Find the hater

Photo: Find the hater (NSFW)

 BY ED MORRISSEY

Warning: Photo below may offend readers and is not safe for work 

I’ve had this photo from The Daily Caller up in my browser for days, ever since Vince Coglianese ran it, as it just keeps popping back into my mind.  The photo comes from a speaking appearance by Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard in Brussels, which Femen targeted for a protest against what it calls “hate” and homophobia in the Catholic Church.

I keep looking at this picture … and see hate, but not where Femen does:

A group of naked women bum-rushed Belgian Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard while he was speaking in Brussels and doused him with water from bottles shaped like the Virgin Mary on Tuesday.

The women were reportedly feminist protesters from the Ukranian-based FEMEN group, which is known for organizing topless protests against the Catholic Church and others.

According to AFP, the four protesters charged the archbishop during “a debate on blasphemy and freedom of expression held at the Brussels’ Free University (ULB) campus Tuesday evening, baring their breasts and squirting water at Archbishop Andre Leonard as they accused him of homophobia.”

Photos of the event show Leonard patiently sitting quietly with his eyes closed and hands folded in prayer as the women empty bottles of water on his head and clothes.

Normally, I wouldn’t post this picture, but there is no other way to tell this story.  One can disagree with the Catholic Church on same-sex marriage and the theology of sex on an intellectual and rhetorical level, and people can certainly protest those positions in a clear and unambiguous manner.  That’s not what is happening in this picture and others Vince has posted at The DC.  The angry, contorted faces of the protesters as they assault a man for speaking his mind — and who prays in response — provides a startling contrast, and a rather telling one about hatred.

Whether or not one agrees with Archbishop Leonard and the Church, his witness to the Christian response of love and prayer is powerful, and one I hope I can emulate when put to the test.

Update: Cardinal Timothy Dolan addressed the underlying issue earlier in the week:

So, for example, the Church loves, welcomes, and respects the alcoholic . . . but would not condone his binge;

The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a prominent business leader…but would not condone his or her failure to pay a just wage to a migrant worker;

The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a young couple in love . . . but would challenge their decision to “live together” before marriage;

The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman who has had an abortion, and the man who fathered the child and encouraged the abortion . . . but would be united with them in mourning and regretting that deadly choice;

The Church loves, welcomes, and respects a woman or man with a same-sex attraction . . .  while reminding him or her of our clear teaching that, while the condition of homosexuality is no sin at all, still, God’s teaching is clear that sexual acts are reserved for a man and woman united in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, loving bond of marriage.

The Church loves, welcomes, and respects wealthy people, while prophetically teaching the at-times-uncomfortable virtue of justice and charity towards the poor.

We are part of a Church where, yes, all are welcome, but, no, not a Church of anything goes.