The Roman Catholic archbishop of Riga, Cardinal Janis Pujats, Latvia has issued a public letter asking his countrymen to take to the streets to oppose any attempt by gay and lesbian folks in the Baltic country to march. Riga Pride and Friendship Days is scheduled to start in less than four weeks. "If there are 1,000 sexually crazy people acting foolishly in the square of Pride, then the people's march in Riga should have at least 40,000 or 50,000," Pujats wrote. "That is a conflict situation. It would be better, therefore, if the provocative demonstration were to occur in a location that is closed and limited some way -- a garden or square. Security services will decide on this, but that is not a long-term solution." [UK Gay News] PinkNews reminds its readers what happened last year when gay pride organizers tried to hold a meeting in a "closed and limited way":
A group of around 50 activists instead held a service of tolerance at a local Anglican church. Hundreds of neo-Nazi skinheads, ultra-nationalists and members of the Orthodox church besieged the church, pelting the activists with excrement. It was reported that local police stood and watched as events unfolded and declined to intervene.
In his open letter, which was published by a Latvian newspaper, the Cardinal calls as a "total corruption in the sexual arena," and an "unnatural form of prostitution" and calls on the government to protect "the values of the traditional family against the licentiousness of homosexuals." Redmond's Pastor Ken Hutcherson met with Pujats and other religious and government leaders during a visit to Riga earlier this year.
One of Hutcherson's Latvia bigotry partners has an outburst [contd.]
This reminder -- again from PinkNews [#]:
Last month Christian groups in Latvia welcomed fundamentalist US preachers and to the country and talked tactics about opposing gay rights. A meeting organised by Janis Vanags, Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church, was attended by Cardinal Pujats and representatives of the Orthodox, Penecostals and other Christian groups. They were addressed by Kenneth Hutcherson, who runs a 'super-church' in Seattle and is a vehement opponent of gay rights.He told the Latvians that homosexuality was spreading rapidly, and that the "gay lobby" had increasing political influence across the world. "We need to do everything to ensure that even in the European Union it does not lose its principles. "It is a holy right of any nation to decide in what society to live," he told the assembled crowd, which included senior members of parliament.
US envoy to visit Poland's homophobes
Hutcherson claimed to be a special envoy of the White House during his visits to stoke up homophobia in Latvia. The White House later denied his claim. They'll have no such cover when a credentialed State Dept. official visits a convention of homophobes in Poland later this month.
The World Congress of Families is expected to draw more than 2,500 people from dozens of countries to Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science from Friday through Sunday. The chief organizer is a Rockford, Ill.-based conservative think tank, the Howard Center. Co-sponsors include more than 20 other U.S. groups allied in opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and other policies they blame for weakening traditional families in Western Europe. ... Scheduled speakers include a Vatican representative, Monsignor Grzegorz Kaszak of the Pontifical Polish Institute of Rome, and Ellen Sauerbrey, assistant U.S. secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. Questioning Sauerbrey's involvement, 19 European Parliament members said in an open letter that her attendance would signal approval for "extremist and intolerant views held by some participants.
"Hutcherson hasn't yet told his "Prayer Warriors" if he'll be attending, but a different Seattle group will be there.
Co-sponsors of the congress include the American Family Association, Concerned Women For America, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Heritage Foundation and the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which promotes the "intelligent design" concept of the universe's origins.