Oh the Humanity! U.S. Catholic Bishops Continue Attack on Gay Community

And as a complement to what I just posted about the possibility of learning from the animal kingdom ways to be more humane towards our fellow human beings:

For those who may not be keeping a running tally of what various U.S. Catholic bishops have been saying and doing in the very recent past, vis-a-vis their brothers and sisters who are gay, I'd note the following:

1. With other religious right leaders, top leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops signed onto a statement last week attacking marriage equality; 

2. The Catholic bishops of Washington state have just issued a directive to Catholics in that state to fight against marriage equality;  

3. In Minnesota, where the Catholic bishops have for some time now been spending huge sums of money from an undisclosed donor or donors to attack marriage equality (even as they close parishes and schools), the Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis, John Nienstedt, is reiterating threats against any priests who do not toe the party line as the bishops work to help pass an amendment altering the state constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage;  

4. And all this comes, of course, on the heels of the controversy the previous president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stirred up around Christmas time when he compared his gay brothers and sisters to the Ku Klux Klan (though he later apologized). 

5. As suicides of gay or gender-questioning teens continue in the U.S., the U.S. Catholic bishops keep their mouths tight-shut, though a significant percentage of Americans think what the churches do and say to and about their gay brothers and sisters is contributing to these suicides.

Oh, the humanity!

But somehow, I don't think that increasing numbers of people in the U.S., Catholic or otherwise, see what the pastoral leaders of the Catholic church are doing to those who are gay in quite those terms.  Not as a demonstration of humanity at its best.

Not in the least.

The graphic is Ferdinand Hodler's rendition of the Good Samaritan story in Luke's gospel (10:25-37), in which Jesus tells his followers to bind up the wounds of those we find lying by the wayside.