Posted on 04/30/2007 12:10:50 PM PDT by NYer
Was the San Francisco Board of Supervisors constitutionally justified in passing an explicitly anti-Catholic resolution, adopted March 21, 2006, which labeled the Vatican a “foreign country” whose moral teachings are “hateful,” “insulting and callous,” and “insulting to all San Franciscans”?
In December, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said it was. Last week, the Thomas More Law Center filed a brief with the U. S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two Catholic residents of San Francisco appealing Patel’s ruling.
The 2006 resolution, which called on the archbishop to “defy” the Church’s teachings and described Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as “unqualified” to lead, was a reaction to the Church’s opposition to adoptions by homosexual couples.
Judge Patel, appointed to the federal bench in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter and former counsel for the National Organization for Women, ruled that the Board of Supervisors’ resolution urging the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco to ignore his Church’s teachings, did not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Establishment Clause, found in the First Amendment, prohibits the government from interfering with the free practice of religion – or favoring one religion over another. The Thomas More Law Center says the Supervisors’ resolution sends a clear message that Catholics are not welcome as members of the San Francisco political community.
“Judge Patel clearly exhibited hostility toward the Catholic Church,” said Richard Thompson, chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center. In her ruling, the judge claimed that the Church “provoked” the Board of Supervisors by voicing its moral teaching, and that the Board reacted “responsibly” by adopting its resolution, which called Catholic beliefs “defamatory,” “absolutely unacceptable,” “insensitive,” and “ignorant.”
The week after the anti-Catholic resolution, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted, again unanimously, to condemn some 25,000 Evangelical teens who had gathered in the city to express their opposition to homosexual conduct. Openly gay San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno said the Christian teenagers were “obnoxious” and “disgusting” and “should not be tolerated.” He told the Christian group to “get out of San Francisco!”
“My concern is that, if the judge’s ruling is allowed to stand, it will further embolden the San Francisco Board in its anti-Christian attacks,” said Thompson.
“Our constitution plainly forbids government hostility toward any religion, including the Catholic faith,” said Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise, who is handling the Ninth Circuit appeal. “In total disregard for the Constitution, homosexual activists have misused the instruments of government to attack the Catholic Church. Their egregious abuse of power now has the backing of a federal judge."
The Catholic Church teaches that allowing homosexuals to adopt children does violence to the children by placing them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. The Church finds such policies gravely immoral, and forbids Catholic organizations from placing children for adoption in homosexual households.
The 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative branch for both the city and county of San Francisco.
I don’t know if they can legally flap their lips. It’s preaching—weighing in on religious matters. Certainly, if they made the opposite pronouncement, that Christianity is good, that would be a violation.
I am also in opposition to adoptions by homosexual couples, homosexual singles.
bump
When they change the name from Saint Francis to Sin City.
One of these, Gerardo Sandoval, was on H&C. "Sandoval appeared on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" on February 14, 2006 and declared repeatedly, to the astonishment of both hosts, that the United States should have no military forces."
The mentality of these San Franciso degenerates belongs in another country.
I wonder if Frisco realize that San Francisco was named after Cathoic monk or priest
And sorry to break your bubble Frisco judge but I am sorry half of California was named after Christians name
MY city for example Los Angeles mean in Spanish City of Angels
Anybody have a copy of the same manifesto that they wrote against Islam, condemning it for it’s attitude towards women and homosexuals?
As a Franciscan, I am quite frankly disgusted that they would keep the name San Francisco. They should change it to HEll and be done with it.
Maybe they should cite my ex-partners decision concerning post offices.
HARTFORD, Conn. — Religion has no place in post offices run by churches and other private contractors, a federal judge has ruled, citing the constitutional separation of church and state.
U.S. District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito, in a case involving a church-run post office in Manchester, ordered the Postal Service to notify the nearly 5,200 facilities run by contractors that they cannot promote religion through pamphlets, displays or any other materials.
I'd vote for cert in this case. Sound like the supervisors are creeping toward prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Tolerance in action....
New death threats against Italian bishops’ leader
Genoa, Apr. 30, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A new death threat against the president of the Italian bishops’ conference has forced officials in the Genoa archdiocese to increase security around Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco.
This weekend, officials of the Genoa archdiocese reported receiving an envelope containing a bullet and a photo of the archbishop.
Police in Genoa— who had already assigned officers to guard the prelate— quickly increased their security presence around him. Archbishop Bagnasco was flanked by guards as he celebrated Mass in Genoa’s cathedral on Sunday, and plain-clothes police were present in the congregation.
Archbishop Bagnasco became the target of threats soon after he was selected to head the Italian bishops’ conference, and issued a strong public statement in opposition to a bill that would offer legal recognition of same-sex unions. Genoa’s cathedral and other Catholic churches in the city— and elsewhere around the country— have been defaced by spray-painted slogans denouncing Archbishop Bagnasco and in some cases hinting at violence against him.
The Italian bishops’ conference declined to comment on the latest threat against the archbishop, explaining that any public statement comments might encourage further tension. Spokesmen for the Genoa archdiocese said that the threat was the work of “extremists,” and some Church officials suggested that the bullet could have been sent by a single individual looking to create a public furor. But police seemed to take the threat seriously, and security agents did not leave the archbishop’s side during his Sunday public appearance.
“Personally, I think its just as well if righteous people abandoned that den of depravity. “
Worked well enough for lot, just dont look back..
Sodom. Mostly homosexual men.
Berkeley is Gomorrah. Mostly dykes and lesbians.
I once dropped a quarter when in San Francisco. I left it there and walked on.
I would miss the super model, though.
San Francisco was named after St. Francis of Assisi who wasn’t a priest or a monk.
He was the founder of the Franciscan movement within the Catholic Church and he was a deacon.
Yep. I don’t remember bigotry this bad back in the bad old days of the Klan and the Blaine amendments.
Amen. Who’s next, the Jews?
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