God hates... madanthony?

I may not be the world's best Catholic - I've been known to call myself as a "cafeteria Catholic" - but I do try to get to mass most weekends, if I don't have anything that gets in the way. I worked until 4 today, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and a cookie the size of my head at The Evergreen (where everyone is hipper than you) and then headed to The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen for 5:00 mass.

When I turned the corner off Northern Parkway onto Charles Street, I noticed a TV truck parked on the lawn of the Cathedral. That's not totally unusual - it's the head of the Baltimore Diocese, so reporters will often broadcast from it when there is a story about the diocese or Catholics in general, like a new bishop or a church scandal. But I wasn't aware of any of those things. I then noticed a couple Baltimore City police cars, plus an unmarked car. And then I saw why - a group of protesters in front of the church, with another group of protesters on the other side. The ones in front of the church held a number of rather offensive pre-printed signs - God hates fags, we need more dead soldiers, and something about the Pope with a flaming pope-head. It was Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. Across from them on the other side of Charles was a group of gay-rights protesters, holding a large rainbow flag.

I tried to get a picture on my cell phone, but since I almost never use the camera feature on my cell, I couldn't get one in time as I drove by. I tried to get a picture from the other side, after I parked and while I was walking into church, but I was too far away- the protesters aren't visible in the pics I got. So much for a citizen journalist.

Evidently, along with gays, soldiers, and Canada, Phelps isn't big on Catholics. His Maryland protest is on his site (warning - offensive language, even by my standards). He'll be back at the Cathedral tomorrow, among other places. I briefly thought about going back to take pics, but I doubt I will - I have more important things to do than take pictures of nutjobs, like pet my cat and stock up on soda at Target.

Obviously, Phelps' "ideology" isn't worth debating - he's a nutjob, like Kim Jong-Il without a country or nuclear weapons. You know you are out there when at various times, the lefties at IndyMedia and the right-wing freepers from freerepublic.com are counterprotesting you. It was also a pretty strange experience driving past a group of gay-rights activists who are protesting the guy who is protesting against a Catholic church. So heck, maybe hate actually brings people together.