League Criticizes Hibernians for Capitulating to Homosexual Group

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized the Ancient Order of Hibernians — organizers of New York’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade — for inviting a homosexual group to march in the 2015 parade. The parade committee said its “change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics.”

The Hibernians also said the parade was “remaining loyal to church teachings” and the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, was “very supportive” of the change. Dolan, who will be grand marshal next year, said parade organizers have his “confidence and support.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated by Saint John Paul II, characterized homosexual behavior as “grave depravity.” In Catholic tradition, the sin of impurity against nature is one of four sins which “cry out to heaven for vengeance.”

The Catholic Action League called the decision “an appalling betrayal of Catholic principles and a shameful surrender to secular culture and the spirit of the times.”

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle commented: “A parade in honor of a Catholic saint will now host a group who not only express pride in rejecting Catholic morality, but who castigate that morality as prejudice and homophobia, and who demonize defenders of that morality as haters and bigots. Saint Patrick Catholicized Ireland, rescuing it from paganism. Now, those who want to return to the pagan practices of pre-Christian antiquity will be permitted to exploit the feast of Saint Patrick to showcase their anti-Catholic message.”

“No one should mistake this dishonoring of Saint Patrick for anything other than it is, a cowardly capitulation to political correctness, corporate pressure, elite opinion, and the relentless hostility of an aggressive sexual minority. What role, if any, homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood played in this episode remains, for now, unclear. The Hibernians’ preposterous assertion that they remain loyal to Catholic teachings only tells us that their lack of courage is equaled by their lack of intellectual honesty.”

“This departure is disappointing, but hardly surprising. The AOH, like the Knights of Columbus, have long provided safe harbor to nominally Catholic politicians who support the killing of pre-born children. As for the Cardinal of New York, his reversal of his predecessors’ positions speaks to the increasingly dysfunctional character of post-conciliar Catholicism, which seems unable to mount a sustained, or even coherent, resistance to modern secularism.”