God Hates Fags to Picket Funeral of Philadelphia Cardinal Who Died Amid Pedophile Priests Trials

By David Badash
New Civil Rights Movement
February 1, 2012

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/god-hates-fags-to-picket-funeral-of-philadelphia-cardinal-who-died-amid-pedophile-priests-trials/politics/2012/02/01/33904

God Hates Fags announced today they will picket the funeral of Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died yesterday, amid several cases of priests on trial for pedophile rape, sex abuse, and molestation. Bevilacqua, 88, was Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1988 to 2003, and was deemed fit to stand trial and deliver testimony prior to his death. Bevilacqua was accused of ignoring the pedophile priest scandal that occurred on his watch.

“Bevilacqua, known for his regular press-the-flesh visits to all 302 parishes in the archdiocese and for his strong stands against racism and anti-Semitism, was also sharply critical of homosexuals and refused for several years to close Catholic churches and schools to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday,” the L.A. Times reported, adding:

Bevilacqua’s tenure was marred by clergy sexual-abuse revelations that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese in 2002, as the scandal was erupting nationwide and in Europe.

In 2005, after a 40-month grand jury investigation, a report by the Philadelphia district attorney’s office harshly criticized Bevilacqua and his predecessor, Cardinal John Krol, for failing to protect children from years of rapes and sexual abuse by priests.

“Sexually abusive priests were left quietly in place or ‘recycled’ to unsuspecting new parishes — vastly expanding the number of children who were abused,” the report said.

Bevilacqua did not respond to the report. His successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, said the report was “very unfair” for not addressing sexual abuse in other denominations or public institutions.

Bevilacqua condemned homosexuality, saying homosexual men were unfit to be priests. He said the Catholic Church considers homosexuality an “aberration, a moral evil.”

…

In 1998, the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper, reported that Bevilacqua had secretly spent approximately $5 million to renovate a mansion that served as his residence and to renovate a seaside villa used as a vacation home by Bevilacqua and retired priests.

The improvements were carried out at roughly the same time that Bevilacqua approved the closing or merging of inner-city parishes and schools because they had budget deficits and suffered from low attendance, the newspaper reported. Those closings were met with outrage by some parishioners and social activists, who accused the archdiocese of racism.

Bevilacqua was “surprised and embarrassed” by the reaction, the Inquirer reported. He set up a process in which local priests and members of the lay community took the lead in deciding whether or how to close or merge parishes.

While bishop of the Pittsburgh diocese in the early 1980s, Bevilacqua ended his predecessor’s practice of including women in the traditional Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony. Bevilacqua said Jesus had washed only the feet of his male apostles.