News

By Hilary White

ST. PAUL-MINNEAPOLIS, October 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Yesterday, United Press International reported that Dignity Twin Cities, a homosexual organization that lobbies the Catholic Church to change its teachings on sexual purity, would be sponsoring “National Coming Out Day” with a Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. The report said that the event is being co-sponsored with Dignity Twin Cities and the notoriously pro-homosexual parish of St. Joan of Arc, with the festivities to be presided over by St. Mary’s pastor, Fr. Michael O’Connell.

LifeSiteNews.com contacted St. Mary’s Basilica and spoke with Janice Andersen, the parish Director of Christian Life. She flatly denied the story, saying that there was no such service scheduled at St. Mary’s for either Sunday or Tuesday, October tenth. She said that the parish does not co-sponsor events with Dignity Twin Cities or St. Joan of Arc parish. Neither Dignity Twin Cities nor Joan of Arc parish could be reached for comment.

The parish of St. Mary’s does, however, have a lively and active homosexual organization that has in the past sponsored National Coming Out Day Masses featuring the pastor, Fr. Michael O’Connell.

The St. Mary’s Basilica Boulevards group web page says it provides “a welcoming, accepting and mutually supportive group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people who gather together to share in social, service, educational and spiritual activities and to work for justice.”

Boulevards offers active homosexuals “a sense of community for those who wish to reconcile their sexual orientation with their faith.”

In 2004, the Wanderer reported that the parish had sponsored a special “Coming Out” liturgy by Fr. O’Connell on Thursday October 14, calling it a “holiday” and “a chance for GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered) people to express their need to live authentically.”

Dignity Twin Cities was founded in 1974 by Fr. Henry Le May and held meetings at the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis from 1976 until 1987. The meetings were shut down by the Church, and the group was prohibited from meeting on Church property.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis that has been plagued with homosexual abuse scandals, has also been singled out in the homosexual world as one of the most ‘gay-friendly’ dioceses in the American Catholic Church. At least 8 parishes and chaplaincies are listed on various homosexual websites as being “welcoming” to active and unrepentant homosexuals.

Other Catholic organizations in the archdiocese are openly supportive of the homosexual movement’s activism against the Church, including the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet and St. Catherine’s college founded by the sisters.

The most active homosexual organization in the archdiocese is the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM), officially sponsored at several of the archdioceses’ parishes, that has sponsored pro-homosexual workshops and programs for Catholic educators nationwide.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
  Prominent Minneapolis-St. Paul Priest a Leader in National Homosexual Lobby Group
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032009.html

To express concerns:
  Chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis
  226 Summit Avenue
  Saint Paul, MN 55102
  651-291-4424
[email protected]

  Link to St. Mary’s Basilica Boulevards programme
https://www.mary.org/life/groups/boulevards/index.html