Gay, Feminist Protesters Will Confront Pope in S.F.

Gay and feminist leaders Wednesday launched a campaign to keep Pope John Paul II out of the city’s largely gay Castro District and to confront him with protests at each of his appearances here later this year.

The campaign started with the mailing of a letter to the Pope, blasting his visit to San Francisco as just “an attempt to ‘bait’ and provoke peaceful gay, lesbian and bisexual people.”

Activists said they are focusing on the Pope’s visit here--the eighth stop on a nine-city U.S. tour in September--because of his conservative attitude toward homosexuality and reproduction rights issues.

“The Pope has his right to his own incorrect views . . . but he does not have the right to come into San Francisco, or into the United States, to tell us how to live our lives,” said John E. Wahl, chairman of a social justice commission of the San Francisco Council of Churches.

Officials at the San Francisco Roman Catholic Archdiocese downplayed the matter, saying the Pope has no plans to visit the Castro area.

“The Pope is very interested in visiting an AIDS hospice and an AIDS patient--he told the bishops that himself,” said archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Burns. “But when that will happen hasn’t even been determined yet. It might not even happen here.”

She added that despite the protests, she believes there is still significant support in the Castro District for the pontiff’s visit. She said that her personal parish, which includes the district, recently took a straw vote on the issue, and only 16 of about 300 parishioners opposed the papal tour.

‘Miracle of Healing’

“We’re all hoping and praying that when the Pope finally comes, we will see a miracle of healing that will bring together this community rather than divide it further,” she said.

The controversy centers on the Vatican’s forthright condemnation of homosexual acts as sinful. Gays are particularly upset by a Vatican letter issued in October, which said, in part, “neither the church nor society at large should be surprised when . . . violent reactions increase” as the result of gay-rights legislation. Gays view this as an “implicit condonation” of physical attacks on homosexuals.

A subsequent pastoral letter on AIDS by the California Catholic Conference appeared to soften this view. “There were no conditions placed on Jesus’ expression of concern for the outcasts and the wounded of the world,” it said in part. “If we are to follow His example, our response to those who are ill should be that of compassion, not judgment.”

But a continued “hard line” by the Vatican against homosexuality and the use of contraception--particularly condoms, which are advocated as one way to check the spread of AIDS--has kept tensions high among gays and feminists.

Wahl said pickets will demonstrate near St. Mary’s Cathedral and Candlestick Park while the Pope speaks and celebrates Mass at those sites. In addition, he said, an all-night candlelight vigil will be held outside the church residence where the Pope will be staying.