What a drama queen.

Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago’s Catholic Church compared the gay rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan when the route and timing of the city’s gay pride parade seemed it might interfere with the 10 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, NBC Chicago reports.

When the pastor’s request for a consideration of a change of timing of the parade wasn’t responded to right away George compared the organizers to other groups “who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church.”

“One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate,” he said in the NBC report.

He also said he was “grateful” that the organizers had made the time change, and that they “invited” analogies like the KKK comparison.

We think the Cardinal may be living in a long-gone America where Catholics were off the grid instead of very much in the mix. NBC’s Edward McClellan offers an interesting historical explanation of the Cardinal’s analogy, a worthwhile read. Anthony Martinez of the Civil Rights Agenda thinks “He’s not taking responsibility for his bombastic language,” and that he’s “completely disassociated with the laypeople of the Catholic church.” Click the NBC link above for the Cardinal’s full statement and see what you think.