Supremes Okay with Calling Hateful Actions Hateful

Cardinal William Levada shows off his jewelry

Gotta love them Catholics.

Why take your problems to God when you can spend millions in legal fees taking them to the Supreme Court?

Back in 2006, Cardinal William Levada, then the archbishop of San Francisco, issued a decree banning Catholic Charities from placing children with gays or lesbians. Doing so, said Levada, “would actually mean doing violence to these children.” (Kind of like sheltering pedophiles in your midst–oops, did I say that out loud?)

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, nor surprisingly, passed a resolution condemning the decree as “hateful and discriminatory.” Instead of offering the rebuff up for the poor souls in Purgatory, the archdiocese stopped placing children with any families. That will show them!

Naturally, a group led by Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights–and you know who those civil rights don’t include–went to court, complaining that San Francisco supervisors don’t like them.

Actually, the suit claimed the supervisors violated the constitutional requirement of government neutrality toward religion, but we can’t imagine there would have been a lawsuit if the board had passed a resolution declaring Levada to be a candidate for sainthood.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court took one look at the suit and passed on it. Apparently, it’s okay to call the kettle black after all, even if you are in government. As for Levada, he got a promotion along the way. He now heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s theological purity league.