Sacrilege, Scandal and Homosexual Ideology in San Francisco

Countless Catholic-oriented or pro-family web sites are publishing photos and video footage of the sacrilegious scandal that took place at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, in which two transvestites dressed as nuns received Holy Communion from the Archbishop’s hands.¹

A Scene out of the “Theatre of the Absurd”
What happened at Most Holy Redeemer Church in San Francisco is so outlandish that it recalls a type of theater play in the mid-twentieth century called the “Theatre of the Absurd” which had personages who were not what they appeared to be, dialogues that made no sense and plots that lacked any meaning.²

The video clip shows the Archbishop of San Francisco, Most Reverend George H. Niederauer celebrating Mass at Most Holy Redeemer Parish. Among the congregation are two men posing as women and wearing imitation nun habits. One of them is tall and with a moustache and has on his head a headdress of ribbons with the colors of the rainbow, a symbol used by the homosexual movement. Both have white makeup on their faces and the shorter one has painted lips and wears a necklace of “pearls.” At the hour of the sign of peace, the two discreetly kiss each other and then exchange greetings with other attendants.

Everything about them identifies them as members of the homosexual group³ called the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”⁴ Their motto is a sacrilegious parody of Our Lord’s words for the adulteress (“Go, and now sin no more,” John 8:11): “Go forth and sin some more!” ⁵ This group has enjoyed a close relationship with the parish for some time.⁶

Then the Archbishop begins to distribute Holy Communion, the two transvestites join the line. When the turn came for the mustached one, the Archbishop gives him a blessing, then, but after a short (inaudible) dialogue, gives him Communion in his black-gloved hands. The transvestite with painted lips receives Communion without any problem.

At the end of the clip, one can see the two transvestites entirely at ease at the coffee-and-donuts session after Mass, conversing a few steps away from the Archbishop.

Apologies and Explanations
On October 11, 2007 the archdiocese made public the archbishop’s weekly column in the Catholic San Francisco (to be published on its October 19 issue) in which the Most Rev. George H. Niederauer presented his apologies “to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large.”⁷

Along with the apologies, the Archbishop added “some additional explanation,” which is a bit confusing. He said that since he did not realize the transvestites belonged to the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,”⁸ he “did not recognize either of them as wearing mock religious garb.” And he continued: “After the event, I realized that they were members of this particular organization and that giving them Holy Communion had been a mistake.”

And then comes the archbishop’s apology:
“I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so. The manner of dress and public comportment of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is deeply offensive to women religious and to the witness of holiness and Christian service that women religious have offered to the Church and to the world for centuries.”

Many Catholics found that the apology was “terribly incomplete” since the Archbishop apologizes only for having given Communion to persons dressed “in a mock religious habit” which is “deeply offensive to women religious” without a word about the sacrilegious insult perpetrated against the Holy Eucharist, let alone the gravity of the vice of sodomy.⁹

That omission is all the more lamentable since, as many have noted, Archbishop Niederauer has previously taken many disconcerting stands in regard to homosexuality. To cite only two of those, when he was the diocesan bishop of Salt Lake City he opposed an initiative to hold a state constitutional referendum to ban “same-sex marriage.” Last year, as Archbishop in San Francisco, he praised the homosexual propaganda movie, Brokeback Mountain.¹⁰

A ‘Thank You’ From the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”
The Most Holy Redeemer parish bulletin of October 14 carried a “thank-you” note titled “An Email from One of Those Attending Mass.” It was written by “Delta Goodhand,” listed on the web site of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as “Sister Delta Goodhand.” “Sister” Delta Goodhand’ writes:

“To all the Folks at Most Holy Redeemer: Just a quick note to recognize the wonderful Mass yesterday at your Church to welcome Archbishop Niederauer. Your entire congregation was so welcoming and it was great to be able to participate in the Mass. The service was absolutely beautiful and I know that I personally walked away very inspired by both the Archbishop’s message and the angelic voices of your choir ringing in my ears! Amazing! Afterwards, one of the parishioners offered us a blue ‘MHRC: An Inclusive Catholic Church’ pin that I was proud to wear through the Castro Fair. You are a wonderfully inclusive church!”¹¹

The Archbishop’s order, the parish deleted the message from the online bulletin.¹² Nevertheless, a no less surprising message appeared in the MHR Parish Bulletin on October 14, 2007, in which the parish thanks those who helped set up its stand for an event with heavy homosexual presence (to say the least):
“We would like to thank the Young Adult Group for staffing the parish information booth at the Castro Street Fair. Thank you also to the Support Group for facilitating the parish’s presence in this neighborhood celebration.”¹³

At the site of the Castro Street Fair itself one can see the heavy homosexual participation in the event, which featured shows with “drag queens” and the transvestite “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.” There is also a general ambience of immorality.¹⁴

“An Openly gay Member of the Church’s Parish Council”
The homosexual publication Bay Area Reporter¹⁵ in an article by Matthew S. Bajko titled “Political Notebook: SF Archbishop in Hot Water,” interviewed a member of the Parish Council of Most Holy Redeemer Church. He wrote:

Matt Dorsey, an openly gay member of the church’s parish council, dismissed the criticisms against the Sisters receiving the Eucharist as having little to do with Catholicism. …. “This organization [the Saint Joseph Men’s Association] is a hard right fundamentalist group that does not represent mainstream Catholics, and frankly, does not espouse any teaching of Jesus Christ I am aware of,” said Dorsey. “The same people object to Communion being given to Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, and Rudy Giuliani. The truth is this isn’t about religion; it is about the culture war and their efforts to drag the archbishop into it.” As for the archbishop’s apology, Dorsey called it narrowly tailored. “He apologized for not knowing what was going on,” he said. “The Sisters are irreverent but also share a mission of social justice with the church. They do a lot of important work for our community.”¹⁶

Parish that Favors Vice
Instead of helping people overcome their bad inclinations, the “pastoral” policy of Most Holy Redeemer Parish, where the above mentioned Eucharistic sacrilege took place, favors vice.

The pastor of this parish is Fr. Steve Merriwether, a graduate in sacred theology, and, until recently, chancellor of the archdiocese. It is not easy to see how this pastor implements the maxim attributed to Saint Augustine, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” Where, for example, is “hate the sin” in this salutation to the faithful?

“You will find [in Most Holy Redeemer Parish] the good people of our parish old, young, married, gay, lesbian, transgender, affluent, homeless, blue-collar, converts, cradle Catholics, radical, traditional, questioning, fervent.”¹⁹

On the Internet, his parish is presented as follows:

“[An] inclusive Catholic community embracing all people of good faith, Catholics as well as those people interested in learning about the Catholic experience, regardless of their background, gender, race, social status or sexual orientation. …The parish offers a spiritual home to all: senior citizens and youth; single people and families; those who are straight, gay and lesbian; the healthy and the sick, particularly persons with HIV disease.”²⁰

Here one can clearly notice the influence of homosexual ideology, which subversively mixes radically different categories such as race, age, gender and social status, with moral behavior.

However, Father Steve does more than just offer verbal support. He encourages, even with his priestly blessing, a group of the parish to participate officially in an event called “Gay Pride” by carrying a large sign with the name of the parish.²¹ Such an attitude by the parish pastor not only favors this vice against nature but encourages parishioners to mix with semi-dressed or even totally undressed men and women, exalting all types of deviations, even the most brutal ones.²²

An Auxiliary Force of the Homosexual Movement
The photo gallery of the parish site contains such contradictory entries as “[Gay] Pride” and “Easter” and “Christmas.” In the “Pride” section, (confirmed by video clips of another web site)²³ one sees the pastor, in vestments, sprinkling holy water on those who will participate in an event that denies not only the elementary principles of morals but even plain decency.

Accordingly, the parish has lent or rented its premises for homosexual events. Thus, in 2006 they hosted “Revival Bingo” promoted by the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”That game included immoral acts and offered “pornographic DVDs and ‘sex toys’” as prizes.²⁴

Due to the strong negative reaction, the archdiocese forbade the continuation of this event.²⁵ The subsequent lamentation by the homosexual group is meaningful: “The San Francisco Archdiocese bowed to right-wing pressure and kicked the Sisters out of Most Holy Redeemer Church.”²⁶

On September 29, 007, the parish hosted a show of transvestites titled “Desperate Divas 2008 Grand Drag Pageant,”which the organizers described as follows: “Twelve of the Bay Area’s most delicious drag divas will compete for the Crown and Title of Miss Desperate Diva 2008, culminating in the big reveal of who will grace the cover of the 2008 Desperate Divas Drag calendar, which will be available for purchase for the first time at the event.”²⁷

Tip of an Iceberg?
Is Most Holy Redeemer Parish of San Francisco an isolated case, or are there others which, though in a less scandalous fashion, are also influenced by the ideology of Homosexual Movement?

In the “Resources” section of the web site of Most Holy Redeemer Parish is a link to Catholic Lesbians. These are people who believe they can maintain an amorous homosexual relationship and continue being good Catholics, as reflected in the “Shared Stories” section.²⁸This site also presents a list of more than 150 “Gay & Lesbian Friendly Parishes” throughout the United States.²⁹ The same list can be found on the web site of St. Bernadette Parish of Severn, Maryland.³⁰

Both sites define “Gay & Lesbian Friendly Parishes”as those “known as welcoming to membership and participation by lesbian and gay Catholics because of pastoral outreach or simply because the staff and parishioners are open and welcoming.”

Does the list reflect reality and to what degree can it be said that these parishes adopt the homosexual ideology? It is difficult to verify. However, the two examples on hand are significant.

In the “Gay and Lesbian Ministry” section of its web site, St. Bernadette Parish has this “Mission Statement”: “As a parish committed to an attitude of welcome and firmly opposed to discrimination in all its forms, we declare our support for gay and lesbian Catholics.” For this reason, the parish “welcome[s] sexual minorities” and wishes “to educate ourselves, the church community, to the existence of unexamined prejudice and to the consequences of injustice. We will work to end discrimination toward gay and lesbian people within and outside of the church community.”³¹

Not a word is said about the intrinsic immorality of the homosexual act and the particular gravity of this sin. This is consistent with the parish’s participation in “Pride Day,” a major homosexual event in Baltimore³² as can be seen in its photo gallery.³³

On the site of one of the parishes mentioned on the list is St. Joan of Arc of Minneapolis which has a “community groups” called “St. Joan of Arc’s GLBT Community.” That “Community” defends adoption by “same-sex parents”³⁴ and makes its own the statements by an “openly gay Pediatrician” who, though pointing out the risks homosexual practice brings to the youth, claims: “They’re self determined, proud, courageous, strong and resilient.”³⁵

Struggle in defense of the true Catholic Doctrine
Like an iceberg, where most of the ice is submerged and only the tip protrudes above the surface of the ocean, the sacrilege at Most Holy Redeemer and the deviations of these “ministries” are just reminders of the massive threat to Catholic faith and morals posed by the unchecked subversion of the homosexual movement within the Church.