Mary E. Hunt, who runs a group called the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER), has launched a vile assault on the Catholic Church. The pretext of her article is the decision of the Archdiocese of Washington to discontinue its foster-care program; the archdiocese maintains that as a condition of public funding it would have to compromise Church teachings on gay marriage.
In a piece posted on the website Religion Dispatches, Hunt accuses the entire Catholic Church of “bigotry” and says that the Church’s position on gay marriage “is but one among differing Church theologies of sexuality”; she adds that “the hierarchy does not speak” for its members.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue took Hunt to task:
It is one thing to contest the teachings of the Catholic Church, quite another to say that dissident voices are authentically Catholic: there is only one official teaching body of the Catholic Church, and that is the Magisterium (the pope in communion with the bishops). Moreover, just as labor union leaders speak for union members, the Church’s hierarchy speaks for Catholics. Anyone is free to disagree, but they are not free to distort. Hunt is a long-time master of such disinformation.
If anyone doubts that the website itself is corrupt, let them check out the picture that accompanies Hunt’s screed. It shows two men frolicking with a young boy on their laps. One is dressed as a priest.
Contact the website’s managing editor, Evan Derkacz: evan@religiondispatches.org
