The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today criticized the so-called St. Patrick’s Peace Parade for including a homosexual group in its march. The alternative parade followed one mile behind South Boston’s traditional Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.
A unanimous 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision affirmed the right of the traditional parade organizers — the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council — to control their own content, and not have an alien and discordant message imposed on their protected First Amendment activity.
The Catholic Action League called the participation of a homosexual group in the alternative parade “a cynical attempt to exploit St. Patrick’s Day by those who reject the religion and morality of Saint Patrick.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle stated: ” This is one more example of the contempt homosexual activists have for the beliefs and sensibilities of Roman Catholics. Saint Patrick was a Catholic Bishop and is a Catholic saint. Why would those who castigate Catholic moral teaching as bigotry and intolerance want to follow in the footsteps of a parade honoring a Catholic saint?”
“It is a measure of the profound disrespect homosexual militants have for the rights of others that they will not allow the Catholic community to celebrate the feast of their patron saint without this boorish and provocative intrusion. It reminds one of Orange parades through Catholic neighborhoods in Northern Ireland.”
