The Rev. Paul Kalchik, a Catholic priest from Chicago, has something in common with Christine Blasey Ford. It’s because he also claims to be a victim of sexual assault. And for him the experience wasn’t just once, but twice.

He wanted to exorcise his pain through obliterating a symbol of “predatory behavior.” So Fr. Kalchik burned an LGBT flag.

Now the flag in question — and the Catholic priest — each have an interesting history. Fr. Kalchik says he was first abused as an 11-year-old by a neighbor, and then abused as a teenager by a local priest. However, unlike Christine Blasey Ford, Kalchik did name his clerical abuser, who died in the 1990’s. Today Kalchik maintains his church’s traditional teaching on homosexuality, and says the rainbow flag offends him as a victim.

As for the flag — it had actually been in storage at Chicago’s Resurrection Catholic Church for over a decade when Fr. Kalchik found it. It had been first displayed in the church in 1991, along with other rainbow vestments, but had since been stored. When Fr. Kalchik took over Resurrection in 2007, he destroyed the rainbow vestments and candles he had found, but missed the flag.

Credit: pjmedia.com. 

So Fr. Kalchik told Cardinal Blase Kupich of the Chicago Archdiocese of his intent to burn the newly-found flag. That didn’t sit well with Kupich, who told Kalchik that he “could not move forward with that planned activity.” Kupich, it appears, tends to be supportive of homosexuality, despite the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

But Fr. Kalchik burned it anyway, incinerating the banner in a portable fire pit.

The bulletin of Resurrection Catholic Church explains the reasons for the burning:

“The banner was burned because it had been used sacrilegiously. It hung, at the Mass of Consecration of Resurrection parish, over the depiction of Christ’s crucifixion, as a signal.” 

The bulletin also criticized the Catholic church in general for the priest scandals:

“The clandestine nature of the homosexual sex going on in the clergy allowed the intimidation of seminarians and rapes to be covered up.” 

Well, that didn’t matter to the LGBT community of Chicago. No amount of explanation of rape or victimhood would suffice.

A Chicago alderman, Deb Mell, even called for the Catholic priest to be ousted, saying that Fr. Kalchik committed a ‘hate crime.’

“I’m calling on Pope Francis and Cardinal Cupich to send this hateful bigot packing. If the church is serious about restoring trust with its parishioners and spreading a message of love and tolerance, this is a perfect opportunity. This is a hate crime — plain and simple. I’m asking the City and Federal government to treat it as one.”

Yeah, no, says a Chicago lawyers civil rights group:

“There isn’t an underlying crime that would make it a hate crime under Illinois law.”

However, Fr. Kalchik’s life is now topsy-turvy. Police have had to escort him home from his church office, and an intruder may have tried to break in. On top of that, the Archdiocese of Chicago has not given him any support. As far as they’re concerned, this Catholic priest is now persona non grata.

But hold on — doesn’t the current Christine Blasey Ford kerfuffle teach us that we should be sensitive to anyone who claims sexual assault? Aren’t we supposed to believe everything they claim, even if their memory is murky? After all, Fr. Kalchik identified his priest abuser. Doesn’t that count for something?

As the bulletin from Resurrection Catholic Church says:

“If you don’t like Fr. Paul for burning that banner, at least ask yourself what it represented for him as a victim.” 

But that kind of sensitivity, as we know, counts only for the right kind of victim. A traditional Catholic priest can go pound sand.

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