After gay organizations are welcomed, Catholic group urges removal of St. Patrick’s name from Boston parade

From AP: 

Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is making history as two gay and lesbian groups are being welcomed by the organizers after decades of opposition.

The sponsoring South Boston Allied War Veterans Council has invited the gay military veterans group OutVets, and gay rights groups Boston Pride to join Sunday’s parade.

Boston mayors have boycotted the event for 20 years over the gay rights issue, since the organizers won a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding their right to invite or exclude marchers.

And Catholic groups are protesting: 

With a second LGBT group being allowed to march in the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday, a Catholic group is urging parade organizers to remove the saint’s name.

The Catholic Action League said Saturday that it wants the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council to change the parade’s name after LGBT rights group Boston Pride was admitted.

OutVets, an LGBT veterans group, was told late last year that it would be allowed to march.

“In Catholic tradition, ‘the sin of impurity against nature’ is one of four sins ‘which cry out to heaven [sic] for vengeance,'” the Catholic Action League wrote in a statement. “As homosexual groups enter the parade, Catholic organizations, which is to say people who belong to the religion of Saint Patrick, have been pulling out.”

The Immaculate Heart of Mary School and the Knights of Columbus have decided not to participate following the decision to allow LGBT groups to march.

“The saint’s venerable name should not be cheaply misappropriated by nominally Catholic politicians and anti-Catholic organizations with a same sex agenda,” said Catholic Action League Executive Director C.J. Doyle in the statement. “Call it whatever you want, but don’t debase the name of Saint Patrick by associating it with the tawdry circus that will take place on Broadway tomorrow.”

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