Catholic Leaders Seek Prayer for Dodgers’ ‘Blasphemy’

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and the Most Reverend Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services are joining with Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles to call for Catholics nationally to pray Friday as an act of reparation for the “blasphemy” they say the Los Angeles Dodgers are committing by honoring a satirical drag nun group. 

The prayer is offered “with the intention of repairing the spiritual damage inflicted by sin,” the Catholic leaders said in their announcement, which doesn’t specifically name the group, the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” whose members dress in drag as nuns, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The leaders called the Dodgers’ act as one of “blasphemy,” and point out that Catholics recognize June as the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and observe Friday as a day honoring the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“A professional baseball team has shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, His Mother, and consecrated women cannot be overstated,” they said. 

The Litany of the Sacred Heart, the prayer being called for, will serve “as an act of reparation for the blasphemies against our Lord we see in our culture today,” the Catholic leaders added. 

The Dodgers will present the organization with the Community Heroes Award during the Pride Night events before Friday night’s game in recognition of its charitable work. 

Gomez said he planned to dedicate a service Friday afternoon, before the Dodgers game, “for healing due to harm caused by the Dodgers’ decision to honor a group that intentionally denigrates and profanes the Catholic faith.”

In a statement from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Gomez announced a Mass will be held at 12:10 p.m. local time at the Cathedral of the Angels, but the statement also doesn’t mention the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence by name. 

“We will be praying in a special way for our city and country, for an end to prejudice, and for renewed respect for the religious beliefs of all Angelenos and all Americans,” the statement reads. 

The Sisters, in an email to The Times, said they wish Gomez “and his flock the very best,” and that “we pray all Angelenos will enjoy the magnificent athleticism and sportsmanship of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night. We will be in attendance to cheer on our beloved LGBTQ community and to support the Dodgers as they beat the San Francisco Giants.”

But the Los Angeles archdiocese in speaking out against the award, said in another statement that the Sisters are a group that mocks women and religion and “worse, desecrates the Cross, profanes the Eucharist, and disrupts Holy Mass” and by honoring the Dodgers have caused “disappointment, dismay, and pain in our Catholic community, as well as among our fellow Christians and people of good will.”

The Dodgers told The Times they have no comment on the archdiocese’s plans for the service Friday. 

However, Sister Jeannine Grammick, a co-founder of New Ways Ministry who has ministered to LGBTQ+ Catholics for more than 50 years, has spoken out in support of the Sisters, saying that she thinks they deserve recognition for their charity work. 

“While I am uncomfortable with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence using the nuns’ old garb to draw attention to bigotry, whether Catholic or not, there is a hierarchy of values in this situation,” she wrote in a letter to the Dodgers. “I believe that any group that serves the community, especially those who are less fortunate or on the margins of society, should be honored.”