CINCINNATI (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Robert Casey of Cincinnati stopped a Catholic men’s group from using the archdiocesan cathedral’s steps to pray the Holy Rosary as a “pride parade” marched past this weekend.
In a June 27 video on the Catholic YouTube channel “Christ The King,” the host said that the archdiocese denied permission for his men’s group to pray a Holy Rosary of reparation on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains as the Cincinnati Pride Parade, which included obscenely dressed men and women, passed the cathedral.
He said that the group had been allowed to pray on the cathedral steps for the past several years, but this year the cathedral’s rector, Father Jan Schmidt, told the group that Archbishop Casey wanted to remain “neutral” to the “LGBT Pride” event. Casey, who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2025, is a former vicar of the Archdiocese of Chicago under Cardinal Blase Cupich.
“Our group … has prayed public reparation rosaries for the past few years. Always been able to pray at the cathedral, always been able to park at the cathedral without incident. We’ve never had any run-ins with these ‘pride parade people,’ we’ve just (said) our prayers,” the host said.
“But this is the first year that we’ve been turned away from the cathedral steps. And it’s frustrating because not only did the archbishop turn us away, but the police basically … made it impossible to park at the cathedral and made it almost impossible for anybody to park even close to the cathedral,” he added.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati told LifeSiteNews that the men’s group had not previously been granted permission to pray on the cathedral’s steps but in recent years had migrated there from the public sidewalk.
“To our knowledge, the group prayed on the sidewalk the first couple of years, then relocated to the steps three or four years ago,” Mike Schafer, the archdiocese’s director of communication and evangelization, told LifeSite.
Schafer stressed that when a group holds an event on the cathedral steps it appears that the archdiocese has sponsored or endorsed the organizers.
“When a group holds an event on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica, it naturally sends a public message that said event is under the sponsorship of the Cathedral Basilica or (since it is the Mother Church of the archdiocese) the archbishop himself,” he said.
“Neither of those was true in this case. Whatever signage might have been brought to the event, or whatever statements might have been made by some of the men, would have been attributed to the local Church and to the archbishop,” he added. “Since Christ is King acts on its own volition, and under no oversight from the rector of the Cathedral Basilica or the archbishop, it was appropriate that the group’s activities take place on public property.”
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The Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law” and that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear that homosexual activity can never be approved and repeats that “(h)omosexual persons are called to chastity.” Homosexual acts are mortal sins; therefore, anyone who commits these sins and does not repent through the sacrament of confession is in danger of hell.
“Pride” is also listed by the Church as one of the seven deadly sins – an aspect often highlighted by clerics who warn against promoting, or participating in, “Pride Month” and other “LGBT pride” events.
Sodomy is additionally listed as one of the four sins that cries out to heaven for vengeance.
On gender ideology, which the parade also promoted, the Church teaches that God creates every individual male or female at the moment of his or her conception and that sex is an immutable trait that “characterizes man and woman not only on the physical level but also on the psychological and spiritual, making its mark on each of their expressions.”
On June 29, Christ The King posted on X a copy of an email from the archdiocese, which denied that it intended to remain neutral to the “Pride Parade” but asked the group not to pray on the cathedral steps because it would send the message that the archbishop endorses or sponsors the men’s group’s event, which is not affiliated with the archdiocese.
Here is a copy of an official Archdiocese of Cincinnati response. It is just me, or is he essentially saying the Archbishop wants to remain neutral while denying the Archbishop wants to remain neutral? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/ghD6VRa3Lt
— Christ The King (@Catholic_State) June 29, 2026
During Casey’s first year as archbishop of Cincinnati, he made the controversial decision of renewing the archdiocese’s partnership with the notoriously pro-LGBT Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) nearly a year after his predecessor, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, ended the archdiocese’s 110-year partnership with the organization due to several of its activities and badge requirements contradicting Catholic teaching on gender ideology and homosexual “marriage.”