Bill Donohue

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not confirmed marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. That’s to be expected given the way he treats Catholics.

He had clergy from many religions at his inauguration, but never invited Cardinal Timothy Dolan or any other priest. He had clergy from many religions at his February 6 Interfaith Breakfast, but never invited a priest. He refused to attend the installation of our new archbishop, Ronald Hicks, though virtually every other dignitary was there.

Why is Mamdani hesitant about marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade? It’s not the Irish he has a problem with—it’s the Catholic Church.

Mamdani is a big fan of abortion rights and LGBT rights, including the mutilation of the genitals of minors, politely called sex-reassignment surgery. The Catholic Church is opposed to both. Also, he is still unhappy that gays were not allowed to march in the parade under their own banner until 2015. For these reasons, he is reluctant to march.

Mamdani has marched in the following parades:

• Lunar New Year Parade

           LGBT Contingent: Yes (since 2010)

• Panamanian Day Parade (Brooklyn)

           LGBT Contingent: No

• African American Day Parade

           LGBT Contingent: Yes (last marched in 2019)

• Labor Day Parade

           LGBT Contingent: No

• West Indian Day Parade

           LGBT Contingent: Yes (since 2015)

• Indian Day Parade (Bellerose/Floral Park)

           LGBT Contingent: No

• Dominican Day Parade

           LGBT Contingent: No contingent; LGBT activists marched in 2019

• Puerto Rican Day Parade

           LGBT Contingent: Yes (since 1989)

• Sikh Day Parade

           LGBT Contingent: No

• Bangladesh Day Parade (Jackson Heights, Queens)

          LGBT Contingent: No

• Phagwah Parade (Richmond Hill, Queens)

           LGBT Contingent: Yes (since 2016)

• Pat’s For All Parade (Sunnyside, Queens)

           LGBT Contingent: Yes (since 2000)

Mamdani only makes a stink about gays not marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Given the way he dismisses Catholics, it would make sense if he skipped the big parade in 2026.

It’s not just Catholics he has a beef with.

Mamdani has never marched in the Salute to Israel Parade or the Veterans Day Parade, and his animus against the police and ICE is palpable. To top it off, he never stops talking about diversity and inclusion, but somehow that never seems to include Catholics, Jews, veterans or law enforcement. The man is a phony.

Contact his deputy communications director, Lekha Sunder: Lsunder@cityhall.nyc.gov

Bill Donohue

Sameerah Munshi has quit President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. She cited “two deeply troubling developments: the official removal of Carrie Prejean Boller for her deeply held beliefs about Palestine and the federal government’s illegal war against Iran, undertaken without clear constitutional or congressional authorization.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, (CAIR), rushed to defend both women, saying they were the ones who “actually stand up for religious liberty.” They commended Munshi for her courage and said it was “unconscionable” that the White House would remove Prejean for her remarks on “Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

On February 11, the Catholic League called for the Religious Liberty Commission to oust Prejean Boller; minutes later it did. We did so for reasons that both Munshi and CAIR refuse to acknowledge.

In my news release about Prejean Boller, I noted that she is “a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism. She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that ‘Catholics do not embrace Zionism’ is presumptuous and arrogant.”

It just wasn’t just this remark that got Prejean Boller into hot water. She blamed Jews for killing Christ, again without qualification, and was known to show up at meetings wearing a Palestinian flag pin. In other words, she is an activist, not someone sincerely committed to religious liberty.

Munshi’s comment about the “illegal” war against Iran makes her sound sophomoric. There have been five wars declared by Congress in American history: War of 1812, Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. There is nothing illegal about U.S. operations in Iran.

We are delighted that both of these women are no longer on the panel. How they got by those doing the vetting remains a problem.

Bill Donohue highly recommends an article by Fr. Wilson D. Miscamble written in First Things on former University of Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz and his devotion to his Catholic faith. To read it, click here.

Bill Donohue

Rhode Island is the latest state to demonstrate its selective interest in combatting the sexual abuse of minors. It is only interested in probing the Catholic clergy, having zero interest in probing the clergy in every other religion. Furthermore, it has no interest in investigating the on-going crisis in the public schools.

Therapists, coaches, camp staff, doctors, psychiatrists, those who work with the disabled, and every profession where adults regularly interact with minors, are given a pass.

The biggest abusers of minors are, without doubt, live-in boyfriends. But don’t expect Peter F. Neronha, Rhode Island’s attorney general, to go after them. Why? There’s no money in it. Also, the former Catholic likes going after the Catholic Church. As soon as he became AG, he set his eyes on the Church.

When blacks are subjected to disproportionate stops by the police, it is called racial profiling. What Rhode Island is doing to priests is religious profiling. Yet the media are silent about this egregious injustice. They wouldn’t be silent if Neronha investigated sexual harassment on the job, selecting only reporters to probe.

Neronha’s report covers cases of alleged abuse dating back to 1950, when Harry Truman was present and Elvis Presley was 15. It was determined that 75 accused members of the clergy (66 of whom were priests) were responsible for victimizing 300 minors.

Guess what else Neronha found? What every other investigation has found: 83 percent of the victims were male, and 74 percent of them were postpubescent. This means that homosexuals did most of the damage. Get it straight: When adult males have sex with postpubescent males, it’s called homosexuality, not pedophilia. But don’t expect Neronha or the media to report on this fact. The cover-up continues.

When did this happen? As always, it was during the sexual revolution, in the 1960s and 1970s. As I pointed out in my book, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes, libertinism as an idea was born in the 1960s and the acting out largely took place in the 1970s. That’s what Rhode Island found as well.

The last time there was a known instance of the sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic clergy in Rhode Island was 15-years ago in 2011. When was the last time a minor was violated in their public schools? Last year, when a school bus monitor allegedly sexually abused three special needs students. One was in kindergarten.

Is Neronha going to tackle the public schools? He should.

Ten years ago, when USA Today rated every state in the union on the sexual abuse of minors, it gave Rhode Island a “D.” When the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights investigated this issue during the 2017-2018 school year, it concluded that Rhode Island was one of the worst in the country; it ranked in the bottom ten. More recently, the Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, a statewide advocacy group, found that there were six allegations of sexual abuse in 2024.

The AG’s report reads as though the sexual abuse scandal is ongoing in the Catholic Church and that Neronha’s office did yeoman work in uncovering it. Wrong on both counts. We are talking about old cases where the bad guys are either dead or have been kicked out of ministry. Not one of the 75 members of the clergy mentioned in the report is in active ministry. Moreover, it was the Diocese of Providence did most of the data gathering, without which Neronha could not have issued his report.

One young person who is molested is too many. But when the Catholic Church has largely put this problem behind it, and when it is still extant in other quarters of society—especially in the public schools—it smacks of anti-Catholicism, pure and simple.

We are blanketing the Rhode Island media and lawmakers about this injustice. We are also contacting approximately 140 parishes in the state.

Contact Peter Neronha: ag@riag.gov

Bill Donohue

Eleven years after the first gay group marched in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, pro-life Catholics are still not allowed to march. The elites who run the parade are once again showing how little respect they have for the parade’s origins, which are rooted in Catholicism.

From 1762 to today, no homosexuals were ever barred from marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Beginning in the early 1990s, it was gays  who falsely claimed victim status because they were not allowed to march under their own banner. Neither were any other demographic or ideological group, including pro-life Catholics. This explains why from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, I went on radio and TV saying the parade was no more anti-gay than it was anti-pro-life (I had been asked by parade officials to be the their unofficial spokesman). That all changed in 2015.

In the late summer of 2014, I was asked by parade organizers if I would object if a gay group were allowed to march under its own banner in 2015. It was their parade, I said, but I had my integrity to protect: If gays can march under their own banner, then pro-life Catholics must be treated the same way. I was told by John Fitzsimons, a lawyer whom I considered to be a friend, not to worry—they would be included as well.

John lied. In short order, John Lahey, president of Quinnipiac University and vice chairman of the parade committee, announced that OUT@NBCUniversal, a group of gay NBC employees, would be marching (the chairman of the parade, John Dunleavy, a retired transit worker, was pushed aside by the elite sharks on the committee).

Lahey said other gay groups could also apply. More important, he said that no pro-life groups would be marching. Having been double-crossed, I pulled the Catholic League contingent from marching; we had been doing so for two decades.

So how did OUT@NBCUniversal get a monopoly on marching, when other gay groups wanted in? The NBC group never had to apply—it was selected. All the others were denied. The NBC group was chosen because another member of the parade ruling class, Francis X. Comerford, was the chief revenue officer at NBC and NBC televised the parade; he was also a former grand marshal of the parade. He made sure he got his boys to march, and no one else.

Why, after all these years, are pro-life Catholics not allowed to march under their own banner? John Aidan Byrne is the head of Irish Pro-Life USA. For the last decade he has petitioned the organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City to allow his group to march under their own banner, but he has been summarily denied. He did so again recently. One parade organizer told him, “Ask City Hall.”

This is a deceitful dodge. City Hall does not run the parade. As the Supreme Court said in 1995, in a unanimous decision, this is a private parade and the organizers set their own rules. End of story. Or at least it should be. The only reason it is not the end of the story is because parade elites see no PR bounce from letting pro-life Catholics march. But they will lay down with gays, and in doing so they get what they really want—the applause of secular elites, whom they emulate.

In other words, although the parade celebrates its Irish Catholic origins, the potentates who run it want to neuter its Catholic roots. This explains why they don’t want pro-life groups to march, but are fine with gay groups. They know, as well as everyone else, that no religion has stood more consistently for the rights of the unborn than Catholicism. That’s why they distance themselves from pro-life Catholics—it invites secular elites to think they are like them. And that is not something they can stomach.

Bill Donohue

The Catholic League supports the accommodation of religion, whether it be in public or private venues. But we find it bizarre, if not troubling, when venues not known to accommodate religious expression decide to do so by singling out one religion. This is what the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has done. The religion it is singling out is Islam.

On the first floor, in Room 961 of the Robert Lehman Collection, in between paintings of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, there is a standup sign that reads as follows:

For the month
of Ramadan
we invite you
to use this space
for prayer and
reflection

All are welcome

We have a hard time imagining the Met welcoming Catholics. But if we are wrong, it’s not too late for them to erect the following sign.

For the 40 days
of Lent,
we invite you
to use this space
for prayer and
reflection

All are welcome

What makes the Muslim-only policy even more inexplicable is how out-of-character it is. While the Met has long featured religious iconography, it also has a reputation of promoting raunch.

In October 2023, the Great Hall of the Met displayed gay bondage and sado-masochistic imagery. It used obscenities, and slogans such as, “May you fill yourself with lust,” to describe what the New York Post said were “images of seemingly naked males with their genitals blurred out and men standing over other men who appear to be wearing dog collars.”

One woman who spotted this “artistic creation” said, “I saw a wasteland ‘Mad Max’ scenario with people dressed in S&M gear and others who looked as if they were fornicating with the earth.” She said a portrayal of women was so sick that “It looked Satanic and demonic to me.”

Leaving aside the Met’s fondness for gay sexual expression, why does it feel obliged to welcome Muslims during Ramadan but not Catholics during Lent? Is this its idea of multiculturalism? We have long known that this ideology has less to do with paying tribute to religious and ethnic groups outside our Judeo-Christian heritage than it does in devaluing it.

The Met’s elite must feel very good about themselves. Their goal, no doubt, is to showcase their commitment to inclusion and diversity. But bowing to Muslims, by excluding Catholics, shows how morally bankrupt their commitment really is.

Contact Max Hollein, CEO of the Met: max.hollein@metmuseum.org

Bill Donohue

A new Pew Research Center survey of 25 countries found Americans are “especially likely to view fellow citizens as morally bad.” Indeed, 53 percent of U.S. adults say Americans “have bad morals and ethics.” Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Much depends on the behavior being judged, as well as the judges.

At the top of the list, more Americans view married people having an affair to be morally unacceptable than any other behavior in the survey. It was followed by using marijuana, viewing pornography, gambling, having an abortion, homosexuality, drinking alcohol, getting a divorce or using contraceptives, in that order.

The authors of the survey use terms like being “moralistic” in reference to being judgmental. Similarly, they say such persons “are inclined to judge various behaviors to be immoral or sinful.” Though they do not say so explicitly, it is commonplace in liberal circles to speak negatively of those who are particularly “moralistic.”

Now it is true that some people are extremely judgmental about any behaviors they find unacceptable. At the other extreme, where is the virtue in not being “moralistic” about anything? Take abortion.

The public is split on this issue: 32 percent find abortion to be morally unacceptable; 30 percent say it is morally acceptable; 21 percent believe it is not a moral issue. All are judgmental, including those who judge it not to be a moral issue. But in elite quarters, which are overwhelmingly liberal, the moralizers are the ones who find it to be morally unacceptable.

In 1920, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, wrote that the “most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Would that be scored as “moralistic”? If not, why not?

A few years ago, we were ordered to wear masks, even though many who crafted this edict refused to do so themselves. District attorneys ordered those who committed serious crimes to be released as soon as they were caught. Illegal aliens invaded our country, a direct result of public policy. The movement to decriminalize prostitution is gaining. Teachers who call a girl who falsely calls herself a boy as “she” or “her” are punished.

Are those who made these decisions paragons of virtue, or are they guilty of being “moralistic”? We know what the mainstream media think, but were they right?

Being excessively judgmental is problematic, but making highly judgmental decisions, while pretending not to be “moralistic,” is nauseating. At issue is not the behaviors being judged; it is the ideological makeup of the judges.

Bill Donohue

On March 1, Irish queers marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Sunnyside, Queens, and in doing so they made a mockery of the parade’s origins. Quite frankly, it’s really a gay parade, with an Irish veneer.

The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Sunnyside was held in 2000. After being denied the right to march under their own banner in the 1990s in the big parade in Manhattan, and having lost in the Supreme Court in 1995 trying to crash the parade, Brendan Fay, who founded two Irish gay groups, ILGO and Lavender and Green Alliance, succeeded in taking his gay cause to Sunnyside.

At the first Sunnyside parade was New York senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton. Also in attendance was Fr. Mychal Judge of St. Francis of Assisi in Manhattan (he was killed during the attack on 9/11). Since then, it has become a big draw for radical gay groups and left-wing activists.

There is nothing Catholic about the Sunnyside parade. But this year was special—they stuck it to law enforcement and Jews.

“ICE OUT” and “SMASH ICE” signs were in abundance. What does this have to do with honoring St. Patrick? Nothing. What it proves is that this event has become a left-wing soiree, a time to celebrate the latest radical causes. Standing up for the “rights” of people who have crashed our borders means more to these people than anything related to the Irish Catholic roots of the parade.

Some of the marchers celebrated Palestinian rights by holding signs that said, “International Law is with Palestine + Iran.” Ironically, as the St. Patrick’s Day marchers were celebrating Iran, young people in Iran were dancing in the street after the United States and Israel killed their savage leaders. Are the Sunnyside marchers that clueless? Yes, they are just as clueless as the “Queers for Palestine” geniuses are. They should study how gays are treated in Palestine before applauding them.

On the West Bank, there are no legal protections for LGBT people. Indeed, when a Palestinian LGBT organization tried to hold a meeting in 2019, the West Bank’s governing body, the Palestinian Authority, declared it “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society” and deployed the police to keep them from meeting.

The West Bank also does not recognize same-sex marriages. More than that, just being gay is dangerous. In October 2022, a gay Palestinian was beheaded in Hebron. He was awaiting approval to seek asylum after receiving death threats over his sexual orientation.

It’s worse in the Gaza Strip. Since Hamas took control in 2006, LGBT Palestinians face arrest, torture and execution. Gay marriage is banned and public lashings and honor killings are commonplace. Even Hamas gays do not get a pass. In 2016, a Hamas commander was murdered after being detained and tortured for over a year after being accused of homosexual behavior.

Defending illegal aliens, condemning ICE, hating Jews, and praising those who brutalize homosexuals—in an event that purports to celebrate an Irish Catholic saint—makes no sense to the average person. But it does to those who organize this parade, and to many of the participants. By and large, they are angry radicals who look to exploit every opportunity they can seize to advance their agenda.

The gay groups that march in Sunnyside don’t even bother to apply to march in the big parade. In fact, only two do: OUT@NBCUniversal and the Lavender and Green Alliance. Why don’t others seek to march?

The parade up Fifth Avenue is so enormous that the units that march—almost all of which are faithful to the Irish Catholic origins of the parade—clearly overwhelm those who seek to hijack it for political purposes. Therefore, since gay activists can’t dominate, they look elsewhere where they can. They found a home in Sunnyside. It’s relatively easy to stand out there, and nothing pleases these gays more than drawing attention to themselves and their left-wing causes.

In short, gay narcissism, which is a serious attribute shared by so many of them, explains why the Sunnyside St. Patrick’s Day Parade has become such a sham.

Bill Donohue

It is true that we can never truly know what is in another person’s heart, but when a politician makes his religion a central aspect of his public persona, yet pursues policies that inherently contradict his faith, it raises serious questions. The following Democrats are clearly guilty of playing the religion card when it suits them.

In Catholic circles, former President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are the poster children of this duplicity. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Ilhan Omar do the same for Islam. 

Being Religious

Biden

“My religion defines who I am.” He added, “I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. And it has particularly informed my social doctrine.”

Pelosi

“I’m a Catholic, a devout, practicing Catholic. I take great comfort in my faith, come from a very Catholic family, largely pro-life.”

Mamdani

“I am Muslim, and I refuse to apologize for this.” He added, “I will not change who I am….I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to.”

Omar

“I think my faith as a Muslim is very important.”

Catholic Church on Abortion

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”

Biden

He started out having mixed feelings about abortion, but in time he adopted the far-left position. His views began changing in earnest in 2007 when he criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on partial-birth abortion, calling it “paternalistic.” As president, his administration used every available resource to promote abortion, even exploring novel ways to circumvent state laws restricting the barbaric practice.

Pelosi

She opposes laws that ban the killing of babies who are 80 percent born (partial birth abortion), and she has even won Planned Parenthood’s highest award. Furthermore, she has frequently clashed with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Her extreme position on abortion, along with other major departures from Catholic teachings, earned her a ban on receiving the Eucharist from San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

Islam on Abortion

In general, the Islamic view favors the sanctity of human life over abortion. Most Muslim scholars apply the Quran’s passages against the taking of innocent human life to the issue. This is true across many different schools of Muslim thought, and both Sunni and Shia Muslims generally disapprove of abortion.

Mamdani

He opposes any restrictions on abortion. That is why his voting record consistently receives a 100 percent score from Planned Parenthood.

Omar

She has been a co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act in the last three sessions of Congress. This legislation seeks to remove most restrictions on abortion and removes religious exemptions. Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Omar stated that the decision was “devastating for millions of women and pregnant people across the country.”

Catholic Church on LGBT Issues

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,” and are contrary to the natural law. Further, the Catholic Church rejects transgenderism, which Pope Francis called “demonic.”

Biden

In 2016, as vice president, he officiated a “gay wedding.” As president, he championed transgender procedures for minors and rescinded conscience protections to force Catholic doctors to perform these procedures.

Pelosi

She has supported legislation that would redefine marriage and has even gone so far as to say that same-sex marriage is “consistent” with Catholic teaching. Additionally, she champions transgenderism, including gender “reassignment surgeries” for minors.

Islam on LGBT Issues

In Islam, same-sex relationships are considered taboo. In 34 Muslim-majority countries, homosexual activity is illegal, and none of the 47 Muslim-majority countries recognize “gay marriages.”

Mamdani

He is a huge advocate of the radical LGBT cause. He supports transgender rights across the board and disagrees with the Islamic belief that there are only two sexes. He regularly attends gay events, including parades. He wants the LGBT curriculum  to be mandatory in all New York schools, making no allowance for private or parochial schools. Mamdani has also pledged that he will spend $65 million in taxpayer money for sex-reassignment surgery, puberty blockers, chemical castration and genital mutilation for minors.

Omar

She supports men competing in women’s sports and is proud to march in the Twin Cities Pride Parades. She favors ending conversion therapy, calling it “a form of torture.” In 2023, as Muslim parents joined with their Christian and Jewish neighbors in Montgomery County, Maryland, to protest the school district’s decision to compel their children to participate in lessons which promoted LGBT themes. She co-sponsored a resolution condemning their response.

Biden, Pelosi, Mamdani and Omar like to wear their religion on their sleeves while working to undermine core religious teachings on marriage, the family and sexuality. The media should hold them accountable but too often they give them a pass.

Bill Donohue

The invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota rightly triggered a visceral response on the part of people across religious communities. These Nazi-like tactics have also taken place in Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues. If there is one Catholic church that is singled out for protest, it is St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

Here is a list of some of the famous invasions. We are not counting incidences committed by mentally disturbed people.

“Stop the Church” AIDS/abortion protest (December 10, 1989):

• During a Sunday Mass celebrated by Cardinal John O’Connor, members of the militant homosexual activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), and the Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), infiltrated the cathedral as part of the “Stop the Church” demonstration. They disrupted the service by shouting slogans against the Church’s opposition to abortion and sex education policies in public schools. They lay down in aisles, chained themselves to pews, and desecrated a consecrated Eucharist. Cardinal O’Connor was forced to abandon his sermon. Dozens of protestors were inside the church, and over 4,500 protesters demonstrated outside; over 100 were arrested.

Radio stunt (Aug. 15, 2002):

• “Shock jocks” Opie and Anthony encouraged listeners to have sex in risky places, and two of them had sex during the day in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on a holy day of obligation, in front of men, women and children. It was a staged event, arranged by the radio hosts: they had comedian Paul Mercurio inside the Cathedral so he could give a graphic description of the stunt on his cell phone. The Catholic League contacted the FCC and Viacom, the media giant that owned the host station. In due course, the radio show was cancelled and the “shock jocks” were fired.

Animal-rights activists (March 27, 2016):

• Six animal rights activists from the group Collectively Free interrupted the noon Easter Sunday Mass during a moment of silence. They stood up and chanted “Easter is a time for love! No more shedding animal blood!” to protest animal exploitation and the consumption of Easter ham. One of the protesters was arrested.

George Floyd Protests (May 30, 2020):

• During the Black Lives Matter protests, protesters spray-painted the F-word, “BLM,” “NYPDK” along with the phrase “no justice, no peace” on the facade of the Cathedral. One of the stairs was also spray-painted with George Floyd’s name. Two people were charged the following month for the crime.

New Year’s Protest (January 1, 2021):

• On New Year’s Day 2021, police officers responding to a protest on Fifth Avenue found the acronym “ACAB” tagged on the cathedral. Video from the scene shows protesters blocking two NYPD cruisers and banging on the hood of one, and shouting expletives at officers. No arrests were made.

Transgender Funeral (February 15, 2024):

• Cecilia Gentili was a man who falsely claimed to be a woman. He was also an illegal alien, a drug addict, a prostitute, a trans activist, and an atheist. At Gentili’s funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, transgender activists dressed as hookers, disrupted the Mass by dancing in the aisles, sang “Ave Cecilia” when “Ave Maria” was sung, and shouted, “St. Cecilia, Mother of All Whores.” Cardinal Dolan ordered a Mass of Reparation be held as a response to this vile incident.

Gaza ceasefire protest (March 30, 2024):

• Three pro-Palestinian protesters affiliated with Extinction Rebellion interrupted the Easter Vigil Mass by standing front and center, unfurling a banner reading, “SILENCE = DEATH.” They shouted “Free Palestine” and demanded a ceasefire in Gaza. They were dragged out by security, and all three were arrested.

There have also been incredibly obscene incidents like the 1994 parade up Fifth Avenue marking the 25th Anniversary of the Stonewall riot. Men and women went naked in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, masturbated in the street, engaged in Satanic dances and extended their middle finger at the Cathedral.

Catholics who are angry about some issue do not act this way. But militant secularists have no respect for boundaries, do not believe in dialogue and are not averse to using violence to further their goals. They are a menace to society, and too many members of the ruling class refuse to condemn them.