DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) – The pastor of a Roman Catholic church in suburban Detroit is apologizing after a fellow priest likened Black Lives Matter to the people responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
The Rev. Paul Graney’s homily Saturday created “division, anger, confusion and chaos,” the Rev. Bob McCabe of the Church of the Divine Child in Dearborn said on Facebook.
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“As your pastor, I want to assure you that at Divine Child we love and respect all persons. Every person is sacred in the eyes of God regardless of their race, religion or sexuality,” McCabe said.
Graney used his homily to rail against BLM, which is a global movement whose goal is to eradicate systemic racism and white supremacy and to oppose violence against Blacks.
Graney said it’s “very good” that BLM’s website says it works for justice for Blacks, but that’s where his praise ended.
“Al-Qaeda’s goal was to come to the United States and kill Americans. Really just wanted to wipe America off the map. And they would have done it if they could,” said Graney, who has been a priest since 2016.
“But today, those who we see wanting to bring down America are Americans, and they want to do it under the facade of justice, freedom and love,” the priest said. “But it is all a big bunch of baloney. It’s anti-Christian. It’s anti-family. It’s evil.”
McCabe said Graney didn’t preach about the theme of the day’s Gospel, which centered on forgiveness.