That’ll show us!

Yes, the Catholic bishop of Maine was pissed off that a nonprofit which exists to help the homeless of that state had the audacity to support the “No on 1″ campaign, so they pulled their funding:

PORTLAND – A social service agency’s support for same-sex marriage has cost it local and national funding from the Catholic Church’s anti-poverty program.

Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for Justice program has lost $17,400 this year and will lose $33,000 that it expected for its next fiscal year.

Officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and the Washington-based Catholic Campaign for Human Development say that Preble Street violated its grant agreement by supporting Maine’s “No on 1″ campaign last fall.

Ooh, big man! Taking a sh*t on the homeless to prop up your anti-gay bigotry is so brave.

Catholics for Marriage Equality has begun an effort to replace the lost funding by raising $17,400 for Homeless Voices for Justice. Anne Underwood, a co-founder of the group that advocates for same-sex marriage, said Bishop Richard Malone is punishing the homeless because of politics.

“This is petty vindictiveness,” she said. “After the election is over, suddenly the money is revoked from poor people because of a political opinion held by the bishop.”

Underwood said that many Catholics in Maine will now think twice before donating money to the church to help fight poverty. “People who are homeless should not be used in political games,” she said.

It’s becoming apparent that people should never donate money to the Catholic church for the sake of “helping” people, because the church is run by petty, vindictive little children who have no qualms about hurting people whose only “crime” is receiving aid from a group that doesn’t hate gay people.

Growing up Protestant, I never understood why the Catholic church was so intent on defining itself as “Catholic” rather than Christian. Perhaps it’s because the name of “Christ,” who lived for the poor and absolutely despised sanctimonious religious authorities, is so offensive to them that they’d rather not have to say it very much?

Joe Sudbay is from Maine, and provides some context:

I had three calls about this from my family before 9:00 a.m. Preble Street is an institution in Portland. It is one of the biggest and most important social service organizations in the city, which means the state, too.

Here’s the website for Preble Street. Portland is my hometown so I just donated and noted that my contribution was on behalf of their support for No on 1.

(…)

I grew up Catholic and I seem to recall that it was Jesus who said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.” But, the Catholic Bishops have decided those words don’t apply if anything gay is involved.

The reality is that these Catholic bishops don’t actually care about helping the poor, the “least of my brothers,” unless it contributes to expanding their own grandiosity, largesse, and most importantly, control over people’s lives. If you’re in the business of actually helping people and you receive money from the Catholic Church, you should probably go ahead and start looking for other, better, more humane and loving funding sources, because if you run afoul of the Catholic Church’s “morals” in any way, say, by loving people equally or by having true compassion for the downtrodden, you’re S.O.L.