Kenney to Nutter: You Should Stand Up For Gays When Pope Visits

[Updated September 24, 4 p.m., to include Mayor Nutter’s response.]

Democratic mayoral nominee Jim Kenney is calling on the City of Philadelphia to get LGBT Catholics some face time with Pope Francis when he visits the city next week. Why? Because Kenney thinks the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the World Meeting of Families are deliberately excluding gay Philadelphians — and it’s made him livid.

In an op-ed published yesterday in the Philadelphia Gay News (and later distributed to the press by Kenney’s mayoral campaign), the city’s likely next mayor writes that he is “furious” with the Church, and he strongly implies that Mayor Nutter should tell the Pope, in front of a public audience, that he opposes the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. Writes Kenney:

During his trip to Philadelphia, the pope will visit a prison, Independence Hall and the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, in addition to attending a number of private receptions. The city could certainly facilitate an opportunity at any one of those events, public or private, for LGBT Catholics to speak to the pope and make their case for inclusion.

Alternatively, the city could borrow a play from President Obama’s recent trip to Kenya, in which he condemned the government for their treatment of LGBT citizens during a press conference with the country’s leadership. Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter and the pope will no doubt have public or at least private face time. I urge the mayor to use that as an opportunity to make a stand on behalf of the LGBT Philadelphians who elected him.

What do Chaput and the World Meeting of Families make of Kenney’s remarks? They didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Nutter administration didn’t get back to us either.

But the mayor did tell the Inquirer through a spokesman that he already planned to raise some of these issues with the Pope. According to the Inquirer, the mayor hopes to say to Francis: “We encourage ending the systematic and institutionalized discrimination against LGBT people through the message of love, hope, and acceptance … For the many LGBT individuals who seek the Lord and have good will, we ask that you end judgment of these individuals by those within the church through teaching and pastoral practice currently in place.” Those were draft remarks.

So it’s clear Kenney didn’t check in with Nutter before sending around his press release. What’s making him angry enough to go after the church and, in a way, the mayor as well? Specifically, it was the news last month that St. John the Evangelist Church would not allow an array of LGBT Catholic organizations that had planned a conference at the facility at the same time as the World Meeting of Families events next week.

But there’s much more to it than that. Kenney’s entire education was in Catholic schools, and he wears his Jesuit values on his sleeve. And yet, like a lot of progressive Catholics, he is deeply distressed by Church teachings on homosexuality and the role of women in the Church. He’s also been fiercely critical of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia over its management of local matters, such as church and school closings. And he really seems to have some problems with Archbishop Charles Chaput, who is a leading church conservative (read more about Kenney’s relationship with the Catholic Church here).

Kenney last publicly went after the Church in July, when he used characteristically blunt language to condemn the firing of a gay teacher at Waldron Mercy Academy in Merion. Kenney was convinced the archdiocese was behind that firing (and, well, he has good reason to suspect that).

Since then, though, he’s been pretty quiet — which is interesting, given that the Pope is coming. You can’t blame him for not wanting to be associated too closely with the visit, given the potential logistical fiascoes that await and the beatings Mayor Nutter has taken in the press over preparations and communication. And it wouldn’t really do for a straight white Irish guy to assert himself as the leader of an LGBT movement.

Now, though, Kenney is plainly inserting himself into the conversation in a big way, and I don’t think this is his final public word on the subject. Long before he ever ran for mayor, Kenney was keenly interested in Pope Francis and what he could mean not just for the Catholic Church, but for Kenney’s own faith. In the op-ed, Kenney describes himself as a “lifelong Catholic,” and that’s not something Citified is qualified to judge. But it’s clear that Kenney has struggled mightily with his faith.

Pontifex Been away from my church for a bit. Lotsa reasons. You've been tugging me back. I like the vibe. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam! SJP!

— Jim Kenney (@JimFKenney) July 30, 2013

Watching CNN. Pope Francis is awesome! Freaking awesome! Makes me want to turn back to my church. I worry about him though.

— Jim Kenney (@JimFKenney) December 24, 2013

The point is that Francis’s visit matters on a personal level for Kenney. And Kenney knows just how big a deal it is for the city. He actually thinks it could be profoundly, lastingly, important, in a vague sort of way. When I interviewed Kenney after his victory in the primary election, he told me that the Pope’s visit had the potential to put the city on an entirely different trajectory. “I think there’s going to be a real breakthrough in September. Whatever he has to say here is going to resonate nationwide and worldwide,” he said. “And I think that Philadelphia being the focal point of that is going to be a real opportunity to look at our problems and address our problems in different ways than we’ve been doing it.”

And perhaps that will happen. But it’s clearly trying Kenney’s (already limited) patience to see the event’s organizers moving to exclude some of those Philadelphians that Kenney so badly wants Francis to unreservedly welcome.

It’s going to be very interesting to watch Kenney next week. He’s not yet been elected mayor, and he has no real official status. And yet, the world media will be in Philadelphia. Anything he might choose to say about the Catholic Church has the potential to be heard by an absolutely enormous audience. Like, tens of millions of people.

When CNN calls, will Kenney answer? I think so. And won’t it be interesting when the city’s presumptive next mayor publicly calls out — in his distinctive style — the Catholic church, even as Mayor Nutter plays host?

Right now, Kenney is only booked to appear at one religious event next week: an LGBT Family Papal Picnic, hosted by the same organizations kicked out of St. John the Evangelist Church. He’s not yet sure if he’s going to make it to any of the WMOF events, including Pope Francis’ public mass on the Parkway. It’s not a boycott, says his Kenney campaign spokesman Lauren Hitt, it’s a matter of logistics (join the club, Jim). “He’d want his parents to be able to come with him and they live in NJ so they’re trying to figure out those logistics,” Hitt wrote in an email. If he does go, Hitt said, it would be as a normal spectator, not as a dignitary in a VIP section.

Finally, it seems safe to say this op-ed won’t do much for Kenney’s relationship with Mayor Nutter. The two old buddies were once classmates at the very-Catholic St. Joe’s Prep. But things have gotten very complicated between them in recent years. It looked in the Spring as though there might be thaw in their relationship. Nutter took a big, damaging shot at Kenney’s chief rival in the primary, State Senator Anthony H. Williams. And Kenney has used much more conciliatory language when talking about Nutter really over the last year or so.

Now this. And right when a decent Kenney-Nutter relationship is most important, to ensure a smooth transition after the November election.

Read Kenney’s full op-ed is below:

A large national Catholic coalition will not be allowed to congregate in the parish they had long been promised during the World Meeting of Families happening in Philadelphia next week. It was not a logistical screw-up. The group of LGBT families was forced from that and all other Catholic parishes in the area because of whom they love.

As a lifelong Catholic, I am furious at my Church. But, for a moment, let’s temporarily disregard the argument about how fundamentally flawed the Catholic Church’s position on LGBT individuals is. That topic has been well written on by others. Instead, let’s discuss what cities like Philadelphia can do in the future to ensure that momentous events like a papal visit will not be stained by discrimination.

It is true that the city cannot demand that a parish admit LGBT families. However, the host city asserts significant sway over with whom the pope interacts. Extensive preparations, for example, are being made to ensure that homeless Philadelphians are not being displaced by the pope’s visit. Can arrangements not also be made to ensure LGBT individuals are not ostracized?

During his trip to Philadelphia, the pope will visit a prison, Independence Hall and the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, in addition to attending a number of private receptions. The city could certainly facilitate an opportunity at any one of those events, public or private, for LGBT Catholics to speak to the pope and make their case for inclusion.

Alternatively, the city could borrow a play from President Obama’s recent trip to Kenya, in which he condemned the government for their treatment of LGBT citizens during a press conference with the country’s leadership. Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter and the pope will no doubt have public or at least private face time. I urge the mayor to use that as an opportunity to make a stand on behalf of the LGBT Philadelphians who elected him.

It’s important to clarify that Philadelphia’s city government should be praised for attracting this once-in-a-lifetime event. Despite being the fifth-largest city in the country, Philadelphia has been too often relegated to second-tier status by national observers.

With the pope’s visit this month and the DNC Convention in 2016, that assumption is being challenged in no small part because of the efforts and achievements of the Nutter administration. However, as the mayor well knows, our principles do not need to be sacrificed for the limelight.

As the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, Philadelphia should send a signal that discrimination has no place in our borders. Being a good host doesn’t require being a doormat and, more importantly, being a good elected official means fighting for the rights of everyone you represent.