De Profundis

Out of the depths, indeed. I don't care what your point of view is on the substantive issues involved, neither of these "protests" should have happened. The Times covered both of them.

The story at this link involves some person called Robertson who chained himself to the cathedra during a Mass celebrated Cardinal Mahony last Sunday. Don't care what your problem is, Robertson. It's Holy Mass. Sure, protest away; knock yourself out. But chain yourself to something else somewhere else. Try the chancery office.

At the other end of the continent, these whack-jobs decided to demonstrate at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.

The 14 demonstrators from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., picketed Monday on a corner near the Old North Church, a Congregational parish founded in 1635, soon after Marblehead was settled. The followers of the Rev. Fred Phelps, who blame American tolerance of homosexuality for the Sept. 11 attacks and the resulting U.S. military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, have targeted Massachusetts for protests because it is the only state where same-sex marriage is legal.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a lawyer for the Kansas church, said Monday that the funeral demonstration was nothing personal against Piper, who was not gay.

"We are protesting the sins of this nation," Phelps-Roper said. "That doesn't exclude him."

Once again, I don't care what their cause was. Disrupting someone's funeral, anyone's funeral, puts them right at the bottom of the moral hierarchy of being. Try the Massachusetts Supreme Court folks.

The Times also mentions that the Boston Police Pipe Band was there:

On the corner of a narrow street lined with Colonial-era buildings, the Kansas contingent tried shouting its anti-homosexual message at mourners who overflowed from the church. But every time demonstrators spoke out, the 14-man Boston Police Department bagpipe band broke into thunderous sound.

Well done, Boston pipers.