Bill Donohue comments on the decision by the Archdiocese of Louisville to deny a gay couple the right to have a headstone in St. Michael’s Cemetery that commemorates their “marriage”:
At the top of the headstone is the name of the two homosexuals, Bourke and De Leon, and in between is an inscription of wedding rings. Below is an image of the Supreme Court. At the bottom is their first name and initial—one on each side—with their date of birth below; in the middle is a cross.
The Archdiocese of Louisville said it would accept the headstone absent the wedding rings and the courthouse, saying they conflict with Catholic teachings: “Inscriptions on grave markers are permitted so long as they do not conflict with any teachings of the Church. Your proposed markings are not in keeping with this requirement.”
Bourke and De Leon were among the plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. They will hold a press conference today to protest the decision of the Archdiocese.
These men are not interested in tolerance—they want to impose their secular views on the Catholic Church. Hopefully, this contrived exercise in victimhood will open the eyes of those Americans who fail to distinguish between ordinary gays and militant gay activists. It is the latter, along with their heterosexual allies, who are seeking to sexually engineer our society—not even bathrooms and showers are off-limits—practicing intolerance in the name of “rights.”
The First Amendment ensures the free exercise of religion, and if that means anything, it means the right of religious institutions to determine their own strictures. That would include the right to deny those who seek to politicize Catholic graveyards.
