‘Pride Mass’ takes place in Washington, D.C., despite calls for cardinal to intervene

Washington D.C., Jun 15, 2023 / 12:35 pm

A “Pride Mass” took place in Washington, D.C.’s Holy Trinity Catholic Church Wednesday night despite calls for Cardinal Wilton Gregory to cancel it.

About 250 people attended the third annual Pride Mass, organized by Holy Trinity’s LGBTQIA+ Ministry at the Jesuit-run church, located in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood.

President Joe Biden has been known to attend Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity, as has former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. President John F. Kennedy and his family also attended Mass at the church.

According to an online statement from the celebrant, the parish’s pastor, Father Kevin Gillespie, SJ, the Mass was “an expression of our parish’s mission statement to accompany one another in Christ, celebrate God’s love, and transform lives.”

Gillespie gave a homily highlighting the heroism of Franciscan priest and New York firefighter chaplain Father Mychal Judge, who was killed in service during the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Gillespie highlighted Judge’s ministry to AIDS victims and his gay rights activism as “an openly gay priest.”

During the Mass, prayers were offered in solidarity with LGBTQ+ individuals and the LGBTQ+ community.

Some of those present held small “Progress Pride” flags that they had picked up from a table in the back of the church. Mass programs handed out by volunteers also bore the flag, which is a symbol of homosexual and transgender “pride” and acceptance.

Outside the church, a group of just over 20 people gathered to hold a prayer vigil and protest the Mass. Among them were members of the Catholic groups “Tradition, Family, and Property America” and “America Needs Fatima.” The sounds of bagpipes, people praying the rosary, and chanting could be heard from inside the church during the Mass.

At the conclusion of the Mass, Holy Trinity LGBTQIA+ ministry leader Ernest Raskauskas asked attendees to exit through the side doors “because of different things occurring in the neighborhood, we’re not going to say why,” to which the crowds erupted in laughter.

Rauskauskas told CNA that the Mass was “a beautiful occasion” that was supported by the “entire parish” and gave the community “a true sense of belonging.”

The Mass took place despite calls for Gregory to cancel it, which gained considerable traction online.

A Catholic convert who struggles with same-sex attraction named Anna Katherine Howell, 31, led the call to stop the event.

According to Howell, “’Pride’ events sponsored and/or attended by Catholics are contrary to Catholic teaching, give scandal, and actually do harm to faithful, chaste Catholics with same-sex attraction who do not wish to celebrate or be identified by their worst impulses or past sins.”

Far from being loving, Howell told CNA that Pride Masses, which have been scheduled to take place in Pittsburgh, D.C., New York City, and Chicago this June, present a grave threat to both the Church and those who struggle with same-sex attraction.

What same-sex attracted individuals need from the Church, Howell said, is “charity and clarity.”

“To affirm, turn a blind eye to, and certainly to celebrate evil is evil. We cannot be unclear or mushy about the fact that homosexual acts are inherently gravely sinful,” Howell said. 

“We have to be very clear that we love all human beings, that all human beings are called to Christ, to his Church,” Howell stated. “But from that love, we must then be exceptionally clear about God’s call to same-sex attracted people, which is just like his call to everyone, which is chastity, which is holiness, which is a life as a Catholic where we’re devoted to God, ordered toward flourishing, and ultimately ordered toward a full experience of God in the beatific vision.”

Though Howell said she estimated hundreds of others joined her call for Gregory to cancel the Mass, she said she never received a response. 

Neither Gregory nor the Archdiocese of Washington has issued any statement regarding the pride Mass.

The archdiocese has not replied to CNA’s request for comment.

A similar event advertised as a “Pride Mass” at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University on June 11 was canceled after the diocese’s bishop, David Zubik, disavowed the event in a letter sent to priests, deacons, and seminarians.

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“As [a] Church, we all have the responsibility to love those who have same-sex attraction. But at the same time, the Church cannot support behavior that goes against God’s law,” Zubik wrote, concluding that “given all that has transpired surrounding this event, I am asking that this gathering be canceled.”

Kevin Hayes, president of Catholics for Change in Our Church, one of the groups organizing the Pittsburgh event, decried the bishop’s letter, telling CNA his group “was sad, hurt, disappointed, and upset the Mass was canceled by Bishop Zubik.”

“While we understand there may have been some threats, we think it would have been more powerful to stand up in love and support having the Mass,” Hayes said.