LOS ANGELES — A demonstration described as a “prayerful procession” drew thousands of people who opposed the Los Angeles Dodgers’ honoring a drag group on June 16 at the baseball team’s annual Pride Night event.
The “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” — who don drag-style makeup, religious habits and names such as “Sister Jezabelle” and “Pope Dementia the Last” — were recognized by the Dodgers for their group’s charity work. The team presented its Community Hero Award to the group’s Los Angeles chapter during a ceremony before the Dodgers’ game against the San Francisco Giants.
In May, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said that the Dodgers’ “decision to honor a group that clearly mocks the Catholic faith and makes light of the sincere and holy vocations of our women religious who are an integral part of our Church” had caused “disappointment, concern, anger and dismay from our Catholic community.”
The June 16 procession started in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium at 3 p.m. to protest with prayers, music and special guest speakers. Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, led a prayer rally before the procession, according to LifeSiteNews, a co-sponsor of the event.
Protestors wore red shirts in honor of the Sacred Heart, carried rosaries and displayed signs. Among the messages were calls to “stop disrespecting sisters.” Other protestors invoked Jesus’ plea while being crucified, recorded in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they do.” A sign read “Satan has no rights.”
The Dodgers’ invitation had been briefly withdrawn in May after protests but was reinstated with a public apology to the group from the team. The team’s follow-up decision to host a July 30 Christian Faith and Family Day drew criticism from several Catholic leaders, including Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota — previously an auxiliary bishop for the Los Angeles Archdiocese and a critic of the team’s decision to honor the drag group — who said in a May 26 tweet the move was “not enough.”
On June 12, LA’s Archbishop José H. Gomez released a joint statement calling on Catholics in the U.S. to pray and make reparations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the day of the game.
“We call on Catholics to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart on June 16 (Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), offering this prayer as an act of reparation for the blasphemies against our Lord we see in our culture today,” said Archbishop Gomez, along with Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB); and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty.
In their statement, Archbishops Gomez and Broglio and Cardinal Dolan said the Dodgers had “shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, His Mother and consecrated women cannot be overstated.”