Franciscan friar gets 6 months in jail for blocking New York abortion clinic entrance

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 29, 2023 / 15:55 pm

Catholic priest and pro-life activist Father Fidelis Moscinski, CFR, has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for blocking access to a Planned Parenthood abortion facility by placing locks and chains on the gated entrance. 

Judge Steven Tiscione laid down the six-month sentence, which is the maximum available for the specific crime. Moscinski was found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which imposes harsh penalties for obstructing access to an abortion facility or a pregnancy center.

“My actions … were done because Planned Parenthood as an organization is in the business of killing,” Moscinski told the judge while asking for a lenient sentence, according to his remarks provided by the pro-life organization Red Rose Rescue. 

Although the priest is a member of Red Rose Rescue, the organization has emphasized that his effort to block access to an abortion clinic was not sanctioned by the group. Red Rose Rescue said members can engage in pro-life activism outside of their organization, but they are a sole agent when doing so. 

“Every procured abortion that occurs on [Planned Parenthood’s] premises constitutes the deliberate killing of an innocent human being,” Moscinski continued in his statement to the judge. “Furthermore, these bloody and violent acts also cause grave spiritual and psychological harm to the mother of the child. All of my actions then and now are directed solely towards preventing the murder of defenseless children and the wounding of their mothers.”

The Franciscan friar also criticized the FACE Act.

“This pseudo-law seeks to cloak the act of killing preborn children under the euphemistic and Orwellian language of ‘reproductive health care,’” Moscinski said. “I am not guilty of violating this law because this law cannot be seen as anything other than null and void since it attempts to give legal protection to actions which are intrinsically evil and unjust.”

Moscinski asked Tiscione to “somewhat mitigate the injustice this court has perpetrated” by providing him the most lenient sentence possible. Instead, the judge handed him the most severe sentence and cited his previous arrests for pro-life activism as his justification for the sentence.

The priest’s pro-life activism occurred on the morning of July 7, 2022, at the Planned Parenthood of Greater New York clinic in Hempstead, New York. He effectively shut down the clinic for about two hours by placing locks and chains on the entrance and covering some of them with glue, according to the Department of Justice.

Once the fire department and police department cut through the locks, Moscinski laid down in front of the entrance to prevent cars from entering the gate, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Moscinski has previously been arrested for his pro-life activism, but this is the first time he has been found guilty of violating the FACE Act. Last year, he was arrested for trespassing in an abortion clinic after entering the facility in protest and refusing to leave when ordered by staff and then by police. 

Earlier this month, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Red Rose Rescue that seeks to bar Moscinski and other members of Red Rose Rescue from going within 30 feet of an abortion clinic. Even though Moscinski’s FACE Act violation was not part of a Red Rose Rescue, the attorney general cited that incident as one of the incidents to justify the lawsuit.

 

ANGLICAN AND CATHOLIC TEACHING ON HOMOSEXUALITY

Anglican teaching is that homosexual acts are incompatible with Scripture. And they always will be.

If the Anglican Church changes its teaching (and it will!) it will reduce itself to zero credibility. Not that it has any real credibility I hear you say!

The Catholic Church will never change its teaching that homosexual acts are grave depravity. Thank God for the Catholic Church!

From The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994

Chastity and homosexuality

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an

exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great

variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. It psychological genesis remains

largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts

of grave depravity (Cf. Genesis 19:1-29; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:10; 1 Timothy 1:10),

tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” (Congregation

for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona humana, 8). They are contrary to the natural law. They

close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual

complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not

negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They

must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination

in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and,

if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may

encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them

their inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and

sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

7. THE FALL

385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? "I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution", said St. Augustine,²⁵⁷ and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For "the mystery of lawlessness" is clarified only in the light of the "mystery of our religion".²⁵⁸ The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace.²⁵⁹ We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.²⁶⁰

I. WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE ABOUNDED ALL THE MORE

The reality of sin

386 Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.

387 Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.

Original sin - an essential truth of the faith

388 With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.²⁶¹ We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. the Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to "convict the world concerning sin",²⁶² by revealing him who is its Redeemer.

389 The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. the Church, which has the mind of Christ,²⁶³ knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.

How to read the account of the fall

390 The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.²⁶⁴ Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.²⁶⁵

II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS

391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.²⁶⁶ Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil".²⁶⁷ The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing."²⁶⁸

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.²⁶⁹ This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be like God."²⁷⁰ The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of lies".²⁷¹

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."²⁷²

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from the beginning", who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father.²⁷³ "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil."²⁷⁴ In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature - to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him."²⁷⁵

III. ORIGINAL SIN

Freedom put to the test

396 God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. the prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die."²⁷⁶ The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"²⁷⁷ symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

Man's first sin

397 Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.²⁷⁸ All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.

398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God".²⁷⁹

399 Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness.²⁸⁰ They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.²⁸¹

400 The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination.²⁸² Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man.²⁸³ Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay".²⁸⁴ Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground",²⁸⁵ for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.²⁸⁶

401 After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin There is Cain's murder of his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise, sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses. and even after Christ's atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians.²⁸⁷ Scripture and the Church's Tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's history:

What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end, and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures.²⁸⁸

The consequences of Adam's sin for humanity

402 All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned."²⁸⁹ The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men."²⁹⁰

403 Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul".²⁹¹ Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin.²⁹²

404 How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? the whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man".²⁹³ By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state.²⁹⁴ It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. and that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act.

405 Although it is proper to each individual,²⁹⁵ original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.

406 The Church's teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam's fault to bad example. the first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. the Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529)²⁹⁶ and at the Council of Trent (1546).²⁹⁷

A hard battle. . .

407 The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world. By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil".²⁹⁸ Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action²⁹⁹ and morals.

408 The consequences of original sin and of all men's personal sins put the world as a whole in the sinful condition aptly described in St. John's expression, "the sin of the world".³⁰⁰ This expression can also refer to the negative influence exerted on people by communal situations and social structures that are the fruit of men's sins.³⁰¹

409 This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one"³⁰² makes man's life a battle:

The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity.³⁰³

IV. "YOU DID NOT ABANDON HIM TO THE POWER OF DEATH"

410 After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall.³⁰⁴ This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium ("first gospel"): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.

411 The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the "New Adam" who, because he "became obedient unto death, even death on a cross", makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience, of Adam.³⁰⁵ Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the "Proto-evangelium" as Mary, the mother of Christ, the "new Eve". Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.³⁰⁶

412 But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away."³⁰⁷ and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more'; and the Exsultet sings, 'O happy fault,. . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!'"³⁰⁸

IN BRIEF

413 "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. . . It was through the devil's envy that death entered the world" (Wis 1:13; 2:24).

414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God.

415 "Although set by God in a state of rectitude man, enticed by the evil one, abused his freedom at the very start of history. He lifted himself up against God, and sought to attain his goal apart from him" (GS 13 # 1).

416 By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings.

417 Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called "original sin".

418 As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence").

419 "We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, "by propagation, not by imitation" and that it is. . . 'proper to each'" (Paul VI, CPG # 16).

420 The victory that Christ won over sin has given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken from us: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20).

421 Christians believe that "the world has been established and kept in being by the Creator's love; has fallen into slavery to sin but has been set free by Christ, crucified and risen to break the power of the evil one. . ." (GS 2 # 2).

---

257 St. Augustine, Conf. 7, 7, 11: PL 32, 739.


258 2 Th 2:7; I Tim 3:16.


259 Cf. Rom 5:20.


260 Cf. Lk 11:21-22; Jn 16:11; I Jn 3:8.


261 Cf. Rom 5:12-21.


262 Jn 16:8.


263 Cf. I Cor 2:16.


264 Cf. GS 13 # 1.


265 Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1513; Pius XII: DS 3897; Paul VI: AAS 58 (1966), 654.


266 Cf. Gen 3:1-5; Wis 2:24.


267 Cf Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9.


268 Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800.


269 Cf. 2 Pt 2:4.


270 Gen 3:5.


271 I Jn 3:8; Jn 8:44.


272 St. John Damascene, Defide orth. 2, 4: PG 94, 877.


273 Jn 8:44; cf. Mt 4:1-11.


274 I Jn 3:8.


275 Rom 8:28.


276 Gen 2:17.


277 Gen 2:17.


278 Cf. Gen 3:1-11 ; Rom 5:19.


279 St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua: PG 91, 1156C; cf. Gen 3:5.


280 Cf. Rom 3:23.


281 Cf. Gen 3:5-10.


282 Cf. Gen 3:7-16.


283 Cf. Gen 3:17, 19.


284 Rom 8:21.


285 Gen 3:19; cf. 2:17.


286 Cf. Rom 5:12.


287 Cf. Gen 4:3-15; 6:5, 12; Rom 1:18-32; I Cor 1-6; Rev 2-3.


288 GS 13 # 1.


289 Rom 5:12, 19.


290 Rom 5:18.


291 Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1512.


292 Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1514.


293 St. Thomas Aquinas, De malo 4, I.


294 Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1511-1512


295 Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1513.


296 DS 371-372.


297 Cf. DS 1510-1516.


298 Council of Trent (1546): DS 1511; cf. Heb 2:14.


299 Cf. John Paul II, CA 25.


300 Jn 1:29.


301 Cf. John Paul II, RP 16.


302 I Jn 5:19; cf. I Pt 5:8.


303 GS 37 3 2.


304 Cf. Gen 3:9, 15.


305 Cf. I Cor 15:21-22, 45; Phil 2:8; Rom 5:19-20.


306 Cf. Pius IXs Ineffabilis Deus: DS 2803; Council of Trent: DS 1573.


307 St. Leo the Great, Sermo 73, 4: PL 54, 396.


308 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III, I, 3, ad 3; cf. Rom 5:20.

 

I have learned today that the Anglican Church is more insistent that the Doctrine of Original Sin is scripturally based than is the Catholic Church...

Compare and contrast:

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Original sin - an essential truth of the faith

388 With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.²⁶¹ We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to "convict the world concerning sin",²⁶² by revealing him who is its Redeemer.

The Catholic Church does not insist that there is a scriptural basis - rather that this is implicit in Revelation

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH

ARTICLE NINE ... ORIGINAL SIN

Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek, φρονημα σαρκος, (which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh), is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized; yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.

The Anglican Church presents a stronger stance than the Catholic Church on the doctrine being scripturally based. It quotes Saint Paul: And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized; yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.

 

 OVERHEARD IN HARRIS & HOOLE...

(An occasional feature)

Myself, Tony of the Big Saloon, Mary Winterbourne and Ducky Duckworth got together this morning in Harris & Hoole. Ducky, the only one of us left in teaching, was able join us on Zoom. Exam season nearly over, so he has a lot of free time. Herewith what we discussed:

GENE:  Well folks we see how Detterling's deterioration is continuing apace. I take no pleasure from this, no schadenfreude. It's sad. But listen to this. Detterling has written:

"If homosexuality is God given, how can expressing that sexuality consensually be sinful?" 

It is quite astonishing, even allowing for his impaired intellectual condition, that he could come out with a statement like this.

He has of course forgotten about original sin. I reminded him. He then tried to say that the Catholic Church had abandoned original sin when it dropped Limbo. Not so. Limbo was never a doctrine taught by the Church. Just a suggestion by Saint Thomas Aquinas. Quite rightly dropped of course. He then tried to say that the Anglican Church did not have the doctrine of original sin. I showed him otherwise from Article Nine of the Thirty Nine Articles. His response was risible: he said that Article Twenty of the Thirty Nine Articles cancelled out Article Nine! So all these generations have gone by and no one noticed this until Detterling!

DUCKY DUCKWORTH: What a tosser!

GENE: But there is worse to come Ducky. A few weeks back he informed us that we do not know what Jesus would have thought about sodomy. The most depraved act imaginable and, Jesus, who so strongly condemned fornication, would not condemn sodomy! And sodomy is of course in itself fornication.

DUCKY DUCKWORTH: That's it. I shall come up to Tyneside and repeatedly kick his ass all the way out to Wallsend.

MARY WINTERBOURNE: I am pretty neutral about Detterling, but I would have much more time for him if he was not such a lickspittle to Welby, Cottrell & Co.

 

LGBTQ+ Pride revelers flash feathers and flags in the streets from New York to San Francisco

When do we celebrate Straight Pride month?

...   Gene

Pride weekend kicks off in New York City

0 seconds of 1 minute, 50 secondsVolume 90%

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Celebrations mingled with displays of resistance Sunday as LGBTQ+ pride parades filled streets in some of the country’s largest cities in annual events that have become part party, part protest.

In New York, thousands marched down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village, cheering and waving rainbow flags to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising, where a police raid on a gay bar triggered days of protests and launched a movement for LGBTQ+ rights.

While some people whooped it up in celebration, many were mindful of the growing conservative countermovement to limit rights, including by banning gender-affirming care for transgender children.

“I’m not trying not to be very heavily political, but when it does target my community, I get very, very annoyed and very hurt,” said Ve Cinder, a 22-year-old transgender woman who traveled from Pennsylvania to take part in the country’s largest pride event.

“I’m just, like, scared for my future and for my trans siblings. I’m frightened of how this country has looked at human rights, basic human rights,” she said. “It’s crazy.”

Parades in New York, Chicago and San Francisco are among events that roughly 400 Pride organizations across the U.S. are holding this year, with many focused specifically on the rights of transgender people.

In Chicago, 16-year-old Maisy McDonough painted rainbow colors over her eyes and on her face for her first Pride Parade.

She told the Chicago Tribune she’s excited to “be united” after a tough year for the community.”We really need the love of this parade,” she said.

Entertainers and activists, drag performers and transgender advocates are among the parade grand marshals embracing a unity message as new laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community take effect in several U.S. states.

“The platform will be elevated, and we’ll see communities across the country show their unity and solidarity through these events,” said Ron deHarte, co-president for the U.S. Association of Prides.

Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Seattle are scheduled to hold pride parades Sunday. At the parade in Toronto, Canada, more than 100 groups are expected to march. In New York City, seven-time Grammy winner Christina Aguilera will headline a post-march concert in Brooklyn.

 

Annual observations have spread to other cities and grown to welcome bisexual, transgender and queer people, as well as other groups.

About a decade ago, when her 13-year-old child first wanted to be called a boy, Roz Gould Keith sought help. She found little to assist her family in navigating the transition. They attended a Pride parade in the Detroit area, but saw little transgender representation.

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This year, she is heartened by the increased visibility of transgender people at marches and celebrations across the country this month.

“Ten years ago, when my son asked to go to Motor City Pride, there was nothing for the trans community,” said Keith, founder and executive director of Stand with Trans, a group formed to support and empower young transgender people and their families.

This year, she said, the event was “jam-packed” with transgender people.

One of the grand marshals of New York City’s parade is nonbinary activist AC Dumlao, chief of staff for Athlete Ally, a group that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ+ athletes.

“Uplifting the trans community has always been at the core of our events and programming,” said Dan Dimant, a spokesperson for NYC Pride.

Many of this year’s parades called for LGBTQ+ communities to unite against dozens, if not hundreds, of legislative bills now under consideration in statehouses across the country.

Lawmakers in 20 states have moved to ban gender-affirming care for children, and at least seven more are considering doing the same, adding increased urgency for the transgender community, its advocates say.

“We are under threat,” Pride event organizers in New York, San Francisco and San Diego said in a statement joined by about 50 other Pride organizations nationwide. “The diverse dangers we are facing as an LGBTQ community and Pride organizers, while differing in nature and intensity, share a common trait: they seek to undermine our love, our identity, our freedom, our safety, and our lives.”

LGBTQ+ PRIDE

 

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AP PHOTOS: Rainbows around the world as LGBTQ+ Pride is celebrated throughout June

 

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Librarians train to defend intellectual freedom and fight book bans at Chicago conference

 

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Long heritage of Native Hawaiian gender-fluidity showcased in Las Vegas drag show

 

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Drag queens showcase Hawaiian gender-fluid heritage

 

Some parades, including the event in Chicago, planned beefed up security amid the upheaval.

The Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD, a national LGBTQ+ organization, found 101 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the first three weeks of this month, about twice as many as in the full month of June last year.

Sarah Moore, who analyzes extremism for the two civil rights groups, said many of the June incidents coincide with Pride events.

 

 

Pope Hosts Artists in Sistine Chapel, Even Some Who Attracted Controversy

The event was part of a broader effort to engage with artists as the Roman Catholic Church did in the past. Pope Francis also urged them to pursue social justice through their work.

By Elisabetta Povoledo

Reporting from Vatican City

June 23, 2023

As Pope Francis met with dozens of international artists at the Sistine Chapel on Friday, he sought both to reaffirm the Roman Catholic Church’s commitment to artistic endeavors and to enlist the artists to act as catalysts for change in areas like social justice.

Yet as the group sat amid Renaissance frescoes by the likes of Michelangelo, Botticelli and Perugino — undisputedly one of the high points of papal art patronage — not all of those present had a traditional religious bent.

Among them were the American artist Andres Serrano, whose photograph “Piss Christ,” an image of a plastic crucifix submerged in a tank full of urine, was considered blasphemous when it debuted in 1987.

On Friday, Francis blessed Mr. Serrano and gave him a cheery thumbs up.

“I was surprised to be invited and even more surprised that he gave me a thumbs up,” Mr. Serrano said afterward. “And I was very happy that the church understands that I am a Christian artist and I am not a blasphemous artist. I’m just an artist.”

The gathering was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Vatican Museum’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. Inaugurated by Pope Paul VI in June 1973, the collection includes works by Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, Marc Chagall and Matisse, and pieces by contemporary artists like the photographers Rinko Kawauchi, Bill Armstrong and Mimmo Jodice and the new media artists’ collective Studio Azzurro.

Nine years before, Paul VI had convened artists at the Sistine Chapel to try to bridge a gap that had emerged between the church and contemporary artists, a contrast with the fruitful collaboration that had existed for centuries. The contemporary art museum was one outcome of that meeting.

For Friday’s gathering, there was no “master plan” in the choice of artists, said Bishop Paul Tighe, secretary in the Vatican’s culture and education office. They included the Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, the British director Ken Loach and the British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor.

Some were known to the Vatican, and others had been recommended for the event. “And then we had some favorites we wanted there,” Bishop Tighe laughed, without specifying who that might be.

André Rieu, a Dutch violinist and conductor, said he was moved by the pope’s message at the event.

Andreas Serrano, an American artist known for his 1987 photograph “Piss Christ,” said he was surprised to have been invited.

The inclusion of writers and artists working in nonvisual media signaled a desire to “broaden out the engagement of the church with artists,” he said, noting that in recent years the church had made incursions into events like the Venice Biennale.

“We want to move into the world of the arts, get to literary festivals, music and just engage,” Bishop Tighe said. “And to be there as part of the dialogue and presence.”

Francis told the group that “neither art nor faith can leave things simply as they are: They change, transform, move and convert them. Art can never serve as an anesthetic; it brings peace, yet far from deadening consciences, it keeps them alert.”

The artists in attendance said they were honored to have been invited, and moved by the pope’s words.

“I was touched by his words about harmony, because I am a musician and every concert we give is about harmony,” said André Rieu, a Dutch violinist and conductor, referring to some of the pope’s words, like “true beauty is a reflection of harmony.”

Francis also called on the artists to “not forget the poor.” They, too, “have need of art and beauty,” and usually “have no voice to make themselves heard” — words that resonated with the British film director Ken Loach.

“It’s very clear from what the pope says that he is demanding social justice, and harmony in the world, which those in power are destroying in the way they destroy the planet,” Mr. Loach said later. “He told us to remember the poor — I think he means with social justice, which means giving power to the poor, not just a few pence from your pocket.”

David Van Reybrouck, the Belgian cultural historian and author, gave Francis a copy of his book “Congo: The Epic History of a People.” He called the pope’s visit there in February “an extremely important event in the history of the country.” And he said he had thanked Francis for his encyclical on the environment “Laudato Si,” or “Praise Be.”

“There are few religious leaders who have been so strong and so bold and so brave when it comes to tackling climate change,” Mr. Van Reybrouck said, noting his gratitude for having been included in the gathering. “The density of artistic talent in a few square meters has rarely been so high,” he said.

Mr. Serrano said that despite the controversy that greeted some of his work, he hoped that some of his recent photographs of a Pietà, an image of the Virgin Mary contemplating the dead Christ on her lap, would be admitted into the Vatican’s collection.

Mr. Serrano also said he was sure that Francis had known exactly who he was when giving him the earlier thumbs up with a smile.

“It was a great, mischievous smile,” Mr. Serrano said.

Asked about the decision to invite artists whose work has drawn controversy, Bishop Tighe said that artists had the ability to be provocative, “to waken us up, call us to a new alertness and a new consciousness.”

“I think,” he added, “we all just have to work on the presumption of good faith of the artist who is trying to say something challenging something, and may sometimes have to resort to strong measures to waken us up.”