Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has removed a priest from his parish for publicly burning an LGBT rainbow flag.

Cardinal Cupich, who was recently denounced by the former papal nuncio to the United States as being “blinded by his pro-gay ideology,” has deposed the Rev. Paul Kalchik from his role as pastor of Avondale’s Resurrection Catholic Church.

“For some weeks now, I have become increasingly concerned about a number of issues at Resurrection Parish,” read a statement Friday by Cupich posted on the website of the Chicago archdiocese. “It has become clear to me that Fr. Kalchik must take time away from the parish to receive pastoral support so his needs can be assessed.”

Cupich said he had appointed Monsignor James Kaczorowski, pastor of Queen of Angels parish, as administrator of Resurrection Parish “effective immediately.”

“I do not take this step lightly,” Cupich wrote. “Rather, I act out of concern for Fr. Kalchik’s welfare and that of the people of Resurrection Parish. I have a responsibility to be supportive of our priests when they have difficulties, but I also have a duty to ensure that those who serve our faithful are fully able to minister to them in the way the Church expects.”

Representatives of the LGBT community have praised the move by Cupich to suspend the priest.

“Having him remain in a leadership position would be an affront to the LGBT community,” said Al Grippe, 40, a member of the Northwest Side Coalition Against Racism and Hate. “It was a clear act of hate, and he was rightfully removed.”

Father Kalchik was reportedly the victim of sexual abuse himself, having been abused by a neighbor as a boy of 11 and later assaulted by a gay priest when he was 19 years old, but insists that he does not hate gays.

Kalchik, who was pastor of the Resurrection Catholic Church since 2007, said that the Bible is clear that homosexuality is wrong and noted that he opposes the cardinal’s attempts to downplay the sex abuse scandals still ripping through the Catholic Church.

The priest wrote a letter to Pope Francis in late August to recount the abuse he had suffered as well as to denounce “predatory gay sex abusers” in the Church and “a gay mafia running through its ranks.”

Kalchik’s letter followed upon the release of an 11-page report by a former Vatican nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in which the prelate criticizes the way Pope Francis handled knowledge of the serial homosexual abuse by U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

In his report, Viganò also connected the abuse crisis as well as cover-ups by bishops to an extensive “homosexual network” in the Church.

“These homosexual networks, which are now widespread in many dioceses, seminaries, religious orders, etc., act under the concealment of secrecy and lies,” he stated, “and strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations, and are strangling the entire Church.”

Viganò claimed that former Vatican Secretary of States Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone had insistently presented “candidates known to be active homosexuals” to be ordained as bishops and withheld compromising information on candidates from then-Pope Benedict XVI.

The former nuncio also said that two important Francis appointees, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, “belong to the homosexual current in favor of subverting Catholic doctrine on homosexuality.”

Regarding Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, Viganò stated that he had risen to prominence thanks to the advocacy of Cardinal McCarrick, and has also favored the gay network.

“Regarding Cupich, one cannot fail to note his ostentatious arrogance, and the insolence with which he denies the evidence that is now obvious to all: that 80% of the abuses found were committed against young adults by homosexuals who were in a relationship of authority over their victims,” Viganò said.

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