The San Diego Minutemen have chosen to target St. Peter’s Church in Fallbrook, California, and some of the protests have been accompanied by anti-Catholic bigotry. Catholic League president Bill Donohue explained today why the league is joining the issue on the side of the church:
“Father Edward ‘Bud’ Kaicher, pastor of the suburban San Diego parish, has extended a helping hand to day workers seeking employment in the area, and for this he has been displayed in effigy as Satan. Worse, the right-wing brigade of Minutemen has harassed Catholics going to church, used bullhorns to spout their invective, have uttered patently anti-Catholic remarks at parishioners and have even stooped so low as to intimidate little kids on the day of their First Communion.
“Showing how incredibly debased and uncivil they are, the San Diego Minutemen have sought to paint all priests as pedophiles and have pledged to continue their incivility all summer long. To top it off, the xenophobes are illiterate. ‘With all the pediphelia [sic] problems going on in the church,’ a posting on its Internet site says, ‘it makes no sense to have 50 loitering men watching little children playing on the playground each morning.’
“There are legitimate ways to protest. This is not one of them. By succumbing to anti-Catholic bigotry and harassment, the San Diego Minutemen have discredited their cause and have no moral grounds upon which to make their appeal. They should be opposed not only by Latino Catholics, but by all Catholics.”
