By Peter J. Smith
SAN FRANCISCO, June 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The San Francisco Catholic parish that gave the homosexual movement its rainbow flag will have a new surprise in store at the upcoming annual gay pride weekend in San Francisco: they are not coming.
The San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese has asked Most Holy Redeemer Parish in the Castro district not to participate this year and the parish has so far agreed.
LifeSiteNews contacted the archdiocese after it was reported Tuesday by the California Catholic Daily that Most Holy Redeemer parish would once again participate in San Francisco’s Pride Weekend – an event featuring sundry displays of obscenity, replete with floats and marchers celebrating all sorts of alternative sexual lifestyles from same-sex “marriage” to bisexuality to polyamory.
The parish’s AIDS Support Group was going to participate officially and had asked parishioners to help them set up a “major Beverage Booth in Civic Center” on Saturday, June 28, the first day of the homosexual festivities.
However, Maurice Healy, Communications Director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, spoke with Archbishop George Niederauer and told LifeSiteNews today that the archdiocese had addressed the situation.
“There is no way we control individual people, but in terms of the parish, yes, we have asked them not to participate as a parish,” Healy stated.
LifeSiteNews attempted to reach Most Holy Redeemer’s pastor Rev. Stephen Meriwether for comment. Calls, however, were not returned by press time.
The MHR AIDS Support Group, on the other hand, confirmed to LifeSiteNews that they no longer will be involved.
“We’re not going to be involved in the parade now this year,” said director Robert Pementell.
Most Holy Redeemer (MHR) church has a long history of involvement with the homosexual community in the Castro district and the San Francisco Pride Parade, but in the past two years has brought enormous embarrassment to the Archdiocese and Archbishop Niederauer.
The Archdiocese suspended its own chancellor and MHR’s pastor, Rev. Meriwether, in October 2006 for permitting the parish to play host to the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” a militant anti-Catholic homosexual organization that has as their slogan “go and sin some more.” The group’s style of bingo prompted the Archdiocese to ban them from using the parish facilities once the press discovered that the “sisters” bingo nights involved sexual games and prizes that included porn DVDs and “sex toys.”
Rev. Meriwether was later replaced as the archdiocesan chancellor by the Very Rev. C. Michael Padazinski.
The parish again got Archbishop Niederauer in hot water in October 2007 after he gave communion to two clownishly dressed persons well-known by Rev. Meriwether and the parish as the ill-reputed “Sisters.” Footage of the incident was picked up by the media and the embarrassment forced Archbishop Niederauer into giving a public apology to Catholics in San Francisco and at large.
See related LifeSiteNews reports:
San Francisco Archbishop Responds After Caught on Video Giving Communion to Gay Men Dressed as Nuns
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07101004.html
Apologizing San Francisco Archbishop Has History of “mistakes” Related to Homosexuality
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07101204.html
Scandalous San Francisco ‘Gay Pride’ Pastor and Chancellor Back in Saddle after “Leave”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06111709.html
Homosexual Activists Cheer Appointment of New San Francisco Archbishop
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05122203.html
New San Francisco Archbishop Thinks Gay Propaganda Film Brokeback Mountain is “Very Powerful”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06021306.html
San Francisco Archbishop Niederauer Says He Doesn’t Know Nancy Pelosi Stand on Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07020802.html
Catholic-Affiliated Adoption Agency Recruiting Homosexual Adoptive Parents
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07052905.html
Catholic University of San Francisco Promotes Abortion, Same Sex Marriage and Contraception
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07032005.html