Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com managing editor Michael W. Chapman is so Catholic, he feels he can lecture the pope about Catholicism. Now he feels the need to badger a Catholic bishop for, apparently, not hating gays to Chapman's satisfaction.
An Oct. 8 article by Chapman complained that Archbishop of Chicago Blase Cupich -- whom Chapman made sure to note was "appointed to head the Archdiocese of Chicago (in 2014) and elevated to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Francis (in 2016)," as a good right-wing, gay-bashing, anti-Francis Catholic would -- "would not say whether he supports the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality, which defines homosexual acts as 'intrinsically disordered' and which cannot be approved under any circumstances." He then details just how much he had been badgering Cupich for an answer to his question:
Over the last two weeks, CNSNews.com has sent multiple e-mails and placed several telephone calls to the Archdiocese's Communications Director Anne Maselli. CNSNews.com referenced a recent case where a priest had been removed from a parish reportedly because he helped burn a gay rainbow/crucifix banner and asked this question: "Does Cardinal Cupich believe and support what the Catholic Catechism teaches about homosexuality in paragraph 2357?"
In full, in the email, CNSNews.com asked, "Given the rainbow banner and question of an 'anti-gay hate crime,' I wanted ask Cardinal Cupich if he believes in and supports the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality as defined in the Catechism, 2357?
"That section states, in part, 'Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved."
Instead of answering the question, Anne Maselli claimed that a quote attributed to her in the Chicago Tribune about the gay rainbow banner burning was inaccurate, and she added, "We do not have any additional comments at this time."
CNSNews.com then re-sent the same question to Maselli several times -- "Does Cardinal Cupich believe and support what the Catholic Catechism teaches about homosexuality in paragraph 2357?" -- and she replied again,"We have no further comment to share."
Chapman's final paragraph seemed to show the real reason he was badgering Cuptich: "In early September, two priests with the Archdiocese of Chicago were arrested in Miami Beach for engaging in oral sex -- "Lewd and Lascivious Behavior" -- in a parked car on a busy street at about 3:00 p.m." (Yes, Chapman wrote about that too.)
The next day, Chapman launched another attack on Cupich. After once again complaining that Cupich "was appointed by Pope Francis (in 2014) to oversee the Archdiocese of Chicago," Chapman huffed that Cupich "said that it was not his policy to deny Holy Communion or Catholic funerals to people in same-sex marriages." Chapman portrayed this as a new issue, but he didn't report that Cupich's statement, in a public TV interview, came from a July 2017 appearance -- more than a year old.
