I was greatly disturbed by the US Supreme Court 8-1 decision defending the right of free speech on the part of some members of a Baptist church in Kansas to picket the funerals of solders, Catholic priests, and others. This particular church practices intolerance at its very worst.
This Supreme Court decision became local since this very group announced that they were going to picket the funeral of Father Ed Hinds who was brutally murdered over a year ago. They hate and hate and hate. They hate the Catholic Church. They hate soldiers. They believe that all priests abuse children.
The decison reminded me that, several days before Father Hind's funeral, some of our youth wanted to stage a counter-protest against this group. They were highly offended by what this group was doing in the name of religion. They also wanted to be certain that there was no disrespect shown to the memory of Father Hinds. They were dissuaded from doing so because no one wanted any type of further conflict during the funeral. But God love them for caring. It should be noted that law enforcement did a masterful job in preparing for these demonstrators. At the last minute, they announced that they were not going to come. (Perhaps they did not want to face our youth, a formidable and wonderful group of human beings!)
Priests are rather easy targets. A priest is accused. Even if we try very hard, you can never really restore the reputation of priests who are accused and not guilty. Sadly, the vast majority of priests accused were guilty of awful things. But there clearly are some who were not guilty. A very prominent church leader claimed within the past week or two that the majority of recent accusations against priests are not true. I would love to see the research and data behind his statement. I have not seen any research proving it. What I do know is that the actual cases of abuse have dramatically slowed down in recent years. The cases we deal with today come from horrible things that happened many years ago.
Coming back to my main point, this group of "religious" people represent the worst in religion. Our youth recognized this - and in many ways represent the best in religion.
The Supreme Court declared that what this group of horrible people do is protected free speech despite all of the pain that they cause. From a human and pastoral point of view, I wish the Supreme Court had ruled the other way. However, this decision reminds me of the constitutional freedom of people to say things that we may viscerally oppose. Freedom of speech won this particular argument. But the goodness of people in reaching out with compassion to the families of those who died wins the day everyday.
