Prominent Cardinal defends Chick-fil-A

A little late on this one, but certainly of interest: Cardinal Roger Mahony remarks on the Chicken Inquisition (ht: California Catholic Daily):

The latest visible and glaring example of people in government punishing people for holding differing beliefs from government leaders focuses on a chicken sandwich. 

Chick-fil-A is a national restaurant chain which specializes in chicken sandwiches, other chicken foods, as well as various sides, drinks, and desserts. 

Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy has consistently backed “the biblical definition of a family,” and his foundation has contributed to groups working to maintain the traditional definition of a marriage–one man and one woman.  He later added, “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage’.”

Sounds to me like speech from a son of God and speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution. …

But there is more to the issue than political beliefs.  These are deeply held faith beliefs, and those beliefs have various values underpinning them. 

Regarding marriage, the question is rather simple:  Is marriage of God’s origin?  Or, is marriage of government origin?  We Catholics and many others of similar belief shout loudly that marriage is of God’s origin, and we will never stop our efforts to maintain that understanding and practice of marriage in our broader society.

All Catholics, but especially Catholic business leaders, should be in the forefront of efforts to protect all religious liberties and freedoms across our nation.  Because as we have just seen, lots of folks out there are eager to punish us for clinging to and expressing our faith beliefs, values, and practices.  If government can “punish” a store owner for his faith beliefs and threaten to close his store because of those beliefs, then we are all in big trouble.

We as Catholics need to stand tall, know our faith beliefs, and proclaim those to the whole world in the name of Jesus Christ!

Read his entire blog post.