Francis Cardinal George is the Archbishop of Chicago soon to retire as he turns 75 in the new year. He is a very public man in the twilight of his position as archbishop. Recently in a local television interview during a time of negotiating the route of Chicago's annual Gay Pride event Prince Francis loudly rang the bell of hatred and discrimination and compared the organizers and by extension the larger gay community to the KKK. This was said because the coming Gay Pride Parade in the Windy City was scheduled to pass by one of the parishes of the Chicago Archdiocese during a time in the late morning when Sunday masses were being held in the parish church. The pastor of the church was irate and in the midst of a hissy fit threatened to cancel some or all of the Sunday masses on the appointed day. That was the Cardinal's cue to add his voice to the hateful noise over the plans for the parade. Needless to say Cardinal George's comments caused consternation, hurt, pain and harm to many people and were widely played up in both the local and national press. George's comments likening gay people to the KKK were seized upon by the blogosphere as well and everyone was off to the races. The proverbial bell was rung and everyone was unhappy and everyone let everyone else know that they were unhappy. War raged and people hated people. Petitions calling for him to resign were circulated on the internet. I signed one. A perfect storm of protest was brewing. Cardinal George who admits he has gay people in his biological family was more than a little surprised and stunned at the hornets buzzing around his head and aiming to do damage to him in the final year before his mandatory retirement as archbishop.

George, to his credit, has finally issued an apology for comparing gay people to the group that historically hated people of color and who were responsible for hundreds of lynchings and other deeds of violence to people of color in the United States during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. I doubt that he understood that what he was doing in his television interview was tying gay people to one of the two most horrific issues of our national past, slavery. He did not realize that he was demonizing a group of people who gave no cause for this unchristian demonization. The bell was loudly rung but the apology came much more quietly on a Friday afternoon much like the news dumps that the White House sends out just before a weekend in the hope that it won't be seen by many. I fear it did little to assuage the hurt and the pain suffered by the people victimized by his most unchristian fit of temper. You can read his apology here. I would bet dollars to donuts that his apology will not garner nearly the attention that his ill-tempered tirade did. Cardinal George should insist on giving as much publicity to his change of heart and his apology as he did to the original rant. To his credit the apology was not conditional and he didn't apologize 'if anyone was offended' as so many other public figures have done in similar circumstances. He should make a public admission of sin and should sit on the front steps of Holy Name Cathedral in sack cloth and ashes on a coming Sunday and pray for the forgiveness of those he has harmed. The bell he rang can not be un-rung but his apology should at least be as loud as his tirade.