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Anti-LGBT Archbishop Dolan Condemns Hate Crimes Against Hispanics On Staten Island

08/22/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Archbishop Timothy Dolan abhors hate and bias crimes so long as they are against Hispanics in his archdiocese, or so he told parishioners on Staten Island this Sunday. He was deeply saddened by a recent string of hate and bias crimes there all the while doing his part to ensure that hate crimes against lesbians, gays and transpeople continue as part of his religion’s intolerance against the LGBT Community.

He told worshipers at St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church in Port Richmond, “Our God is sad, our church is sad, and we are sad. But we should never lose hope. . .We will reclaim our streets. God lives in these streets. Fear, violence and hate do not live here.” He delivered his sermon in Spanish.

Dolan, Pope Benedict, and unfortunately, far too many Catholic clergy have often only weakly condemned violence against members of the LGBT Community, and certainly not toned down the rhetoric regarding homosexuality in order to allow members of that community to live their lives unmolested. The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is an abomination and that it can be ‘corrected’ even though all evidence points to those kinds of ‘corrections’ as being incredibly rare and usually not done by someone who is truly lesbian or gay.

According to Jaime Bolanos, though, who emigrated from Mexico at the age of eight “He gave me a lot of hope. Many people think we are alone. We are not.” Dolan gave his sermon just before prosecutors had to drop the hate crime charges against a teenage accuse of robbing a fifteen year old Mexican boy. The teen also used ethnic slurs. Yashua Plair, 17, had been charged with robbery and menacing.

There have been eleven bias crimes since April on Staten Island, most of them in Port Richmond. Police have increased patrols and placed mobile command centers in the neighborhood.

Dolan also lamented the challenge that the Church faces trying to influence young people. He said “We need to bring young people even closer so that they’re not tempted to get into these dangerous destructive habits.” Part of that challenge comes from the problems that the Church is facing over the sexual molestation of underage children world wide. Another part of it comes from the fact that the Church often condemns hatred for one group while condoning hatred for another.

All prejudice comes from the same mental and social space. It does not matter if the person is lesbian, gay, Hispanic, Black, Asian, Muslim, Catholic, Jewish. The hatred of the Other always takes the forefront of people’s minds, especially in hard economic times, and it is impossible to combat hatred for one group while condoning hatred for another group.

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