(LifeSiteNews) — America magazine writer Michael O’Loughlin says he has “complicated feelings” about the Los Angeles Dodgers honoring a blasphemous drag group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
“Some members of the group use lewd and crude comedy in their performances, as their Catholic detractors have highlighted this week,” O’Loughlin, a homosexual, wrote in the dissident Catholic publication. “But the group also raises money for charitable causes and seeks to bring visibility to a community often under siege,” referring to homosexuals and gender-confused persons.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have decided to honor the blasphemous anti-Catholic drag group, the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, with a Community Hero Award on June 16, the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
This blatant contempt for the Catholic faith cannot go unchallenged.
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The Major League Baseball franchise said it had decided to honor the group — which engages in deliberately offensive sexualized burlesque mockeries of Catholicism — after initially canceling plans to do so when the public expressed outrage.
“After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the statement read.
In one move, you managed to turn off conservatives and slap Christians in the face with disgusting drag nuns. What a disgrace you’ve become. Was recently at a game. Won’t be coming back.
— Courrielche⚡️ (@courrielche) May 23, 2023
The baseball team said it will ask the sacrilegious group “to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th.”
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The Dodgers’ Monday announcement comes after it previously agreed to dis-invite the group after outrage by Catholics and other conservatives.
Among others, Catholic Vote and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida vocally objected to the decision to honor the so-called “sisters.”
“Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,” the team said in a since-deleted May 17 announcement.
San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone had previously thanked the Dodgers for their decision to roll back the invitation.
In its Monday statement, after apologizing for temporarily dis-inviting the anti-Catholic hate group, the Dodgers promised to “work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all our fans who make diversity part of the Dodgers family.”
Make your voice heard NOW, before this blasphemy takes center stage.
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Conservatives responded on social media by slamming the baseball team for caving.
“Yes, it is vital that the national pastime honor and support those who mock religion and decency,” reacted Daily Wire co-founder and podcaster Ben Shapiro.
“The Gay Mafia will always extract their payment for ‘protection,’ said Crisis magazine editor-in-chief Eric Sammons.
Some social media users hinted that the team should face the same backlash as beer company Bud Light, which is continuing to endure a massive boycott after its decision to honor transgender-identifying TikTok activist Dylan Mulvaney.
But the Dodgers weren’t always woke and divorced from traditional religious practice.
Former Dodgers great Sandy Koufax, a left-handed pitcher who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in fame in 1972, famously refused to pitch during Game 1 of the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the most important holy day in the Jewish calendar. He previously opted out of games that landed on Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
And Koufax wasn’t alone in living an active faith. Legendary announcer Vin Scully, the “Voice of the Dodgers” for 67 years, was a staunch Catholic. Scully, who passed away last year at age 94, was described by Catholic News Agency’s Jonah McKeown as “a devout Catholic who found in his faith a source of joy and comfort and sought to share it with others through personal kindness and philanthropy.”
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, Scully was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and even narrated a two-CD audio recording of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 2016.
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One of his only sources of unease is that the group mocks women, which O’Loughlin claims is not supported within the Catholic Church. “What causes me some unease about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, however, especially at this particular moment, is that their costumes mock women who wield relatively little power, especially in the church,” he wrote. “These women are often responsible for creating some of the most L.G.B.T.-affirming spaces in an institution that can regularly feel unwelcoming to the community.”
It’s really not “complicated” at all, and the same arguments he uses to defend the group have been used to defend gangs and other organized crime groups.
There are several flaws with his argument.
Let’s begin by noting that some of the work they do is hardly a corporal work of mercy, such as “queer art” or “support [for] LGBTQ and trans youth,” as one member told Religion News Service.
Grant recipients, as listed on the group’s website, include a tarot card “magic” shop, “sacred spaces for Queer and Two Spirit people,” and an organization that “provides education, gender affirming clothing and resources to transgender youth and young adults. This grant goes to purchase chest binders and clothing for California Students.”
But let’s say that this group did amazing work feeding the homeless or collecting money to give to women in domestic violence situations, works that we all could agree are good.
Their blasphemous and offensive performances and entire premise, mocking religious sisters and the Catholic faith, would wipe away any perceived good they do. There are plenty of groups, such as pro-life organizations, St. Vincent de Paul, Knights of Columbus and others that do care for the marginalized and the neediest among us. Yet none of them find the need to cross-dress and mock the Catholic faith.
In fact, the arguments used by O’Loughlin have been used before. The Mafia gave out food to Italians during the beginning of COVID lockdowns, The Guardian reported. The Mexican drug cartels also helped the needy.
Italian-American mobster Al Capone “ran a soup kitchen,” according to the History Channel. None of that makes up for murder and other crimes perpetrated by these organizations and individuals.
Similarly, the blasphemy from the group cannot be undone by any occasionally positive work it might possibly do. Catholic Vote has documented different ways the group spreads hatred of Catholics, including desecration of the Eucharist and mocking the Virgin Mary.
READ: Catholic League documents horrific history of blasphemous drag ‘nuns’ honored by LA Dodgers
If the drag members want to actually do good works and bring about the Kingdom of God, they would. They would stop cross-dressing, they would stop promoting the LGBT agenda, and they would stop mocking the faith. O’Loughlin should outright condemn the group without exception. These individuals do not respect the Catholic Mass, the Sacraments, Christ or the Virgin Mary. There is nothing “complicated” about a group that so heinously disregards our faith in the name of grotesque, depraved, and narcissistic performance.
