PROTESTS AFTER PASTOR BURNS HOMOSEXUAL ADVOCACY FLAG BELONGING TO HIS PARISH

A protest was held after a Priest on the city's North Side burned an  LGBTQ flag outside his Avondale church last week, against the wishes of Cardinal Blase Cupich.

The Reverend Paul Kalchik burned the flag, which features a rainbow with a cross over it, along with seven parishioners during a "prayer of exorcism" at Resurrection Catholic Church last Friday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

He has been at Resurrection since 2007. Before he took over at Resurrection, the flag hung inside the church. The Priest announced his plans on the church bulletin.

The Priest told the newspaper he burned the flag because he did not "sit well" with Cupich who he said is trying to minimize the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal. Kalchick said he was sexually abused as a child and again at 19 by a Priest, the Sun-Times said.

“What have we done wrong other than destroy a piece of propaganda that was used to put out a message other than what the Church is about?” he told the Sun-Times.

Alderman Deb Mell, 33rd Ward, who is openly gay, called for a peaceful protest to show that hate has no home in the area. 

The Archdiocese said it was unaware of the flag-burning, but is following up. In a statement they said, “As Catholics, we affirm the dignity of all persons."

Some people were shocked by Kalchik's actions.

As Pastor of his parish church, Father Kalchik is the sole administrator of the temporal goods entrusted to his care.  He has stated that the flag was the property of the parish which had bought it and erected it under the administration of Cardinal Bernardin.  As such, Father Kalchik is within his canonical rights to with the flag what he thought appropriate, notwithstanding the pronounced wishes of Cardinal Cupich.

While the flag in question could have been destroyed in a less public gesture, given Father Kalchik’s experience as I survivor of Priestly homosexual predation, I am inclined to understand his emotions and motives in removing what he has termed “propaganda” in opposition to Church teaching.

As a Canon Lawyer, I would advise Cardinal Cupich to let the matter stand and not take any additional administrative, or God forbid, punitive actions against Father Kalchik.