(LifeSiteNews) — The culture of death is manifest in the world today, and attacks against the Catholic Church are seen all over, with anti-Catholicism being one of the only remaining biases that are considered socially acceptable.
On this special episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, I am joined by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco to discuss the latest on the October 2020 attack on a statue of St. Junipero Serra, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision to honor an anti-Catholic hate group, and his reflections on denying Nancy Pelosi access to Holy Communion for her public support of abortion.
We began the show by discussing the latest updates on the desecration of a statue of St. Junipero Serra by a group of vandals in October 2020. While the group was initially charged with felony vandalism, and asked for reconciliation, the mediator between the Archdiocese and the accused began treating the perpetrators as the victims of the crime, a matter made worse by a parishioner at the mission where the statue was desecrated. Eventually, the district attorney downgraded the charges to misdemeanor charges.
Warning that damage to property historically leads to attacking people, Cordileone tells me, “This is very disturbing because we see it’s part of this whole movement of attacks on Catholic Church property and desecration of our sacred symbols going on all around the country.”
“There have been over 200 of these in the last couple of years, and they just keep getting worse,” he continues.
We then treat upon the Dodgers’ decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic hate group composed of gender-confused men dressed as nuns.
Commenting on the decision, His Excellency states that “this is a blatant attack on all true Christian believers. They’re mocking and blaspheming what we hold sacred. And that’s now celebrated in our culture.”
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.
SIGN: The LA Dodgers must revoke their plan to honor these ‘transgender nuns’
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.”
SIGN: The LA Dodgers must NOT allow this mockery to take place
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.
SIGN: The LA Dodgers must not honor anti-Catholic, anti-Christian drag ‘nuns’
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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“I hope the alarm bells are going off in the minds of our peoples,” he adds. “They see how serious the situation is. We cannot afford to be complacent anymore.”
Cordileone opines on the matter further, noting that neither an appeal to conscience nor to decency works in such a context anymore, and that “Aal that matters is the bottom line,” agreeing with former auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles Robert Barron that “we need to vote with our feet and not give business to those who are mocking us and desecrating what we hold sacred.”
He also offers me reflections on his decision to bar former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Holy Communion for her public support of abortion, saying that he has “no regrets” about his decision, but that he regrets the lack of opportunities to discuss the issue with her.
“I had absolutely no doubt whatsoever when the moment came that I had to do it,” he tells me. “So I’m at peace. I don’t care about attacks in the media and all that, because I know there are also a lot of people who support this. And I know there are a lot of people who continue to pray for her conversion.”
We close our conversation with a brief discussion on cancel culture.
“Secularism is its own form of religion,” Cordileone tells me. “It’s a fundamentalist religion. They don’t they won’t allow conversation about topics when people disagree.” However, he tells me that we cannot abandon faith and reason, especially in a culture where “reason is going by the wayside.”
“We need to keep both alive because we know from our Catholic tradition, we know that we cannot comprehend the truth without faith and reason both,” he explains. “And they have to work together. Each have to make its own unique contribution and serve as a check on the other, because when one is removed, the other goes off in a direction that gets away from the truth.”
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