St. Pat’s Parade: homosexuality, yes – pro-life, no

I read a NewsMax entry that a pro-life group was denied a spot in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  HERE

Openly homosexual groups are welcome, but not pro-life groups.

I’m just sayin’

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29 Comments

  1. Norah says:

    Every body loves a parade and an excuse to be falling down drunk. Let the parade continue but remove from it anything Catholic i.e. the name of the parade and the visible approval of the archbishop/cardinal. Yes Catholics 0 and the rest 1 but isn’t that better than the appearance that Catholics are in favour of homosexual “rights”?

    This is what Catholic Culture has to say:
    http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=1050

  2. KateD says:

    I would hope, in his wisdom, Cardinal Timothy Dolan would turn away from participation in this exposition of carnal debauchery and would instead opt to lead the parishioners of his diocese in a parallel parade in honor of Saint Patrick, namely a Eucharistic procession….if only to return some reverence to this holy day which honors our beloved Saint Patrick. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, by being an officiant in the parade, which allows openly gay participation and denies Pro Life Catholics to openly participate, would send a message to the world which might be misconstrued as the Catholic Church condoning homosexual unions and abortion. Such actions embolden the enemies of the faith. It is deeply wounding to American Irish Catholics to have this mockery of our faith, culture and tradition occur.

  3. Juergensen says:

    “Good for him. I would have no sense of judgment on him. God bless ‘ya. I don’t think, look, the same Bible that tells us, that teaches us well about the virtues of chastity and the virtue of fidelity and marriage also tells us not to judge people. So I would say, ‘Bravo.'”

  4. Andrew D says:

    I hope Saint Patrick’s Day in New York will be cold, rainy and windy – as in too uncomfortable for people to come out and watch a parade that disgraces a beloved saint who converted a pagan nation. In the meanwhile, please pray and pray hard that Cardinal Dolan will wake up and stand up for Holy Mother Church and ALL of Her teachings. This one calls for some novenas.

  5. mpmaron says:

    I think Monsignor Pope is on to something. Catholics can start celebrating the feast day at Mass. If not now, the time is pretty well nigh when our gay friends make it quite clear that every parade needs to be a communal affirmation of their lifestyle.

    Bill Donohue was on EWTN last night. I was left thinking that the this year’s conflict will be resolved by the good Cardinal Dolan threatening to bail unless a Pro-Life group is included in the parade. My gut tells me this is a mistake. Pessimistically, I don’t think there is a good time to cut a deal with the sodomites. It’s a Never Win.

  6. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    Norah,

    A sensible commentary! While “the visible approval of the archbishop/cardinal” could easily be removed (were there the will), I suspect “the name of the parade” would not be so easy.

    The discussion of “St. Tammany” and “Saint Quaco” as well as Sts. Andrew, David, George, and Patrick in Charles W. Jones’s “Knickerbocker Santa Claus” may be worth noting in this context:

    http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/knickerbocker/

  7. LarryW2LJ says:

    Bill Donohue from the Catholic League pulled out of the parade for this very reason. He said that he was assured the Pro-Life faction would be allowed to have a banner (like the Gay group is being allowed), and then that promise was rescinded.

  8. JesusFreak84 says:

    *Headdesk* The CatholicCulture link is spot-on in its commentary. I do operate off of the assumption that blogs like this and sites like CC will eventually be blackhole’d by Google, legally and with full approval of western society and politicians.

  9. Prayerful says:

    It is almost funny that any Catholic pro-life organisation is effectively barred and silenced (not allowed a banner nor even allowed it appears) while people campaigning against Christian and Catholic social values is allowed march proudly, flaunting contempt for the Faith. Bill Donohue and the Catholic League were right to withdraw. The sad thing is that the Parade Committee is not likely to give a moment’s thought to their withdrawal, nor the good Cardinal. The sponsors are back, that’s what matters.

  10. Iacobus M says:

    Maybe the Catholics could have a separate parade, with less green beer and more emphasis on the Sanctity of the eponymous Saint, and led by their Archbishop . . . um . . . if he doesn’t have other commitments . . .

  11. Makemeaspark says:

    I must agree with Norah! Let them call it the “March March” or some such, but lets remove all sponsorship/affiliation from this abomination. Go ahead and ruin your lives people, slather yourselves in the self abuse if you prefer but don’t expect your fellow man to endorse your destruction.

    If we truly love our neighbor we don’t hand him the gun to commit suicide. These kids that are dabbling in homosexual activity because it is currently popular are going to find that this sin is going to be much harder to remove from their lives than tattoos are from your bodies. Like the unfortunate Pandora, they will find they can’t put all that crap back in the box.

    May God save the innocent and the guilty alike and show those of us who stand above the fray to find ways to heal their destroyed lives when they call out for redemption. Let us stand firm and press our lives closer to Christ so that we may be lights in the darkness.

  12. SKAY says:

    http://www.catholicleague.org/
    Their post about it.

    “The sponsors are back, that’s what matters.”
    Judas came to my mind for some reason

  13. LeeF says:

    The parade has become a public event just as offensive to the Faith as the spirit of Carnivale is before Lent. Better to have a whole bunch of smaller parish/region based parades/events done privately but open to public view like a Corpus Christi procession. Or just remove parade floats and rent a stadium for a Catholic event like the Eucharistic congresses of previous decades.

  14. Suburbanbanshee says:

    The point is that the parade was always supposed to be non-political and non-controversial, which was why no political group was supposed to be allowed to march. Now the event organizers are playing favorites by allowing the gay group in.

    Interestingly, I found out that the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Toronto had to be ended for a few years by the diocese back in the mid-1800’s, because it was turning into Fenian Fest with riots and such. It came back for a bit with less politics, but about ten years later, it died for lack of interest and didn’t come back until closer to the modern day.

  15. Gretchen says:

    Aren’t we dealing here with much, much more than appeasement/approval on the part of a cardinal?

    “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting,” Christ taught the disciples.

    My thought is that the parade has been given over to the world quite openly now. The ground has been ceded. Let Irish Catholics abandon it and regroup. It is open warfare now. We’ve all got to take off the rose-colored glasses, take up our cross, and march forward.

  16. paladin says:

    JesusFreak84,

    That may happen. But if it does, we can always dust off a very useful word:

    Samizdat.

  17. vmanning says:

    Bill Donahue said it all last night-the parade and NBC stood to lose money if the sponsors pulled out and the broadcast was cancelled. The Cardinal Archbishop is hiding behind the parade committee as though he had nothing to do with the decision to allow the gay rights group (from NBC!) to march, and I suppose now he will wash his hands of the decision to refuse a pro-life group permission to march, when he should use the betrayal of the Catholic League by the parade committee as an excuse to step down as grand marshal. If he does not step down, any thoughts about why not?

  18. Unwilling says:

    Non-C participation in this parade is tolerated but not accepted. Not to fret.

    I fished around and found: What else do we “tolerate though not accept”?
    Posted on 3 March 2014 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

  19. disco says:

    I am sure we are going to feel the heat something awful in Boston this year too. Wacko Hurley is not a young man and I fear that as soon as he is gone, Boston will face the same terrible fate as New York with respect to these thugs.

  20. Ave Crux says:

    With regard to some comments here that we should just pull out of the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, I have to say this situation is becoming absolutely unbearable.

    We are the Church MILITANT — not the Church WIMPY.

    We are confirmed with chrism invoking the Holy Ghost to descend upon us and make us SOLDIERS of Christ. We are mandated to establish the benevolent, salvific, sanctifying and transformative reign of Christ throughout the world.

    What? We’re supposed to retreat YET AGAIN? Has anyone noticed how small the island is becoming?

    When are we going to see that we just want to be *comfortable* and not exert ourselves overly much — such as protesting to the Cardinal and so forth — to go down fighting at least?

    It is a duty for us to wage a battle to establish the reign of Christ, rather than just keep surrendering and ceding more and more territory until planet earth becomes absolutely uninhabitable because it’s a foretaste of hell, unfit for bringing children into the world because it’s more likely they will lose their souls than be able to save them by adhering to the 10 Commandments and the practice of their Catholic Faith.

    When are we going to become appropriately indignant, that the fire of zeal for God’s glory and the exaltation of Holy Mother Church will make us worthy to stand for Christ and His Church?

    It is the lukewarm that God vomits forth — not those who are hot or cold.

    The great Veuillot said during the French Revolution (I paraphrase): “Even were you to roll over us like a great steam engine; we will stand in your path still to slow your progress.”

    I have never forgotten that quote.

  21. frjim4321 says:

    All this having been said, it’s just a parade.

    Seems like quite an ado over a parade. [A nationally televised parade…]

  22. Mike says:

    Without dismissing this and other recent controversies in which Cardinal Dolan has become embroiled, he and the Archdiocese of New York — and, it seems safe to say, the Church in the United States — are in a very difficult place right now.

    Many have urged that the Cardinal resign the grand marshalship of the parade. No alternative seems worthy of the shepherd of the most visible diocese in North America. But should he do so, the hounds of Hell, which for generations have been encroaching upon the Church in New York, would likely be unleashed openly. Catholics in New York and throughout the land must be prepared for unrelenting attack by Satan’s minions, whether of internal apostasy masquerading as “dissent” or of open persecution from without.

    Would there be a bright spot? Certainly: the American Church that has hid its light under a bushel in order not to offend the Democrats would finally have shed the shackles by which it has restrained itself from proclaiming and practicing the whole deposit of faith. There would be nothing left to lose, and a happy eternity unencumbered by the world’s “values” and evil attachments to gain.

    In the meantime, Fr. Z’s wonted advice to examine our consciences, assist reverently at Holy Mass, practice the works of mercy, and GO TO CONFESSION should ever remain at the forefront of our awareness and frequent practice.

  23. HeatherPA says:

    The Grand Marshal has already spoken.
    What else is there to say? Next year, perhaps that gentle organization CAIR can lead the parade.

    Screwtape is in his glory.
    Forgive us, Lord.

  24. benedetta says:

    For the last decade of course, the parade and Catholics have been publicly bullied by an animated mob, for the sole reason of portraying Catholics as so many lies and things. This has never been a group interested in the faith or in Catholicism, but only seeking to destroy and harm. I challenge anyone to refute this from the historical record. (The record shows that quite a lot has its roots in an organization which exists only to harass and harm Catholics, whose founding chaplain was one of the worst child abusers in American history).

    At some point the parade organization run first by the AOH and then by another non profit corporate entity, permitted the limited input of the Church. The record seems clear that Cardinal Dolan’s input was neither solicited nor desired. Further, Bill Donahue was manipulated and lied to. Which the rest of the world calls, fraud, and Kremlin, by the way. I’ll call it “bad faith” for purposes of this discussion, which some may deem as overly and unnecessarily charitable, understandably.

    The big money steering the process without democratic say or input from the religion is St. Patrick and his parade’s raison d’etre, pulled a bigtime bully move, surprise surprise, aimed to humiliate, a Cardinal, his flock, and the entire Church.

    Because what would be the skin off these folks’ backs to allow Courage and prolife to march? None.

    Obviously though a group faketivised by Dignity/Shanley friends at al would only wish to achieve, not unity, not an overture toward building up of the Faith, but public humiliation. They calculated, rightly, that, good Catholics would loudly balk, having been harshed on and bullied by elitist, moneyed gay lobbies for years in their own parishes and institutions, sometimes in blatantly immoral and illegal means, often through humiliation, marginalization, dirty politics, and after recent events of legalized harassment through Obama admin and followers (cf Lois Lerner, HHS, ridiculous expansion of abortion to countenance infanticide, Common Core, placing the financial burden for the illegal immigration orchestration upon the Church, Biden/Pelosi/Cuomo etc etc etc). Thus, their faketivist and political wag the dog maneuver, to have good Catholics engaged in public reaction and alienated from their Cardinal, is accomplished.

    The reality is that gay Catholics have not lacked for welcome in our parishes. That is preposterous. Far from it, as a matter of fact, the vast majority of parishes are welcoming towards gay persons, in the extreme. Total calumny.

    The reality is that who is unwelcome, in a bullying, harsh, harassing, threatening, intimidating and, sometimes illegal manner from many parishes is: prolife. Not only do the uber gay parishes flying high in so many places have so many excuses for their beard/public face for why they are not into prolife with so many horrible things going on behind the scenes to drive prolife out, but, the word went out, far and wide, but even in the parishes not run openly by gay Catholics, their political contacts activate there to be sure that prolife doesn’t get any kind of toehold.

    If people think that pastors who are hostile to prolife in the first place are going to permit, the EF, say, or, Adoration, or, solid catechesis, and so many other needed and important things, they are very naive. The reality is that orthodox Catholics wherever situated, whether we have the benefit of EF or not, must not permit these operatives to divide us. Because this force cares not one whit which Rite we attend or desire. What it wants to do is, cf this administration, intimidate all Catholics from the public square and create an official government blessed Church of their doctrines as in other places of the world.

  25. SKAY says:

    As a Catholic I will not be watching the parade on TV. The participating network airing it seems to be involved with allowing the homosexual group to march – along with some sponsors. Are they also involved with not allowing any pro life group to march under a banner?? Is this just all about money?
    One of my great grandfathers came from Ireland–so let’s just say I think Catholics, the Irish and St. Patrick could be represented in a much better way than what this parade is becoming.

  26. Ave Crux says:

    For frjim4321:

    Yes, not only is it a nationally televised parade, as Father Z comments, it is one that is presided over by a Prince of the Church — one of the prelates who helped elect Pope Francis — hence seen as a spokesman for the Church’s identity and mission. After all, he voted for the Vicar of Christ, whose responsibility it is to guide the Church on Her course.

    Moreover, it is a parade in the name of one of the Church’s most renowned Saints — Saint Patrick — who did so much to bring souls into the Church.

    It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for the message not to be sent from all these facts that the Catholic Church is now endorsing homosexuality as “normal” — rather than considering it a great and serious sin against human nature, one that must be repented of, not celebrated — just as we would not permit heterosexual “fornicators” to march under their own banner, or the divorced and civilly remarried, as though to proclaim such lifestyles were acceptable moral behavior for anyone.

    No, the Church’s mission is to proclaim and defend those standards alone which are acceptable to God.

    Furthermore — it is a horror to consider HOW MANY CHILDREN will witness this travesty in the name of Saint Patrick, presided over by a Cardinal of the Church, and be scandalized.

    Christ said: “Woe to him who teaches one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin. It were better for him that a millstone were tied about his neck and he was into the depths of the sea.” Has Cardinal Dolan considered his grave moral responsibility in light of this dire warning from Christ?

    With all due respect, it is precisely this failure of Catholics to see that Christendom is of one piece, and it’s influence must be such as not only to strive to prevent this travesty, but to go even further and make of Saint Patrick’s Day AND the Parade what IT OUGHT TO BE: a Catholic witness to a great Saint, and a credit to the Catholic Church’s glory.

    I believe it was St. Augustine who said that the greatest chastisement God can visit upon the Church is bad prelates.

    We are being punished for having been lukewarm about the faith for too many years. The message of Our Lady of Fatima was one of urgency, pleading with mankind to appease God’s justice by living lives of prayer, penance and reparation for so many sins that WW I and WW II were a consequence of our infidelities.

    And that was in 1917! What of today?

    No, we can’t “yawn” in the face of what is happening on this occasion and refer to it as “just a parade”. It is far more than that. It is the symptom of a grave and serious illness in the heart of Holy Mother Church and Her faithful. If by seeing a small mole on one’s skin it is recognized as a symptom of cancer, would one say, “Oh, it’s only a mole.” No, that tiny indicator spells the possibility of death.

    This needs to be another occasion of pushing back — just as Cardinal O’Connor did. We must never tire of fighting.

    Our Lady of Fatima — Pray for us, and give us the courage of the saints in these wicked times!

  27. SKAY says:

    http://dads.org/articles/openly-gay-groups-allowed-march-st-patricks-day-parade/

    A letter has been sent by a member of the Virginia House of Delegates to Archbishop Vigano,
    Apostolic Nuncio to the US concerning the parade and Cardinal Dolan. The letter is posted on the link above.

  28. Ave Crux says:

    A public appeal has been made today to all Catholics to protest this directly to Cardinal Dolan.

    It can be found here: http://keepthefaith.org/emails/cardinal-dolan-caves-in.html?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=What+can+you+do+about+Cardinal+Dolan%27s+cave-in

    The disregard of the Church’s moral teaching (aka: the teachings of Christ Himself, Who told sinners: Now go and sin no more lest something worse befall you.” is becoming more and more blatant and tyrannical.

    As Cardinal George said — the homosexual agenda is akin to Sharia law in and of itself – i.e. if we don’t conform and abandon God’s moral tenets, we will be vilified and ostracized.

    The time has come for Catholics to take a stand in defense of God’s teaching on true chastity for all those not bound by the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony — whether homosexual or heterosexual. For, the subterfuge is now raising its head in broad daylight.

    It seems that almost overnight and with frightening acceleration, what remains of the Catholic Church’s moral authority is now in free fall.

    May God reward the man who wrote that letter to the Apostolic Nuncio. But things have gone so far — everywhere — that one wonders if there is even any hope that Cardinal Dolan will be asked to change his position to be clearly in conformity with the Church’s teachings — as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, even — before it is too late. If he does, it will actually make a powerful statement.

  29. Ave Crux says:

    Clarification on the above: the appeal was made to also send letters to the Apostolic Nuncio, while also sending a copy to Cardinal Dolan.

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