Organizers of New York City’s St. Patrick's Day Parade said they will no longer ban gay groups from marching in the annual event. The parade committee said that a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender support group, would be marching up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue as a contingent in the parade March 17, 2015. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the 2015 grand marshal, offered parade organizers “confidence and support.” According to a statement from Dolan: “My predecessors and I have always left decisions on who would march to the organizers of the individual parades. As I do each year, I look forward to celebrating Mass in honor of Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, and the Patron Saint of this Archdiocese, to begin the feast, and pray that the parade would continue to be a source of unity for all of us.” J. Patrick Hornbeck, chairman of the theology department at Fordham University, said in response: “I think we're seeing the Catholicism of Pope Francis come to the Archdiocese of New York. Cardinal Dolan’s statement is welcoming. He did not make this decision, but sees the parade as an opportunity for unity.” The prohibition had become a problem: Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to march and Guinness Beer dropped its sponsorship. The committee said its “change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics.”
Author’s note: As someone who once participated in all sorts of parades, concerts, and demonstrations, eagerly pushing a gay agenda, I can testify that these sorts of public spectacles are propaganda tools in which the homosexual platform can be exhibited and furthered by a public display and through a saturation of the media. In fact, Randy Shilts’ gay magnum opus “And The Band Played On” starts with the Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. Rightly, Shilts saw the Parade as a locus of all homosexual longings and unfulfilled dreams; a place where “the future and the past met;” where evolving strategies took on a visible form: “The gay movement had shifted from one of self-exploration, in which people moved through their own fears and self-alienation, to a movement of electoral politics, focused outward.” Therefore, gay groups which bully and intimidate in order to be included in various events, which really serve no other purpose but to give a free stage to their views, are not interested in that particular occasion, or what it essentially stands for, – only in furthering their own cause; and, subversively, hoping to undermine the religious institutions which have traditionally contributed – namely the Catholic Church. Therefore, I think cardinal Dolan should refuse to be a participant in this political and social black-mail scheme and withdraw from the Parade.
Relevant statements from the Holy See and the USCCB:
“All support should be withdrawn from any organizations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely. Such support, or even the semblance of such support, can be gravely misinterpreted.” ~ Congregation for The Doctrine of the Faith, “A Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.”
“‘Departure from the Church’s teaching, or silence about it, in an effort to provide pastoral care is neither caring nor pastoral.” Love and truth go together. The Sacred Scriptures tell us that the way to grow more Christ-like is by ‘living the truth in love’ (Eph 4:15). The Church cannot support organizations or individuals whose work contradicts, is ambiguous about, or neglects her teaching on sexuality.” The USCCB, “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care.”
“Moral conscience requires that, in every occasion, Christians give witness to the whole moral truth…” Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual.”