It's that time of year. People stop and reflect on what really matters, and apparently, when it comes to Suresh Dominic of Campaign Life Catholic, what really matters is removing the gay agenda from St. Michael's Hospital.

Though a pride flag has flown in St. Michael's emergency department for almost 10 years (since the merger with Wellesley), LifeSiteNews.com reported their recent discovery of the flag as a "revelation about the hospital".

"It is sad to see St. Michael's hospital promoting the homosexual agenda. In the past the same hospital has funded the Gay Pride parade. A Catholic institution should know well that promoting such a destructive lifestyle is against Christian charity."

And this latest injection of homophobic toxicity is Christian charity? Blasphemy.

Reading anything on LifeSiteNews.com should be done with caution and a giant boulder-sized grain of salt. I started to poke around some other articles, stopping as soon as I hit an article on abortion methods which included a partial birth abortion at 32 weeks. Clearly a sensationalist website, LifeSiteNews.com's recent call to have the flag removed from St. Mike's ER department is equally ludicrous. As are Suresh Dominic's statements on Santa handing out condoms, promoting "an ideology of casual sex on busy public streets".

Speaking with Sarah Baker, representative for St. Mike's, she informed me that the flag has been up in the ER department for a very long time. Indeed, the hospital has always taken a strong stand in support of the gay community, and the LifeSiteNews article acknowledges St. Mike's sponsorship of the Pride Parade and support for equality amongst its patients. Of course, it also reduced Pride Week to " ...a homosexual men's picnic at Toronto Island's nude beach, and a 'dyke striptease unlike any you've seen before,' amongst other similar events."

The concern over the flag seems to be that St. Mike's is "renouncing its Christian identity in the name of 'a greater common good'." But it seems to me, that if Christian Identity is no longer in line with the greater common good, then it has no place in our society - and frankly, shouldn't call itself Christian at all.

Toronto has some fantastic Christian/Catholic representatives who show tremendous support for our gay community, and for the value of equality, respect and tolerance in our society. Thankfully, the moral outrage of a few intolerant troublemakers has had absolutely no impact on St. Mike's commitment to supporting Toronto's gay community, and Sarah Baker advised that the flag will stay up just as it is, and will for a long time to come.

Photo by Tanja in the blogTO Flickr pool