Archbishop Niederauer to be Mocked by Homosexuals for His Support of Marriage

Archbishop will be dishonored during the 39th San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade.

SAN FRANCISCO (Catholic Online) - Readers of Catholic Online are familiar with the group which calls itself the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence." They claim international membership. (For example, see our related story concerning their activities in Biarritz, France and the courage shown by Bishop Marc Aillet.) However, one of their most active chapters is located in San Francisco, California. They summarize their mission as "Defining San Francisco Values Since 1979" on their outlandish San Francisco web site. In an editorial in 2007 entitled "Scandal in San Francisco", I wrote an account of their sacrilegious activities during Holy Mass on October 7, 2007 at the Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco, California. They hate the Catholic Church because she stands for the truth concerning the dignity of human sexuality and authentic marriage among many other things.

One of their members, a bearded man who dresses in outlandish make up and women's clothing and goes by the name of Sister Dana Van Iquity, writes for the San Francisco Bay Times. These folks think that their profane, sacrilegious mocking of all things related to the Catholic Church is funny. In a column dated June 18, 2009 and entitled "Second Pink Brick to Go to Runner Up Archbishop George Niederauer" Sister Dana Van Iquity confirmed the bad news which has also been reported in the "California Catholic Daily." Archbishop George Niederauer will be dishonored during the 39th San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade on June 27 and June 28th with a second "Pink Brick award." This "award" is given to the person or organization which the committee of homosexual activists deems to have caused the most harm to the "LGBT community" (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender). This will be the second effort of the homosexual activists to dishonor the San Francisco Archbishop through public ridicule. They have bestowed such a "pink brick" on him in the past.

"California Catholic Daily", in a June 19, 2009 column entitled "Poisonous tenor" and subtitled "San Francisco 'gay pride' group votes to dishonor archbishop at behest of Most Holy Redeemer parishioner" reports something which is even more troubling. Much of the impetus behind this egregious action of dishonoring the Archbishop actually came from Matt Dorsey, a member of the Parish Council of the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. The report can be found on their website at http://www.calcatholic.com/:

"Poisonous Tenor: San Francisco 'gay pride' group votes to dishonor archbishop at behest of Most Holy Redeemer parishioner"

"At the urging of a member of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee has voted to dishonor Archbishop George Niederauer with a "Pink Brick" award for causing "significant harm to the LGBT community." The decision was spurred by Matt Dorsey, a member of the Parish Council at San Francisco's 'gay friendly' Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. In an opinion piece written for the homosexual-oriented newspaper Bay Area Reporter, Dorsey objected to the original decision by the Pride Celebration Committee to award the Pink Brick to dethroned Miss California, Carrie Prejean. Dorsey said "we need not have looked beyond our own city limits: San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer" in a column published under the headline "Niederauer deserves Pink Brick."

"The Pride Celebration Committee announced on June 15 that its members had reconsidered their decision and decided to award a second Pink Brick to the archbishop. "The Pink Brick is given each year to a person or institution that has caused significant harm to the LGBT community," said the Bay Area Reporter. Archbishop Niederauer was singled out for his support last year of Proposition 8, the successful initiative constitutional amendment adopted by voters restricting marriage to between one man and one woman and later upheld by the California Supreme Court. "We hope that with this "Pink Brick, we can educate the community about Archbishop Niederauer's work to deny LGBT couples equal protection under the law," Mikayla Connell, president of the Pride Celebration Committee told the Reporter. "Archbishop Niederauer's support of Proposition 8, which is not representative of all faith communities or even of all Catholics, has only served to harm LGBT families, many of whom are Catholic themselves."

"Connell's comments echoed sentiments expressed by Dorsey in his column urging the Pride Committee to single out the archbishop. "Having served for 11 years as the Catholic bishop of Salt Lake City prior to coming to San Francisco, Niederauer leveraged his close ties to national Mormon leaders last June when he wrote to officials of the Church of Latter-day Saints, urging them to play an active role in the fight to pass Prop 8," wrote Dorsey. "And play an active role they did: by most estimates, Mormons accounted for more than half of the $40 million spent in support of the anti-gay amendment. Dorsey also attacked the Archdiocese of San Francisco for "the poisonous tenor" of campaign materials provided under the auspices of the archdiocese in support of Proposition 8. "Clearly, no one expected Archbishop Niederauer to break with the Vatican on the issue of marriage equality," wrote Dorsey. "But few were prepared for the spiritual leader of 400,000 Bay Area Catholics to offer the imprimatur of our church to such dishonest, divisive and deliberately hurtful rhetoric."

Light Your Free Candle for Pope Francis. May He Rest in Peace.

"According to the web site of Most Holy Redeemer Church, Dorsey is a member of the nine-person Parish Pastoral Council, charged with "responding to the needs of parishioners by proposing pastoral initiatives, policies, and programs, or themes in cooperation with the Pastor, pastoral staff and relevant archdiocesan resources and ministries." The council also meets twice a year with the Parish Finance Committee "to review the financial condition of the parish and consult regarding the annual budget. According to a biography posted on the Most Holy Redeemer web site, Dorsey has been a parishioner since 2004. His past activities have included organizing the parish's contingent to annual 'gay pride' parades, and arranging a parish presence at the annual Castro Street Fair. Dorsey is employed as communications director for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera".

"Most Holy Redeemer, located in the city's Castro District, has repeatedly made news over the years for its homosexual-friendly activities: it is the parish where Archbishop Niederauer gave Communion to two transvestites dressed as nuns in 2007 (the archbishop later apologized), the parish where the same group of transvestite "nuns" - the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - once held bingo games to raise money until they were kicked out on orders of the chancery in 2006, and the parish that regularly sends a contingent to San Francisco "gay pride" parade until ordered by the archdiocese to stop participating in the event. According Jesuit Fr. Donal Godfrey, currently director of university ministry at the University of San Francisco, the parish is where the so-called "rainbow flag," the banner of the homosexual-rights movement, was invented. "In early January, vandals spray-painted swastikas and the message "Niederauer, Ratzinger - where is the love" on the front walls of Most Holy Redeemer. Fr. Steve Meriwether, the pastor at Most Holy Redeemer, told KCBS news at the time that his parishioners "actually share the vandals' sentiment against Prop 8."

We urge our readers to pray for the Archbishop, that he would continue to have the courage to proclaim the truth about marriage in the face of such mockery. Also, we ask you to pray for those who perpetrate this continued hatred directed toward the Catholic Church, especially the deluded members of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" and their collaborators. Finally, we urge our readers to contact Fr. Steve Meriwether, the Pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, to express any concerns you may have over this entire matter and, in particular, the actions taken by a member of the Parish Council of Most Holy Redeemer.

Enjoy Daily Readings? Pay it Forward

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'