A “backward and bigoted” Catholic Cardinal is being urged to resign after he drew a parallel between gays and the Ku Klux Clan.

Foolish Francis George, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, made the idiotic comparison when he voiced his objection to the timing of the city’s gay pride parade.

Organisers of the parade changed next year’s start-up time from noon to 10 am, meaning it would go past one of the city’s oldest Catholic churches when worshippers were attending Mass.

Cardinal Francis George

Cardinal Francis George

A “backward and bigoted” Catholic Cardinal is being urged to resign after he drew a parallel between gays and the Ku Klux Clan.

Foolish Francis George, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, made the idiotic comparison when he voiced his objection to the timing of the city’s gay pride parade.

Organisers of the parade changed next year’s start-up time from noon to 10 am, meaning it would go past one of the city’s oldest Catholic churches when worshippers were attending Mass.

This did not please leaders of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, or the cardinal who said in a TV interview:

You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.

Parade organizers agreed to move the start time back to noon, but outrage over George’s comment lingers.

“Cardinal George has gone too far, and he should graciously apologize, and step down from his post,” wrote Tracy Baim, editor of Chicago LGBT newspaper Windy City Times, in an editorial posted online Friday. She called the KKK comparison “vile,” and she noted that the hate group demonstrated against the pride parade in its early years.

hoodies

The national LGBT group Truth Wins Out is circulating an online petition calling for George’s resignation and describing his statement as “backward and bigoted.” The pro-gay Catholic group Equally Blessed issued a statement saying:

In expressing fears that a joyful, celebratory gay pride parade could erupt into anti-Catholic violence, Cardinal Francis George has demeaned and demonized LGBT people in a manner unworthy of his office.

And Sharon Groves of the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program said his:

Horrific comparison of the LGBT movement to the Ku Klux Klan drives an unnecessary wedge between Catholics and the hierarchy.

• The Catholic Church, as the photograph above of hooded penitents in Spain shows, has far more in common with the Ku Klux Klan than the LGBT community.