Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel Posted on 06/23/2007 3:03:39 PM PDT by nwrep
Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel
EDMONTON, June 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As parishioners of St. Andrews Catholic Church in Edmonton exited Mass last Sunday, some were shocked to find homosexual activists purchasing tickets for a "Gay Pride Brunch" which was being held in the Catholic building. The building encompasses a Catholic Church and the St. Andrew's Centre, a senior's independent living centre.
Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel hosted the "Mayor's Pride Brunch" which took place in the banquet facilities of the centre which lies in very close proximity to the 24-hour Eucharistic adoration chapel. Proceeds from the brunch go to support Camp fYrefly which is, according to its website "Canada's largest leadership retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, queer, and allied (LGBTTQ&A) youth."
LifeSiteNews.com has learned that the Archbishop's office knew of the homosexual event prior to its' occurrence but did not act to forbid the homosexual pride event from Church premises out of concern for legal repercussions.
In 2005, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ordered that the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, pay a lesbian couple damages for refusing to rent them a hall for their same-sex "wedding." (see coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05113006.html )
According to parishioner Lonney D'Agostini, newly installed Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith was informed of the event by himself and several other parishioners six days prior to the brunch. D'agostini told LifeSiteNews.com that "the bishop said that he did not want any visible protest but that we were free to pray for those people (the homosexuals)."
The St. Andrew's Centre, while being partially a public building, has as its primary shareholder and owner the Archbishop of Edmonton.
The Centre was hesitant to cancel the event because of possible legal repercussions involved in canceling a contract. The management admits, however, that the brunch was a mistake. Mark Barylo, Senior Manager in charge of St. Andrew's Centre, told LifeSiteNews.com, "In booking the event, Centre staff didn't ask all the appropriate questions for this particular event. As a result, the centre is going to review its policies and procedures when it comes to booking outside groups into the Centre. We are going to try our best to ensure that this situation doesn't arise again."
Booked as the "Mayor's Pride Brunch," the event may have escaped detection as a gathering of homosexual activists.
Some are asking however why mayor Mandel, who is not a Catholic, would impose a homosexual pride event on a Catholic facility.
One such Catholic is Mayoral candidate Bill Whatcott who happened to be at Mass Sunday and was outraged by what he saw taking place. Whatcott told LifeSiteNews.com he was dragged off Catholic Church property and told not to return by two Edmonton plainclothes policemen after he entered the hall and vocally protested the brunch as it was taking place.
In comments to LifeSiteNews.com Whatcott described his outrage, saying "This is really a desecration. This is really bigoted." They "wouldn't dare do that to a mosque," he added.
Whatcott said that Sunday's run-in with the homosexual activists and the police was an interesting coincidence. In his election platform, Whatcott vehemently defends traditional marriage and family. Those organizing Mayor Mandel's brunch had no idea that St. Andrew's was Whatcott's parish or that he would protest on Sunday.
LifeSiteNews.com approached the Mayor's office and asked why he chose a specifically Catholic institution to host an event that supports a lifestyle in direct contradiction to Church teaching. The office briefly indicated that the Centre should look into its own booking procedures.
The Archbishop's office did not comment to LifeSiteNews.com by press time.
To respectfully make your voice heard:
Mayor Stephen Mandel 2nd Floor, City Hall 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square Edmonton, AB T5J 2R7 Phone: (780) 496-8100 Fax: (780) 496-8292 Email: stephen.mandel@edmonton.ca
Archbishop Richard Smith Archdiocese of Edmonton 8421 - 101 Avenue, Edmonton, AB, T6A 0L1 Phone: (780) 469-1010 Fax (780) 465-3003 Email: cathpast@edmontoncatholic-church.com
What’s a Freepi?
“Canada’s largest leadership retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, queer, and allied (LGBTTQ&A) youth.”
Fascinating. The list of politically correct perversions gets longer and longer by the day. But they seem to have left out transgendered, one of the standard perversions.
Are trans-identified or two-spirited people transgendered? I’m not sure that I want to know, actually. Also, what on earth does two-spirited mean? Is it a person who needs an exorcism?
Coward. Sets a great example for his flock. I think he might have been valid grounds for concern. If the Diocese steps in and says "no", then the gays sue the Diocese for bigoted discrimination and try to take the church land and facilities away from him.
They've done that in e.g. San Diego -- to the Boy Scouts. Different details (the devil is in the details) but same basic reasoning. "I'm going to sue you every chance I get, if you do not abjure the faith of your fathers."
bump
Two-spirited? It’s a new one on me. They didn’t even have them in New York last time I was there. Just LGBT.
No, I take that back. I just googled “two spirited,” and came up with this from Wikipedia:
Two-Spirit (also two spirit or twospirit) is a term for third gender people (for example, woman-living-man) that are among many American Indian and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. It usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body. It is also used by some contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Native Americans to describe themselves. There are also native terms for these individuals in the various Native American languages.
Terminology
The older term “berdache” is a generic term used primarily by anthropologists, and is frequently rejected as inappropriate and offensive by Native Americans. This may be largely due to its pejorative etymology as it is a loan from French bardache via Spanish bardaxa or bardaje/bardaja via Italian bardasso or berdasia via Arabic bardaj meaning “kept boy; male prostitute, catamite” from Persian bardaj from Middle Persian vartak from Old Iranian *varta-, cognate to Avestan “seized, prisoner,” formed from an Indo-European root -meaning “to strike, wound” (which is the same in English as vulnerable). It has widely been replaced with two-spirit.[1][2][3]
“Two-spirit” originated in Winnipeg, Canada in 1990 during the third annual intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference. It is a calque of the Ojibwa phrase niizh manidoowag (two spirits). It was chosen to distance Native/First Nations people from non-Natives as well as from the words “berdache” and “gay.”[4][5][6]
There’s more, if you care to look it up.
There are far worse "repercussions" out there than that. These guys better pray the last words they ever hear aren't "I never knew you."
I think this needs to be clarified. The mayor may be within his rights.
Wow. Learn something new...
There was a Gay punk at the State House for the Con Con that was in an elderly woman’s face screaming every obscenity in the book at her. As a lady from the Greatest Generation she slapped this cad. But he’s Gay so they arrested her and charged her with a Hate Crime.
I SAW that. Poor old lady, is verbally attacked and SHE gets arrested and charged. A little slap for Heaven sake! This violent agression happened a lot during the state elections. One elderly man was put so upset by it he required hospitalization. It’s their tactic for gaining political power. Money from outside the state, LOTS of it, and verbal and physical violence.
The reason is that once ONE homosexual is hired in TV, movies, etc. they push to have friends and acquaintances hired, and because straights are so afraid of being "homophobic" they go right along with it..
vaudine
I guess Elder Abuse is okay if you’re Gay. Ever feel uneasy when Gay advocates state that support for them is from younger people and that the resistance to them is from older generations? You recognize what they mean is, is that they look forward to the WW II generation dying. Almost gleefully.
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