“It was very insensitive,” he said of the cardinal’s message to him.
Kalchik has been under psychological care for PTSD and depression since he was sexually assaulted at the age of 11 by a neighbor and then again at the age of 19 by a priest.
Thirdly, the cardinal thinks you should get a psychological evaluation.'”įr. Second, you have put in a transfer request to move closer to your parents and that will not happen if you do this. First, you are not to burn the flag and if you do you should know there are canonical penalties for disobeying the cardinal. “They said, ‘the cardinal wants you to know three things. Jeremy Thomas, who told me the cardinal had a message for me,” Kalchick told PJM. Kalchik received a phone call from the Vicar for Priests Office, which is the disciplinary arm of the archdiocese. After announcing his intention to burn the flag, Fr. While the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is notoriously slow to punish priests engaged in improper sexual behavior, the Chicago Archdiocese acted with urgency to cancel Fr. Bernardin started AGLO (Archdiocese Gay and Lesbian Outreach) to provide mass for gay Catholics who reject Catholic teaching on sexuality. At the time of that mass in 1991, Bernardin was at the forefront of the LGBTQ activism that is currently warring for the soul of the Church. Photographs were found of the rainbow flag intertwined with a cross hanging over mass that was being said by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who was standing next to Easter candles with rainbows on them at Resurrection Parish. Since the Pennsylvania grand jury report came out detailing the abuse of mostly teen boys by priests, there is a growing concern by laity that unchecked homosexual predation is the main problem and cause of the crisis in the Church. Photograph of Cardinal Bernardin presiding over Mass in 1991 at Resurrection Parish under rainbow flag (Credit: Father Kalchik)