A group of conservative Catholics is planning to pray the rosary outside a Washington, D.C., Catholic church that will celebrate an LGBTQ Pride Mass Wednesday night.
The pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, which President Joe Biden reportedly frequents, defended the decision to hold the Mass in a statement posted to the church's website.
"This celebration is an expression of our parish's mission statement TO ACCOMPANY ONE ANOTHER IN CHRIST, CELEBRATE GOD'S LOVE, AND TRANSFORM LIVES," the Rev. C. Kevin Gillespie said. "Our LGBTQIA+ ministry is a response to the Holy Father's call to go out to the margins.
"Our celebration of Pride is not celebrating personal vanity, but the human dignity of a group of people who have been for too long the objects of violence, bullying, and harassment," the statement continued. "Our parish reaches out to LGBTQIA+ people as it reaches out to all Catholics in our area."
This is Holy Trinity's third annual LGBTQ Mass, according to the church.
A group of conservative Catholics is planning to gather on a public sidewalk outside the church at 5 p.m. to "ask for God’s mercy and offer reparation" for the Pride Mass.
"The Catholic Church teaches that God endowed all people with dignity and they should be treated with compassion and respect," a tweet advertising the rally said. "But the Church does not celebrate sin, most especially at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
"As practicing Catholics, we are filled with compassion and pray for those who struggle against violent temptation to sin, be it toward homosexual sin or otherwise," the group added.
It stressed that the public rosary would be "peaceful and legal."
The Washington parish is celebrating the Mass despite Catholic teaching, which maintains that homosexuality is a "grave depravity" and is "intrinsically disordered." Pride is also one of the seven deadly sins, which "engender other sins," according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Pride Mass at Biden's Washington parish follows a Pride party the president and first lady hosted on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday. Controversy ensued when a transgender activist and model posed topless at the event and the video was posted. The administration issued a statement banning the individuals in the video from future events.
The White House also faced backlash for displaying the Pride flag prominently at the event, which some Twitter users said violated the U.S. Flag Code.
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