Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Father Brian Sistare: A Bully In The Pulpit

Father Brian Sistare, a Catholic priest at Sacred Heart in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, is apparently emailing his state legislator’s — just the ones who voted for marriage equality —threatening to use his pulpit as a church leader to get them unelected.

Apparently the not-so-good father is unaware that, as a non-profit entity, his church, and others, are legally, legally, forbidden from engaging in political activity.

But, he says, in his email: “I’m praying for each of you, that you turn back to God. I’m also going to let my Parish know exactly how you voted, so come re-election time, you will not be re-elected.”

Using God as a weapon; how so very Catholic of Sistare.

His email was sent to the 26 state senators who voted for marriage equality and was signed by Sistare, though he has not commented further.

Sistare is also said to have told married, legally married, I remind you, gay parishioners that he would not serve them communion unless they ended their marriages.

Here is the full email sent to Rhode Island senators:
Dear RI Senators who voted for “marriage” between members of the same sex,
       Yesterday was a very sad day for our little state of Rhode Island.  I’m still shocked that each of you took it upon yourself to take the place of God and redefine what He has established.  Marriage has always been understood as the union between one man and one woman.  This is a 5,000 year old fact!  I’m wondering what you will do when a mother comes to you and asks to be married to her son, or a cousin wants to marry her first cousin, or when a man wants to marry 2 or 3 women, or a human being wants to marry his animal?  What will you do, now that you have decided that Marriage is no longer a sacred union between one man and one woman?
        For those of you Senators who are baptized Catholics, I invite you to go to the Sacrament of Confession to receive God’s Mercy and Forgiveness for your grave sin of voting against God yesterday, so you’ll be able to receive Holy Communion again in the Catholic Church.
        For those of you who claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, I also invite you to repentance in your own faith tradition; and to those who claim no religious affiliation, I pray that you also see the error of your ways.
        Your decision yesterday will have a lot of consequences on those of us who hold God’s definition of Marriage between one man and one woman.  Already my Pastor from my hometown of Westerly is being accused by a confirmed lesbian, of violating the tax exempt status of the Catholic Church for telling his parishioners to contact Senator Algiere about his upcoming vote – unfortunately, Senator Algiere, you betrayed your own Catholic Faith and your constituents in voting for sodomy yesterday.  Also, my little niece Giana was coming out of school the other day when her fellow 4 year old classmate remarked to her that 2 women could marry.  Thankfully, my niece told the little boy the TRUTH that this isn’t the case, that Marriage is only between one man and one woman.
        I’m praying for each of you, that you turn back to God.  I’m also going to let my Parish know exactly how you voted, so come re-election time, you will not be re-elected.
Fr. Sistare
St. Rocco Church
Johnston, RI
I pray that God gets a copy of the email and forwards her answer to Sistare that she is all about love, and she is not too keen on this bully using his pulpit to threaten either a state senator who voted for equality, or a gay couple in his congregation.

I don’t think God would look favorably on Sistare.

I would also like to see those Rhode Island senators enact legislation to begin taxing the Catholic Church since they are obviously now a full-fledged political organization.


And God isn’t happy about that either.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:39 AM

    What an asshat.

    I would love for RI and other states start taxing churches. The Rock Church where I live donated over $25k to get Prop 8 passed. That was their wakeup call.

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  2. asshat! ALL churches need to be taxed, since they are now a political body, a corporation.

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  3. I wonder what the priest of St. Rocco'sthinks of his underling firing off this letter.

    If you do you background on Father Sistare, you'll find that in ADDITION to attending Tea Party meetings, he is also a bit of a zealot on everything that doesn't match his narrow definition of Catholicism. His Facebook page is hoot - the man hates everything except the blood soaked crucifiction of Christ.

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  4. Anonymous12:04 PM

    As a gay priest I am ashamed of his behavior and I feel very sorry for his parishoners. If they're smart they'll leave this church and go somewhere else. Gay adn lesbian families are very welcome at my church!

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  5. Some people have too much time on their hands...

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  6. I wonder if the 'good' father is against fellow priests abusing children? Does he write to their superiors demanding that they be defrocked? And why has a four year old been politicised about marriage? That sounds like child abuse to me.

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  7. This supports my stand: that organized religions foster and support bullying!

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  8. @Jim

    I completely agree with you!

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  9. Tax them like any other lobbying group. Charge them with hate speech, and discrimination. Sue these churches until they realize their true place in our country, saving the souls of their members, and only of their members.

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Say anything, but keep it civil .......