Catholic school pulls out of Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade—UPDATED

From The Lowell Sun:

A Catholic school in Harvard has withdrawn from the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade, reacting to reports that a gay rights group will be allowed to march.

Brother Thomas Dalton, principal of the school at Saint Benedict Center, said the school does not want to appear to condone the homosexual lifestyle that is completely contrary to the church and what St. Patrick stood for.

“We decided years ago that if the gays ever marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, we would not march with our school or with the float that we provide with St. Patrick on it,” he said.

Multiple media reports claim that parade organizers have invited MassEquality, the statewide advocacy group, to march this year.

But MassEquality has clarified in a statement that they have not reached a formal deal with parade organizers, and only learned about the invitation through a Boston Globe story.

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UPDATE: A reader writes:

This is not a parish school.  It’s at St. Benedict Abbey, which was founded by Father Leonard Feeney.  The Abbey is now in full communion with the church, but they are a very conservative community. (For example, women visiting St. Benedict Center, even the gift shop, must wear skirts or dresses and cannot wear slacks.  Women must wear head covering in the chapel.)The Abbey is in the Diocese of Worcester. When the group was put under interdict by Cardinal Cushing they were known as St. Benedict’s Center at Harvard.  When they moved out of the archdiocese the interdict did not hold.

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