The Los Angeles Dodgers have run afoul of some of the biggest names in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy with their decision to honor a troupe of drag queens who dress up as nuns and mock Christian rituals.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, and Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles denounced the team for supporting “blasphemy” and called on the faithful to pray on Friday, the day the team plans to recognize the drag queen troupe, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
“This year, on June 16 — the day of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — a professional baseball team has shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, His Mother, and consecrated women cannot be overstated,” the bishops’ invitation to prayer said Monday on the USCCB website.
“This is not just offensive and painful to Christians everywhere; it is blasphemy,” the bishops said.
The Dodgers invited, then disinvited, then reinvited the drag group’s Los Angeles chapter to receive the team’s Community Service Award on Pride Night after being caught in a squeeze between Catholic leaders and LGBTQ advocates.
The team also apologized to the group and praised “the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades.” A self-described “order of queer and trans nuns,” the SPI does fundraising for LGBTQ and AIDS-related causes, but also engages in mockery involving Christian images and sacraments.
Members adopt sexualized names like Sister Missionary Position and host an annual “Hunky Jesus” and “Foxy Mary” contest at Easter. The group has held a “Condom Savior Mass” and served “holy communion wafers and tequila,” according to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
A viral video shows a man dressed in skimpy women’s clothing doing a pole dance around a man representing Jesus on the cross at a festival.
Catholics Invited to Pray an Act of Reparation on Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Read the full press release at: https://t.co/bEbS6uQhFQ pic.twitter.com/IRCx3FFFiT
— U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) June 12, 2023
CatholicVote and the Catholic League are both airing ads in the Los Angeles market urging fans to boycott the June 16 game. Still, Monday’s invitation to prayer represents the strongest statement against the team’s decision by the church’s U.S. leadership.
The bishops called on Catholics to “pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and make an act of reparation — an act offered to the Lord with the intention of repairing the spiritual damage inflicted by sin.”
“It has been heartening to see so many faithful Catholics and others of good will stand up to say that what this group does is wrong, and it is wrong to honor them,” the statement said. “We call on Catholics to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart on June 16, offering this prayer as an act of reparation for the blasphemies against our Lord we see in our culture today.”
Other Catholic religious leaders criticizing the team include Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who tweeted last month that “we now know what gods the Dodger admin worships.”
Last week, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles called for parishes to pray Friday the Litany of the Sacred Heart and to include special petitions in the Prayer of the Faithful at daily and Sunday masses.
“The forthcoming Dodgers event honoring a group that mocks women religious, and worse, desecrates the Cross, profanes the Eucharist, and disrupts Holy Mass has caused disappointment, dismay, and pain in our Catholic community, as well as among our fellow Christians and people of good will,” an archdiocese statement read.
“The Archdiocese of Los Angeles stands for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which means we stand against any form of bigotry, hate, or sacrilege,” the archdiocese said.
Catholic for Catholics and other groups are sponsoring a “prayerful procession at Dodger Stadium” on Friday.
Several Major League Baseball players have criticized the team’s decision to honor the group, including Dodgers star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who helped spearhead the return next month of Christian Faith and Family Night.
The SPI’s Los Angeles chapter said last month it was “proud to accept the Community Hero Award for our twenty-seven years of service to the LGBTQIA2S community.”
“In the future, if similar pressures from outside our community arise, our two organizations will consult and assist each other in responding, alongside our colleagues at the Los Angeles LGBT Center and others from the LGBTQIA2S community, now more closely tied with the LA Dodgers than ever before,” the SPI statement said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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