Catholic Church Lobbied Against LGBT Suicide Hotline

The National Catholic Reporter reports:

When the U.S. Congress passed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act last fall to establish a toll-free number with assistance for those with mental health crises, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops quietly lobbied behind the scenes against the legislation.

The bishops’ justification? The legislation contained special funding for LGBTQ support.

“All persons must be protected from violence, but codifying the classifications ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ as contained in S. 47 is problematic,” the bishops wrote in a statement signed by the heads of four committees and one subcommittee.

Read the full article.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who signed the statement linked above, will be familiar to longtime JMG readers as the “father of Prop 8” – California’s successful 2008 public referendum to overturn same-sex marriage. Subsequent appearances on JMG came when he ordered Catholics not to masturbate, when he was arrested for drunk driving, and when prominent Catholics called on the Vatican to make him the successor to Pope Benedict. He last appeared on JMG when he performed an exorcism at the site of a civil rights protest. Before that we heard from him when he petitioned to DOJ to enforce obscenity statutes against porn sites.

The @USCCB has lobbied against funding a suicide hotline with LGBTQ support & the Violence Against Women Act

Their strategy opposes any legislation acknowledging the category of LGBTQ.

My look at what this means for the #EqualityAct & compromise bills:https://t.co/hK3YIm6ACh

— Christopher White (@cwwhite212) March 24, 2021