From CatholicVote.org
By Thomas Peters
I have never witnessed such a blatant, systematic attempt to undermine the Catholic Church as the one I am writing about today. The latest Catholyc astoturf group “Catholics for Equality” (which I exposed a couple months ago) already had me deeply concerned when they introduced a “Report Anti-Equality Activity!” section on their webpage.
But now they have taken things to a whole different level. Aniello Alioto, one of their founding members, explains their group’s strategic plan to undermine the Church – yes, even in the pews of your parish (emphasis mine):
One of the most interesting aspects of this campaign is our understanding that we don’t need the consent of our hierarchy to effectively mobilize our fellow pro-equality parishioners inside our churches. This Christmas we will be rolling out the Catholics for Equality line of smartphone apps, which will allow supporters to connect with each other while they’re sitting in the pews or attending an after-church social. The apps will also allow them to report hostile activity in their parish or make a special contribution to the campaign as the Holy Spirit moves them.
Let’s be clear what Alioto is saying: their organization plans to encourage its membership during Christmas to bring their phones to Church and to “report” from the pew whenever a priest or bishop dares to preach about the family or issues related to marriage, and to conduct fundraising in our sacred spaces.
It’s hard to imagine a more intrusive attempt to undermine the freedom of Catholic parishes and pastors to preach what the Church teaches to Catholics who are already constantly maligned outside of Mass about their views. Catholics for Equality has decided to take their fight against the Church into the very heart of our sacred worship spaces.
Gay activists will claim their movement is about tolerance and getting along, but their actual tactics – tactics I have experienced personally – favor intimidation and forcing those who disagree (especially Catholics and other Christians) to “change” in response to their dictates, or else face sophisticated in-your-face campaigns like this one.
Furthermore, it goes without saying that I consider the claim that the Holy Spirit will move Catholics to fund at Mass organizations explicitly set against our priests and bishops to be blasphemous and offensive; a sin against the Holy Spirit, in fact.
I have uploaded Alioto’s full letter online and have mirrored it in case Catholics For Equality attempts to take the original down and hide the evidence later on.
For those of you who want to put together the pieces, Alioto is the Political Director for Progress Now, a George Soros-funded progressive organization. This places Catholics For Equality firmly in the family of catholyc astroturf organizations bent on undermining the Church’s identity and traditional teaching, turning Catholics against Catholic.
So what do we do?
An attack of this magnitude, one which causes bishops, priests and Catholics to look over their shoulder before daring to proclaim what the Church believes about the meaning of marriage and family, even at Mass, deserves a vigorous response.
Archbishop Broglio has already stated publicly that Catholics For Equality “cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic”, I call on more bishops to echo Abp. Broglio’s statement, beginning with Donald Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, DC (where Catholics for Equality is located). Gay activists are convinced this is the next stage in their efforts to foment dissent in the Church, if we do not respond quickly and firmly more damage to Catholic unity will be caused.
We haven’t heard the last of Catholics for Equaliy, or of outside groups attempting to undermine Catholic teaching and solidarity from the inside. Please join me in watching these pages over the next week for more on what we can do to defend our Church, and defend our right as Catholics to carry on the good news of Jesus Christ about marriage and family, in and out of season, and in the face of persecution.
