Catholic Action League of Massachusetts on Obscene Rap Video Shot in Worcester Parish Church

The following is a Catholic Action League of Massachusetts press release…

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized Saint Peter’s Catholic Parish in Worcester for allowing the sanctuary and the nave of that church to be used in the filming of a vulgar rap video which sends the message that President Donald Trump and Fox News commentators Laura Ingraham and Tomi Lahren deserve to die. Ingraham, a convert to the Catholic Faith, is known as an orthodox, practicing, pro-life Catholic.

In the video, “Devil’s Work,” local rapper Joyner Lucas, while holding a Bible in one hand and swigging a bottle of Hennessy’s cognac in the other, complains to God about the death of various African American figures—including extremist Malcolm X—and calls upon God to take the lives of Trump, Ingraham and Lahren, referring to the latter two as “stupid hoes.” Inside the sanctuary, next to the paschal candle, the video displays a funeral easel with a photograph of the President of the United States. Throughout the video, Joyner repeatedly intersperses the “F word” with images of the crucifix and of Our Lady.

In an interview with the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, the pastor of Saint Peter’s, Msgr. Francis Scollen, said “I know nothing about rap music at all,” and “We can’t endorse violence,” adding that he would not permit the church to be used in the future for rap videos.

Scollen declined however, to either apologize to the President, Ingraham and Lahren, or to unequivocally condemn the video, some aspects of which he said “seemed positive.” In an interview with CBS Boston, Scollen acknowledged “…I guess it offended some people.” He went on to say “Maybe if we had known more about what was happening here, we would have probably put more controls on it,” adding “We need to bring about social change but we need to do it in a non-violent way.”

The Catholic Action League is calling the decision to allow Saint Peter’s to be used in the production of a rap video “reckless, incomprehensible and bizarre.”

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “Rap music is characterized by obscenity, vulgarity, misogyny, appeals to prurient interest and the celebration of violence. Who, in their right mind, would allow a Catholic church, with the Blessed Sacrament present in the tabernacle, to be profaned by such blasphemy, exploitation and coarse indecency?”

“What is it about the post-conciliar Church that makes it so radically dysfunctional at every level? The Church has enough problems of its own without inviting the corruption of secular society into its sanctuaries. The Diocese of Worcester should make reparation for this sacrilege, apologize to both its own parishioners and the targets of this video, and require an accounting from the pastor of Saint Peter’s for this irresponsible and unfathomable decision.