stark contrast to people like these feminist lesbian protestors:
So, for example, the Church loves, welcomes, and respects the alcoholic . . . but would not condone his binge;
The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a prominent business leader…but would not condone his or her failure to pay a just wage to a migrant worker;
The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a young couple in love . . . but would challenge their decision to “live together” before marriage;
The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman who has had an abortion, and the man who fathered the child and encouraged the abortion . . . but would be united with them in mourning and regretting that deadly choice;
The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman or man with a same-sex attraction . . . while reminding him or her of our clear teaching that, while the condition of homosexuality is no sin at all, still, God’s teaching is clear that sexual acts are reserved for a man and woman united in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, loving bond of marriage.
The Church loves, welcomes, and respects wealthy people, while prophetically teaching the at-times-uncomfortable virtue of justice and charity towards the poor.
The Church indeed welcomes everyone. The Church also has its beliefs and teachings. If you don’t agree with the Church’s teachings, don’t go—but guess what? You’re still welcome!
Try deviating even a sliver from the beliefs of this lesbian feminist group—and you get drenched with water at a public event.
Which group is more tolerant again?
