Faith the latest battleground for gay rights advocates Faithful America targeting of Archbishop Cordileone showcases tactic
CSF Special Report PART 2 OF 3
VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Don’t be surprised if same-sex partnered families are front and center in news coverage of the 2015 Catholic World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia – whether or not Pope Francis shows up. A coalition of four dissident Catholic groups, calling itself Equally Blessed, is recruiting for what it calls a pilgrimage to “speak out for the holiness of LGBT families” at the World Meeting of Families, to which Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput has invited Pope Francis. The Equally Blessed coalition received a $200,000 grant in March from Michigan self-identified gay bil-
lionaire Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation. That brings Arcus funding of Equally Blessed since 2010 to $770,000. In a press release, Arcus said the 2014 grant was to support “a coalition of pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Catholic advocacy agencies which will amplify pro-LGBT voices within the Catholic Church in preparation for significant international gatherings planned by Catholic bishops and the Vatican.” The Arcus Foundation’s grant-making is part of a strategy by a handful of nonprofit and private foundations to use the language of faith to challenge traditional sexual morality by directly attacking individual faith leaders, including Catholic bishops but also Protestants and Jews.
They fund dissidents in the Catholic Church, as well as other Christians and Jews who share their worldview opposing marriage as only between one man and woman. The financial grants help amplify the voices of dissident Catholics with the intention of making it appear as if the dissidents constitute a vigorous, loud, and committed contingent within ordinary Catholic parishes. “Groups like the Arcus Foundation have come to the conclusion that resistance to same-sex marriage and homosexuality in general is primarily rooted in religious belief,” said Jeff Walton, spokesman for The Institute for Religion and Democracy, a SEE FAITHFUL AMERICA, PAGE 12
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SEPTEMBER 19, 2014
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Divorce, migration changing face of families worldwide NANCY FRAZIER O’BRIEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
(PHOTO COURTESY KATHY LORENTZ/SHC)
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone prayed with members of the Sacred Heart Cathedral football teams at the archdiocesan high school’s campus Sept. 3, the day after SHC freshman Rashawn Williams was fatally stabbed.
SHC freshman’s funeral fills cathedral VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory chaplain Father Mark Doherty said the senseless death of freshman Rashawn Williams sends cries to the heavens that “are so deep and so full of grief that they are seemingly inaudible.” The 14-year-old was knifed to death Sept. 2 outside a Mission District convenience store at the end of his first day of classes at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, allegedly by a classmate from Horace Mann Middle School.
Father Doherty presided over Rashawn’s funeral Sept. 11 at St. Mary’s Cathedral and helped lead the rosary held each day at the corner of 26th and Folsom streets where the youngster was fatally stabbed.The rosary, recited at the request of his family from shortly after his death to the funeral date, drew crowds, and those attending his funeral filled the cathedral, he said. Rashawn was a 4.0 student and the oldest of four children. Rashawn was a member of the freshmen football team, and the entire SHC football team wore their
WASHINGTON – The family under discussion when the extraordinary Synod of Bishops convenes at the Vatican Oct. 5 will bear little resemblance to the family of 50 or even 20 years ago. The blended and extended families created by high rates of divorce, remarriage and cohabitation – along with the worldwide migration prompted by economic turmoil and war – have combined to change forever the view of family as limited to a mother, father and their children. But children are still most likely to live in two-parent families in all countries except South Africa, according to the World Family Map 2014, a research project sponsored by the Bethesda, Maryland-based nonprofit Child Trends and a variety of educational and nongovernmental institutions from across the globe. “The family is the core institution for childrearing worldwide, and decades of research have shown that strong families promote positive child outcomes,” said Laura Lippman, co-director of the World Family Map and senior program director for education at Child Trends. The report, co-written by Lippman and W. Bradford Wilcox, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, found that “growing up with a single parent is especially
SEE FUNERAL, PAGE 5
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SEE FAMILIES, PAGE 19
INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . .4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . .22