Homosexual and 'Transgender' Activists Protest Outside of St. Louis Cathedral

One of the groups calls itself the 'Catholic Action Network' while it openly dissents from the teaching of the Catholic Church.

ST. LOUIS (Catholic Online) - I reported on the protest outside of the St. Louis' Cathedral Basilica on Nov. 29 when homosexual and "transgendered" people - upset that the Catholic Church defends marriage, the family and the society founded upon it - used the gathering of Catholics for Holy Mass as an opportunity to draw attention to their radical positions.

The protestors pledged that they would continue their disruptions throughout Advent and beyond. They seized upon a gift from the Bishop of St. Louis to help defend marriage in Maine as a vehicle for promoting their cultural revolution. Sadly, one of the groups calls itself the "Catholic Action Network" while it openly dissents from the teaching of the Catholic Church.

Last Sunday, while Catholics were attending the Liturgy for Gaudete Sunday - which calls Christians to Rejoice - 65 protestors gathered again and were anything but happy. They were angry and accusatory. They claimed that the St Louis Police "harassed" them. They further insisted that the Police did so at the direction of the Archdiocese. Both claims are without any merit. The police simply encouraged the protestors to stay on the public sidewalk.

Some of the protestors held signs urging those driving by the Church during Mass to "Honk for Equality". They use the slogans of the Homosexual Equivalency movement which seeks to force a legal equivalency between homosexual sexual relationships and true marriage in the civil law.

Kevin Killeen of KMOX News, in an article entitled "Protestors accuse church and state of muffling their message", reported the following:

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"There were no arrests and no allegations of police getting physical. But organizer Ed Reggi captured a tense exchange with an officer on video tape, in which he was warned to "prepare for arrest," when he refused at first to step back on the sidewalk.The officer on the video tells Reggi that he is not allowed on the street and that his holding of signs there was disturbing traffic and had prompted several 911 calls.

"Reggi claims two public relations workers with the Archdiocese were on site talking with police, and he suspects the church orchestrated the pushback."I saw at least a dozen more officers than the past two Sundays, and I was especially surprised that a supervisor was present," Reggi said.

"Sunday's confrontation was the first time a protest group has accused St. Louis police of inhibiting free speech since the department admitted it had wrongly arrested several protestors in town to attend a World Agricultural Forum a few years ago. Following that court settlement, Chief Dan Isom commented at a news conference that his department would work to avoid interfering with lawful demonstrations.

"At issue in Sunday's disagreement was whether protestors had the right by their permit to stand both on the sidewalk and near their parked cars. When threatened with arrest, protestors backed away to the sidewalk.

"The Archdiocese spokesperson released a statement saying "police were not called by them, nor by the Archbishop, who was out of town and unaware of the protests."

St. Louis Police also released a statement on the incident: "Several of the protestors told police that they wanted to get arrested for the media attention. They have been doing these protests every week for several weeks now with no arrests, so this is their way of getting media attention. If someone is alleging officer misconduct, we encourage them to contact the Internal Affairs Division."

Protestors are calling on their members to "show up in full force" this Sunday December 20th at noon outside the New Cathedral . "Our phones are ringing off the hook with angry upset Catholics," Reggi said, "We're calling on the entire St.Louis LGBT and Straight ally community to stand together for Equality next Sunday."

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We urge all of the readers of Catholic Online to pray for our faithful Catholic brothers and sisters in St. Louis. In particular, we ask that you pray for their good Bishop. Finally, pray for the protestors. That they would respect the rights of those who gather to worship and that they would come to see the error of their radical cultural agenda.

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