Catholics are slamming the LA Dodgers for their "alarming and dangerous normalization of anti-Catholic bigotry" after the major league team plans to honor an activist group known for shocking protests.
The baseball team announced they will honor the LA-based branch of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an activist group of "queer and trans nuns," with the "Community Hero Award" before their upcoming June 16th game to celebrate LGBTQ pride month.
Members of the group, formed on Easter Sunday in 1979, are known for attending left-wing protests dressed up in mock nun outfits to advocate for anti-Catholic messaging including on abortion.
"The Dodger’s choice to honor a blatantly perverted, sexual and disgusting anti-Catholic hate-group signals an alarming and dangerous normalization of anti-Catholic bigotry that should not be tolerated," the Brian Burch, CatholicVote president, said in a statement Tuesday. "The ‘Sister’s’ evil and disturbing behavior makes a mockery of Catholic religious across the nation, the majority of whom have dedicated their lives to prayerfully and physically supporting, caring for and loving our nation’s most forgotten, unloved and desperate."
CatholicVote called out the "blatantly anti-Catholic hate group" and said Americans "should be deeply concerned," highlighting ongoing attacks on Catholic churches.
"All Americans, especially Catholics, should be deeply concerned that the Dodger’s feel comfortable platforming such a grotesque and blatantly anti-Catholic hate group at a time when Catholic Churches across our nation are already suffering a wave of violent attacks instigated by pro-abortion radicals," Burch said, referring to recent attacks on the Catholic community in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
The group called on the Dodgers to reconsider their honoring of the group.
"No other religion would be treated this way — and if the Dodgers truly care about fighting bigotry and promoting inclusivity, they will retract their invite to this disgusting, offensive and dangerous hate group," Burch urged.
Catholic Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also called out the Dodgers' decision to host the group "in pursuit of modern, secular, and indeed anti-religious ‘values.'"
"The ‘sisters’ are men who dress in lewd imitation of Roman Catholic nuns. The group’s motto, ‘go and sin some more,’ is a perversion of Jesus’s command to ‘go, and sin no more," Rubio wrote in a press release Monday. "Baseball has always been tied to our nation’s values, at the heart of which is faith in God. It would be an outrage and a tragedy if the MLB, in pursuit of modern, secular, and indeed anti-religious ‘values,’ rebuked that faith and the millions of believing fans who cherish the sport."