Priest's Plan to Torch Pride Flag Quenched by Archdiocese

LGBTS newspaper the Windy City Times published a report on a Catholic priest who announced his intention to incinerate a gay pride flag that had been found in his church. The publication was alerted to the planned flag burning through an anonymous email.

The priest in question, Paul Kalchik of Chicago's Resurrection Church, had mentioned plans for the flag's fiery destruction "in a post-script to his re-printed homily message," the article said. Once the Archdiocese of Chicago learned of Kalchik's plans, they informed him that the con-flag-ration would not be permitted to proceed.

Kalchik had also slammed social justice and environmental efforts as "distractions" from what he characterized as the church's true work on Earth: The conversion of non-believers to the dogmas of the Orthodox Roman Catholic Church.

"We cannot let the current troubles keep us from our mission to go make more disciples for the Lord," Kalchik wrote in comments that were also published at the right-wing Church Militant website, "nor should modern day distractions like global warming, LGBT 'rights' or even immigration issues ever take precedence over that mission."

The post, unlike the sentiments expressed, was not viral.

Chris Pett, the president of LGBTQ-inclusive Catholic organization DignityUSA, denounced Kalchik's messaging. "It appears that this pastor was hijacking the parish to promote an extreme, ultra-conservative agenda promoted by the Church Militant group which is not officially recognized by the Church and is rejected by most Catholics," Pett said.

Though the "current troubles" Kalchik referenced were not clear from media reports, the Catholic Church has struggled in recent months with a fresh wave of scandals proceeding from new revelations about predator priests and a culture within the church that shielded them.

Scholar Christopher Stroop, who writes about politics and religion among other topics, tweeted out a message about Kalchik's flag-burning fiasco, noting, "...this is tellings [sic], as the church is trying to shift the blame for abuse [of children] to homosexuality."

A Catholic priest in Chicago planned to burn a Rainbow flag. The archdiocese stopped it, but this is telling, as the church is trying to shift the blame for abuse to homosexuality. Nice expos�, Carrie Maxwell and @WindyCityTimes!https://t.co/WxI4w2wZ1K#EmptyThePews #LGBTQ- Christopher Stroop (@C_Stroop) September 12, 2018

New Ways Ministry posted the addendum in question:

PS: On Saturday, September 29, the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, we will burn, in front of church, the rainbow flag that was unfortunately hanging in our sanctuary during the ceremonial first Mass as Resurrection parish. We will also burn our pledge cards and prayerfully sing Psalm 141 "Let my prayer arise before you like incense, my hands like an evening offering."

In a footnote to the homily to which that announcement was a post-script, Kalchik also claimed that the "US Church homosexual scandal is a sequel to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah," an Old Testament account in which God destroys two mythical cities after his angels encounter inhospitable residents. The story has often been presented as a parable that posits God's wrath when gays are allowed to go about their lives peacefully.