About 25 activists, mostly members of the Gay Liberation Network ( GLN ) and Rainbow Sash Movement, on Dec. 18 protested a celebration honoring the retirement of Cardinal Francis George held at the Drake Hotel, 140 E. Walton Pl.
"The majority of lay Catholics favor equal rights for gays and equal rights for women at a rate in excess of the general population," said GLN co-founder Andy Thayer. "This protest is not against Catholics [or] Catholicism. It's against those in the minority, who are in the leadership of their faith, preventing equality for others—not just people of their own faith, but also of the nation at large."
Thayer said that even though Illinois had made great strides towards equality, "the battle is not over" for the LGBT community.
"We may have won formal legal equality, but as the experience of others has shown us, formal legal equality is not all its cracked up to be," Thayer said. "We need full social equality, and the record of not just the archdiocese of this city, but archdioceses around the country, has shown that when we push for a measure of social equality, they are bitterly opposed to it."
Bob Schwartz of GLN said the lavish celebration was unseemly given the financial straights of the Chicago Archdiocese.
"When the Archdiocese is $40 million in the red, personnel layoffs are being threatened, potential school closures are talked about, there's plenty of money to spend on a banquet to honor this man who has spent his time here in Chicago opposing equal rights for LGBT people as well as equal rights for women—something is wrong with these men, and they are all men, since there are no female leaders in the Roman [Catholic] Church," Schwartz said.
"I am an out and proud lesbian, and I do not want to celebrate this man," added Debrah Goodman of GLN. "It angers me that he is celebrated at all."
Joe Murray of Rainbow Sash Movement said that George has "dragged his feet" in addressing sexual abuse scandals that have been pervasive throughout the church.
George "cares more about his clergy who abuses children than the victims. It's time for a readjustment of our traditional agenda."
In a Dec. 18 interview in Chicago Sun-Times, George said of the scandal, "When I was ordained, I never thought any priest could do something like that. To suddenly realize, yes there are priests who can do things that evil was a shattering moment as it is for many Catholics."
George was a high-profile opponent of marriage equality in Illinois. Shortly after the passage of SB10 he wrote a letter denouncing the legislation, which he asked be included in all church bulletins in the diocese.
SB10 "is bad law because it will contribute over the long run to the further dissolution of marriage and family life, which are the bedrock of any society," wrote George in the letter, published Nov. 17.
George submitted a letter stating his intention of retiring at the beginning of 2012, as is customary when a cardinal reaches age 75. Pope Francis, however, has yet to actually name a replacement.
