Denouncing racist beliefs and actions as “blasphemies” against God, Bishop Robert W. McElroy joined with several local interfaith leaders to speak out against bigotry.
The San Diego Organizing Project (SDOP) brought together dozens of interfaith leaders, including Bishop McElroy, for a press conference Aug. 18 in the courtyard of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral.
The event was held in response to what had taken place Aug. 11-12 in Charlottesville, Virginia, where hundreds of white supremacists had staged a rally against the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee; the rally ultimately turned violent, leaving one counter-protester dead and more than 30 other people injured. Two state troopers also died in a helicopter crash, while headed to the scene of the rally.
Beginning with Auxiliary Bishop John P. Dolan and concluding with Bishop McElroy, several speakers took to the stage outside St. Paul’s Cathedral to reflect on the Charlottesville rally and its aftermath. Speakers included Imam Taha Hassane, Islamic Center of San Diego; Bishop George McKinney, 2nd Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ; Pastor Tania Marquez, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego; Rev. Mary Sue Brookshire, Pioneer Ocean View United Church of Christ; Rabbi Devorah Marcus, Temple Emanu-El of San Diego; and Bishop Cornelius Bowser, Charity Apostolic Church.
As the event’s final speaker, Bishop McElroy said, “I am proud to stand here today in solidarity with the religious leadership of San Diego to state categorically that the actions, the words and the beliefs of neo-Nazis, the Klan, white militias and all hate groups are blasphemies against the God who is the Creator of the whole human family and looks upon every man, and woman, and child as equal in dignity and in worth.”
The bishop lamented that “one of the most troubling elements” about the incident in Charlottesville was that so many of the participants were young people. He noted that this “puts to the lie” the belief that younger generations will not inherit the racism of the past, and he encouraged his fellow religious leaders to ask parents to discuss this issue with their children.
For his own part, Bishop McElroy said he had already requested that the diocesan Office for Schools and the diocesan Office for Evangelization and Catechetical Ministry work together on designing an educational module “specifically about the Charlottesville moment” for children through young adults.
Full story at The Southern Cross.
I lose respect for each bishop that grandstands cheaply like so many California bishops have done over the past week. The original march wasn’t racist in the least: it was in support of Confederate monuments that the city planned to remove. Then Antifa and BLM violently confronted the peaceful marchers and things escalated because of that. Then the media spread a false narrative about white racists, and the brain-dead bishops grabbed onto that.
You didn’t see the swastikas? You didn’t here the anti-semitic chants? Or is it that you don’t think that swastikas are a symbol of racism?
“Look, look, sheeple, swaaaaah-stikas, anti-semiiiitic chants, baaaah, baaah, raaa-cist, raaa-cist, raaa-cist, people in black hoods good, all the other people neo-Naaaazis! Sheeple, baaaaaah together with me!”
Prior to this presidential administration, numerous surveys in 2016 showed Americans considered race relations to have worsened in the eight years of the Obama Administration. But even while cops were being shot by the handful in a racially motivated shooting spree (Dallas, July 7, 2016, New Orleans, New York City), McElroy and his ilk were silent.
So it is not surprising that anyone who has a different view of the causes of the present political reality is going to be hate-grouped and called “racist-racist-racist-racist -racist-racist-racist-racist-racist…”
When will the good bishop use the same strong language to denounce abortion or homosexual marriage? I understand he’s the one who says we should change the Catechism’s teaching so homosexuals don’t feel offended or bad about themselves. The bishop seems to have no problem with using language that strongly denounces other types of sins, though.
Bishop McElroy will never use the same strong language to denounce abortion or homosexuality. After all, he wrote a favorable comment about “Father” James Martin’s recent book that advocates changing the Catechism’s characterization of same-sex attraction as an intrinsic disorder. And, of course, It’s so much easier to denounce the false canard of “racism” than it is to preach the hard truths of perennial Catholic sexual morality. Woe to this bishop and others like him!
The Bishop forgot that the Antifa violence is the most prevalent and prevents freedom of speech, which these ecumenical church leaders of San Diego now enjoy thanks to the suspension of the Lyndon Johnson Amendment on religious speech.
Hopefully (wishfully actually) they will include in their “Charlottesville Moment” and equally strong denunciation of the ‘anti/blm/occupy’ Gaystapo, who could have turned the other cheek and ignored the homo-nazi provocations, but instead decided “Never to let a Good Crisis go to waste” and like so many other places were Violent in the Extreme in search of media attention
Without Naming the Uber-Violent Leftists who made it a media circus / scandal – the Bishops risk being dismissed as Political Partisans for Leftist / Demi-Krat Politics (although they often seem already committed to said Partisan Politics)
BTW – I once attended a session at Cal State East Bay where a Radical Misandrist Gender Feminist (Employed in a senior & presumably well paid position by the Oakland Diocese) was allegedly teaching students about ‘Social Justice’.
Actually, she showed up wearing an apparent mockery of Clerical Garb – and Recruited foot soldiers for the ‘Occupy Riots’ in Oakland, as well as other forms of Misandry (hatred of Men & Boys, Masculinity & Normal Heterosexuality) these tenured radicals push in a manner that also gives Public Scandal to the Diocese & Church
Did you report the incident to the Bishop? If not, why not?
Larry – if you are replying to me, I most certainly did report this to the Bishops Office as well as the Local Parish (All Saints) where I attended Mass and heard about the program
I was ignored by the Diocese and told by my Parish that I would no longer be permitted to do anything there but attend Mass
The Same thing happened in Idaho at Sacred Heart Parish a few years ago, where the twysted systerhood of radical gender feminist who were the Real Power in the Parish decided I could continue to attend Mass, but nothing else – as the challenge to the partisan political pogroms they were using the Parish to promote would not be able to withstand the presence of non-conforming viewpoints
BTW – A Deacon at SH told me that the…
A Deacon at Sacred Heart in Idaho told me that the Church Teaching against homosex behaviors and particularly against homosex practitioners / advocates joining the Priesthood was RONG.
I pointe out to the Pastor (an very good African Priest from Malawi, assigned to that Parish) what the Deacon (who was the ‘power behind the throne’) had said, and he was open to learning about the strange ways of America – but constrained by the Parish Council / power structure from actions against their politics.
Remove these people from US Chanceties please!
America is reaping what was sown by Obama for eight years.
Double bonus for Obama (D-IL) and McElroy (D-CA):
They can blame their ideological opponents, especially Trump, for everything.
In response to Robert McElroy, the late great Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said it best:
“WHO IS GOING TO SAVE OUR CHURCH? NOT OUR BISHOPS, NOT OUR PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS. IT IS UP TO THE PEOPLE. YOU HAVE THE MINDS, THE EYES, THE EARS TO SAVE THE CHURCH. YOUR MISSION IS TO SEE THAT YOUR PRIESTS ACT LIKE PRIESTS, YOUR BISHOPS, LIKE BISHOPS, AND YOUR RELIGIOUS ACT LIKE RELIGIOUS.”
Good quote by Archbishop Sheen. Alas, it’s easier said than done. How exactly did Sheen propose that the laity “see that your priests acts like priests, your bishops, like bishops”?
Two ways:
Bombard them with letters in opposition to their positions. Let them know clearly that traditional Catholics do not accept their positions.
Hit them in their wallets. If all traditional belief Catholics in the Diocese of San Diego stopped donating to any and all collections made on behalf of the Diocese, then McElroy and his cohorts soon would get the message.
As for me, I have stopped all donations to all collections made on behalf of the Vatican and all made on behalf of my local Bishop. I take that money and donate it to Catholic institutions that remain faithful to traditional Catholic beliefs and practices.
I find it disheartening to read that people can find excuses for any white supremacist activity. Do they have the right to express their views, of course. Do we have to agree with them? Not if we are Christian. Most of the confederate statues were erected during the civil rights fights as a way to intimidate Blacks. The statues are of people who rose up against their country in an effort to continue the economic advantages of slavery. It can’t be condoned or accepted by Christians. These people were traitors. Lincoln said: “With malice toward none …. Reconstruction should have been stronger, in my opinion, but that would be rewriting history. None of this, by the way, has anything to do with President Obama except to those…
“… Most of the confederate statues were erected during the civil rights fights as a way to intimidate Blacks. ”
Please provide documentation for this claim and the location of each monument and date coinciding with “the Civil Rights Movement” era (which is defined to be from approx. 1950 to 1964). It will be hard to do.
Because you are dead wrong, as usual, in regard to the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, VA: it was commissioned in 1917 and erected in 1924… Unless you want to attribute this to the Democratic Party’s armed wing, the KKK, which was founded by a Democrat city politician (Nathan Bedford Forrest), and continued right up to the present in Sen. Robert C Byrd of WVa.
“The Ku Klux Klan, was…
“… was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. … and would help to weaken the political power of Southern blacks and Republicans. ” From PBS, “Grant, Reconstruction, and the KKK.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kkk/
Bob One, not only that, it is HORRIFFIC that any catholic would defend white supremacists, as I’m sure you agree! Why is this not a simple thing for our people to understan?. Surely, this is a basic, bottom line call for those of us who follow Jesus!
I think all Catholics should be Social Justice Warriors (SJW) and tear down racist statues of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and wog Christopher Columbus; change the name of Columbia University, Washington State, District of Columbia; and prohibit singing the Maryland Anthem and the Star Spangled Banner. s\
President Trump sent off our Marxist Compatriots into a reductio ad absurdum argument with just a few off the cuff remarks. My beloved President is a political genius.
There is racism going on…….
In the womb of African-American women whom reportedly abort more babies than any other group!!!!!!
If ‘Black Lives Matter’ and they surely do……..how about the lives of the little African-American babies in the womb???
And Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood called ‘negroes’ human weeks that ought to be exterminated!!!!!! So that tells you the history of Planned Parenthood and how they still follow her plan.
Robert McElroy will be more believable when he starts speaking out against abortion. Check the facts on the percentage of African babies conceived and the number aborted. It is over 50 per cent. Why isn’t Robert McElroy ranting and raving about this???? He is fixated on one thing only. He truly needs to go back to school and read up on the true teaching of the Catholic Church. He has lots to learn about abortion and
homosexuality.
Wish the bishop would get this “militant” when it comes to his apostate, so-called “pastoral approach” to interpreting Catholic Doctrine. He is using the holy roller term “blasheme” now as a political rallying cry – but juxtaposed to this ( and rather hypocritically so) – the Sacred Eucharist is blashemed by him in his teaching by his saying it has NO theological difference with Protestant communion. Upside down and backwards: what is evil is good and what is good is evil. Political activism is not evangelizing and it is not a work of mercy. Why are modernists more like political community activist-organizers than priests who administer the sacraments?
Number one: there is only one race and it’s called the human race so can we stop with this racist rant? Number two: Robert E Lee was against slavery and fought on the Confederate side because he was a patriot from Virginia. (He was so respected that Abraham Lincoln try to recruit him for the Union side.). Number three: The KKK, pro slavery, pro segregation, anti-civil rights, ANTIFA, White Supremists, White militia and Nazi groups are all far Left/Marxist/Socialists/Facists groups. Conservative groups believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which by the way states that all men are created equal. It’s the Republicans that voted in amendments to benefit the blacks. The Democrats unanimously voted against them. The…
Thank you Bishop McElroy for your holy and inspired leadership!
How ironic that Bishop McElroy should accuse others of blasphemy! At the “Deepening Inter-Religious Dialogue and Community Alliances” event held at the University of San Diego in 2016, he extolled the “beauties of the Qur’an” and encouraged Catholics, too many of whom are weak in their faith, to “get to know the religion and tenets of Islam.” According to Islamic belief, Jesus will return to destroy Christianity (break the cross), kill pigs, eliminate the Jizya tax (on non-Muslims), kill the Antichrist and his followers, convert the world to Islam, live on earth for forty years, and then die. This is blasphemy at its worst, because it denies the divinity of Our Lord and his sacrifice on the cross. It’s also critical to note that, in…
It’s also critical to note that, in Islamic belief, once the Jizya is abolished, non-Muslims will have only two choices: convert or be killed.
Nani, of course you are right.
But as long as political power is successfully seized and wielded by means of demonizing others as “racist-racist-racist”, don’t expect the Al Sharptons, the Terry McAuliffes, the Kamala Harrises, and the Nancy Pelosis et al. and their cohort to put down such a potent weapon—even though riven through and through with hypocrisy and evident cynicism as they croak that narrative.
This wolf continues to howl in sheeps clothing.
I see — white racists are the only actual racists.
Puppeteer strings or a dissenters rantings on Charlottesville are merely a Saul Alinsky method of distraction to bait people into arguments that have nothing to do with what the Church actually teaches. Dissenters of Church teaching have their own agendas and they will use the race card and even hold up the ol’ traditional sounding blasphemy card for effectiveness but these same dissenters usually have a paper trail showing a lengthy history of ignoring Church teaching and advisories from the Vatican, especially on homosexual adoption. Bishop McElroy, Instead of focusing on the “Charlottesville Moment”, let’s focus and address that “Catholic Charities Moment” of disobedience and dissent!
continued…….
Catholic World Report – A Distinction Without A Difference
https://web.archive.org/web/20080906233415/http:/www.ignatius.com/Magazines/CWR/charities.htm
“On Thursday, the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith formally released a series of ‘observations,’ including one that it is morally acceptable to discriminate against homosexuals in public housing, the adoption of children and in certain types of employment.”
Archbishop Quinn “was unavailable for comment,” reported the Chronicle, but Monsignor McElroy, then the archbishop’s representative on the archdiocese’s Justice and Peace Commission, did comment.
continued…….
continued…
”There is no change in the archdiocese’s policy,” he (Monsignor McElroy) told the Chronicle. ”The archdiocese opposes discrimination in housing and employment, including teachers.” The Vatican letter, he said, was merely advisory and “not binding on them.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20080906233415/http:/www.ignatius.com/Magazines/CWR/charities.htm
Thank you Bishop McElroy for speaking out on this important topic. Racism is, as Bishop Barron notes, America’s original sin. The negative reactions posted here indicate that your comments are striking a nerve and very necessary!
From CCD 2010 California Catholic has a longstanding policy of not permitting direct attacks on specific bishops, particularly when said comments are largely ad hominem and accuse a bishop of being a heretic or not Catholic or anything similar. On the other hand, general observations about bishops in general are allowed, and suggestions to bishops who have problems on their hands are also permitted. If you want to bash bishops, find another site. CalCatholic prides itself on being a useful source of news about the Church — good and bad — and on its complete faithfulness to the magisterium. The mere suggestion that we are CINOs is preposterous on its face and anyone who regularly visits our site knows that.