Updates on yesterday's blog about the fight between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the DC City Council:
Local DC columnist, Petula Dvorak, a Roman Catholic calls her church to account and says that the Catholic Church has left her--and countless other DC Catholics--"heartbroken."
The Right Rev. John Chane, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, pretty much says that his church will help pick up the slack if the Catholic Church walks away (seems like a return volley in the ongoing Vatican-Anglican argument, too).
Whatever happens in this case could, according to several news sources, set a national precedent for other states that adopt same-sex marriage as they try to work out accommodations with religious organizations.

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the Catholic church is doing exactly what Jesus would NOT do! it's a very sad day when a religious institution will punish the poor & needy in reaction to a social/equality movement
instances like this make reinforce my decision to leave the catholic church. Jesus was a radical who promoted equality & compassion for all human beings (He chose to hang out with the women & men whom the church deemed social outcasts) and don't forget he despised the authoritarian culture of the politicized church.
Stand for thr faith my Catholic brothers and sisters.
If "the faith" involves ditching the poor of a city because it doesn't encode the Catholics' narrow social doctrine into law, I'd question whether that "faith" was in any way definable as Christian.
Can you picture Jesus Christ telling the sick "I'm sorry, I would heal you, but I can't because I disagree with your city's rules"? I sure can't. The Roman Catholic Diocese should be ashamed of themselves. I pray that the Holy Spirit brings them to repentance and they rescind their threat.
Oh, and praise God for Diocesan Bishop John, who unlike the Roman Catholic Diocese seems to truly know what following Christ is all about. Again, the Episcopals are embarrassing the Roman Catholic Diocese by demonstrating that love will triumph over hate and acceptance over bigotry. I pray the authorities in the Roman Catholic Diocese feel this shame deeply in their hearts, repent of their sinful ways, and stop holding the poor hostage in their misguided demand that we shape our laws around their narrow doctrines.
All of this reminds me of the infamous National Lampoon ad that showed a dog with a gun to his head with the caption, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll shoot this dog."
I find it troubling that the Catholic church has no problem with providing partner benefits for those employees who have divorced their first spouses and remarried without annulment, yet objects to two men or two women who love each other and commit to each other being able to provide for each other.
You can't take both positions.
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