{"id":217140,"date":"2019-06-02T22:27:08","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T02:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=217140"},"modified":"2019-06-02T22:27:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T02:27:08","slug":"bishop-faces-backlash-after-tweet-about-pride-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/02\/bishop-faces-backlash-after-tweet-about-pride-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop faces backlash after tweet about Pride Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ \u201cPride Month\u201d events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bishop Thomas Tobin (@ThomasJTobin1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThomasJTobin1\/status\/1134784500372770817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nPROVIDENCE, R.I. &#8212; Rhode Island&#8217;s Roman Catholic bishop on Sunday defended a tweet urging Catholics to not support or attend LGBTQ Pride Month events, saying it was his obligation to teach the faith \u201cclearly and compassionately, even on very difficult and sensitive issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Diocese of Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin sparked a backlash beginning Saturday when he tweeted, \u201cA reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ &#8216;Pride Month&#8217; events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The posting spurred rebukes by thousands of people who replied on\u00a0Twitter, including actresses Mia Farrow and Patricia Arquette. Many invoked the scandals of clergy sexual abuse of children in the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is pure ignorance &amp; bigotry,\u201d Farrow wrote. \u201cIgnore this hate-filled hypocrite. His mind set leads only to suffering. He brings to mind those priests who molested my brothers. Of COURSE we should embrace our LGBTQ brothers and sisters and children. Jesus spoke of love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arquette tweeted, \u201cShame on you. LGBT kids are thrown out on the streets and abandoned because of poisonous thinking like yours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The diocese on Sunday released a statement by Tobin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially the gay community,\u201d Tobin said. \u201cThat certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offence. I also acknowledge and appreciate the widespread support I have received on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tobin added that he and the Catholic Church have \u201crespect and love for members of the gay community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a Catholic Bishop, however, my obligation before God is to lead the faithful entrusted to my care and to teach the faith, clearly and compassionately, even on very difficult and sensitive issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>As of Sunday afternoon, 69,000 people had replied to the tweet, about 15,800 liked it and nearly 4,700 retweeted it. Many of those who replied supported the bishop.<\/p>\n<p>The LGBTQ group Rhode Island Pride held a rally outside the diocese&#8217;s headquarters in Providence on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJesus never said a word about homosexuality, about Pride, or the Queer community,\u201d the group&#8217;s president, Joe Lazzerini, said in a statement. \u201cRhode Island Pride respectfully calls on Bishop Tobin to do some self-reflection as the majority of Catholic Rhode Islanders in this state reject the idea that to be Catholic is to be complicit to intolerance, bigotry, and fear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBishop Tobin doesn&#8217;t represent the majority of Rhode Island Catholics who support the LGBTQIA+ community in Rhode Island,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Tobin is a conservative bishop who has said that he was aware of incidents of sexual abuse reported to church officials while working in Pennsylvania, but that it wasn&#8217;t his job to deal with them. He was auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh from 1992 until 1996. A Pennsylvania grand jury report last year detailed decades of abuse and coverup in six dioceses, including the Pittsburgh diocese.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2018, Tobin deleted his\u00a0Twitter\u00a0account, calling it a major distraction, an obstacle to his spiritual life and an \u201coccasion of sin\u201d for himself and others. But he resumed tweeting in January, according to his current\u00a0Twitter\u00a0account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ \u201cPride Month\u201d events held in June. They promote a culture &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":217144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217145,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217140\/revisions\/217145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}