The Nuns applaud the Dodgers’ response to the Pride Knight controversy.some archbishops call it blasphemy

An avid baseball fan might view his team’s performance as heaven or hell, depending on the quality of play. Now, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers’ response to their annual Pride Night, not the team’s record, that provokes the emotional reaction of religious figures, including prominent religious leaders. catholic Nuns, and even the team’s All-Star ace.

In fact, this week, three senior leaders of the US Catholic Church suggested that the team had committed blasphemy.

The Dodgers have hosted Pride Night for 10 years, but this year’s event, which takes place on Friday night, was embroiled in a high-profile controversy last month.

Following heavy criticism from some conservative Catholics, the team withdrew an invitation to a satirical LGBTQ+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to honor Pride Nights. Most of the performers in Sisters are men who wear flashy nun-like costumes and actively participate in protests and charity programs.

A week later, following heavy backlash from LGBTQ+ groups and their allies, the Dodgers reversed course, inviting the Los Angeles chapter of the Sisters back to the charitable honor and apologizing to the LGBTQ+ community.

The Dodgers’ comeback was welcomed by LGBTQ+ allies, including Catholic nuns. But this infuriated many conservative Catholics, even the highest levels of the U.S. hierarchy.

On Monday, statements from Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and Military Archbishop Timothy Brolio, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the United States, lashed out at the team.

They asked Catholics to “pray on Fridays as reparation for their blasphemy against us.” main We see it in our culture today. ”

“The professional baseball team shockingly chose to honor a group that cannot overstate the despicable and vulgar acts of ridiculing Our Lord, His Mother, and consecrated women. I did,” said the archbishops. “Not only is this offensive and painful to Christians around the world, it is blasphemy.”

Although official Catholic teaching opposes same-sex marriage and same-sex sexual activity, many Catholics want the church to be more inclusive of LGBTQ+ people. Among them are nuns from the United States who have empathetically served LGBTQ+ Catholics, and were highlighted last month when the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence made the news.

One of them, Sister Janine Grammick, has been serving LGBTQ+ Catholics for over 50 years and is the co-founder of New Ways Ministries, which works on their behalf.

She publicly shared a letter she wrote to the Dodgers, welcoming their return to the drag group and saying its members deserve recognition for their philanthropic efforts.

“While I find it offensive that the Congregation of Perpetual Indulgence, Catholic or otherwise, uses nuns’ old garb to draw attention to prejudice, there is a hierarchy of values ​​in this situation. It exists,” Gramick wrote.

“I believe that all organizations that serve their communities should be respected, especially those who are disadvantaged or marginalized.”

However, Sister Louisa DeLuen, who is known for her support of transgender Catholics, said she was “deeply upset” by the Dodgers’ decision to honor the sisters of Permanent Indulgence.

“I recognize and appreciate their philanthropic work, which brings a lot of benefits to a lot of people,” she said. APs on mail. “But my passion for this subject comes most from my religious life.”

“I have been passionate about helping people understand and respect the lives of gay, lesbian and transgender people for almost 30 years,” she added. “In the Catholic Church, pious women are their best allies. We don’t deserve to have our lives satired in such a humiliating way.”

“We’ve done so much to help others respect their lives, so why can’t they do all the great work without disrespecting ours?”

Robert Barron, a Catholic bishop of Southern Minnesota and former Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, told his 240,000 followers on Twitter that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were “an anti-Catholic hate group I can only describe. No,’ he said.

“I’m a huge baseball fan. I even threw the first pitch at a Dodgers game,” Barron tweeted. “But I would encourage our friends in LA to boycott the Dodgers. Don’t just pray, speak up to defend our Catholic faith.”

Criticism was not confined to the Catholic class. Reverend Albert Moorer, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told listeners on his radio show that the Dodgers had “completely surrendered.”

“Companies are being totally destroyed by what one author called ‘the art of the public gutter’ many years ago,” Moorer said.

MLB Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams criticized the Dodgers for reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who mocked Catholicism. On Twitter, Williams urged fellow Catholics to “reconsider their support for organizations that allow this kind of mockery of their fans.”

However, each pitcher said he had no objections to the broader tradition of Pride Knight.

“this is, LGBTQ Community and pride and things like that,” Kershaw said. “This is just a group making fun of religion. I disagree with that.”

Some conservative religious leaders said they opposed the whole pride night concept.

“MLB teams have no business sponsoring highly controversial events like Pride Night and should instead focus on playing baseball,” noted megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress said in an email. Stated.

His church, First Baptist Dallas, is about 32 miles from the home of the Texas Rangers, the only MLB team not hosting a pride night this season.

“Every ‘pride’ event is an attempt to celebrate what God has condemned,” Jeffress wrote. “Christians rightly want to boycott corporations and organizations like MLB teams that try to put aggressive, godless policies down the throats of Americans.”

Similar denunciations of Pride Night came from Brent Leatherwood, director of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest evangelical denomination.

“These exhibits continue to confirm how far our culture is currently from biological and sexual reality,” Leatherwood said, adding that the SBC’s rejection of same-sex marriage and sexual relations I have repeatedly said that

By contrast, Pastor Alex Santora, who oversees an LGBTQ-friendly parish in Hoboken, New Jersey, says pride nights help combat prejudice.

“Pride nights hosted by sports teams and pride displays set up by businesses acknowledge that embracing diversity of sexual orientation is normal in society,” he said. “This piece sends a valuable message to children and teens that acceptance is important and that it contributes to their mental health.”

The story of the Dodgers’ Pride Night followed the LGBTQ+-related difficulties of several other high-profile companies. Bud Light partnered with a transgender influencer, but after backlash tried to withdraw his endorsement. Similarly, its support for the targeted LGBTQ+ community has drawn hostile and homophobic criticism from some, with calls from LGBTQ+ activists not to yield to pressure.

Laurel Powell of Human Rights Campaign, a spokeswoman for the country’s largest LGBTQ+ rights group, said the spread of Pride Nights and similar efforts in other areas of the economy was encouraging.

“These are important signals to the LGBTQ community that we are valued by these groups and that our patronage and stand faces are welcome,” she said. “This is also a signal to others where their values ​​lie.”

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