As the debate continues to rage over Los Angeles Dodgers’ honoring of the “good works” performed by the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” — a group that has spent the last four decades denigrating Catholic religious nuns by dressing in drag and performing obscene gestures at Gay Pride parades — most of the criticism is directed at Dodgers management for caving to pressure from the LGBTQ tyrants. Few seem to notice the role that the LGBTQ enablers have played from their privileged perches within the Catholic Church itself.

It is time to call them out. It is time to point to the dissident priests, bishops, and religious sisters who have promoted the perversity of such groups as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. It is time to name the growing number of feckless, faithless Catholics unwilling to defend the Christian biblical principles that offer them the only hope for the salvation of their souls and for the soul of the nation. It is time to admit that until faithful Catholics are willing to risk everything to tell the truth about the idolatrous aims of the left-wing LGBTQ movement and its enablers — replete with its demonic transgender ideology — groups like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will continue to be celebrated as heroes. (RELATED: My Religion Is Not Your Costume)

Catholic Sister Defends the Dodgers

Pope St. John Paul II once wrote, “[F]reedom which refuse[s] to be bound to the truth [will] fall into arbitrariness and end up submitting itself to the vilest of passions, to the point of self-destruction.” Groups like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have already “submitted” themselves “to the vilest of passions” by denying the truth of natural law and promoting the big lie on the goodness of depravity. But what is worse is that there are those leaders within the Church who have helped them promote that lie.

Sister Jeannine Gramick is one of the key Catholic figures defending the Dodgers. A religious sister of the Order of the Sisters of Loretto, Gramick has been a strong supporter of the big lie for several decades now from her position as the founder and leader of New Ways Ministry — a dissident LGBTQ group founded in 1977. The ministry claims to be Catholic but was severely censured by the late Pope Benedict XVI because of its heterodox views on the intrinsic sinfulness of homosexual acts.

Last week, Gramick wrote an open letter to the Dodgers lauding its decision to give the Community Hero Award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Describing herself as a “Catholic nun for more than 60 years” who has “ministered to and with the LGBTQ Catholic community for more than 50 years,” Gramick “applaud[s] the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for their financial assistance to those in need. I support them because of all their good works.” (READ MORE: MLB’s Cultural Revolutionaries)

If Gramick were just a dissident Catholic on the margins of the Church, most of us could simply ignore her. But even though not only Benedict but also the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) publicly restricted her organization more than a decade ago — the latter stating that New Ways Ministry “has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and … cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States” — many within the Catholic clergy, including the Vatican, have appeared to embrace her dissidence.

In 2021, Pope Francis’ Synod of Bishops reinstated New Ways Ministry as one of its “synod resources,” indicating that the once-censured organization is now considered a valuable resource by the Vatican. The synod consults with representatives from various Catholic apostolates and ministries, and to be included in such a group is to give the ministry undue credibility.

The restoration was not without controversy. On Dec. 7, 2021, the link to New Ways Ministry was removed by Thierry Bonaventura, communications manager of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, “after [officials] became aware” that the USCCB had long disapproved of it. But, in a groveling apology to the censured LGBTQ organization only six days later, Bonaventura “apologized ‘for removing from [the synod’s] website a link to our video encouraging LGBTQ people to participate in synod consultations.’”

According to National Catholic Register, Bonaventura claimed that “the removal of the link was a personal decision taken for ‘internal procedural reasons.’” He apologized for “br[inging] pain to the entire LGBTQ community who once again felt left out.” And, not surprisingly, the pro-gay clerical factions in the Catholic Church celebrated. As National Catholic Register points out, Fr. James Martin, author of Building a Bridge — a 2017 book that advocates for the acceptance and empowerment of the LGBTQ community within the Catholic Church — shared on Facebook Bonaventure’s apology, which stated, “Walking together also means knowing how to apologize.”

Dodgers Debacle Caused by Catholic Dissidence

The problem with religious leaders like Martin and Gramick is that they provide “Catholic cover” for such “honors” as those bestowed by the Dodgers on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Worse, these highly visible leaders of a dissident movement within the Church are joined by other, lesser-known nuns and priests. According to the New Ways Ministry blog, Sister Nancy Corcoran of the Congregation of St. Joseph, who engages in transgender outreach, claimed in response to the Dodgers controversy to “rejoice with the joy and healing craziness of the Sisters [of Perpetual Indulgence]. Their outfits are off putting and yet they challenge the desire of the few that wish all nuns need to be in habits.” And Sister Barbara Battista, a “justice promoter for the Sisters of Providence in St. Mary-of-the Woods, Indiana,” labeled the group as “entertainment,” stating:

My take on all this good for them. To my mind, it’s just bringing the Gospel to the marketplace. I have no trouble with that … [It could even be] a tribute to sisters and what we do. We live a life of service, and that’s what they do.

Although there have been some courageous Christians — including several Dodgers players who have spoken out against their team’s decision — progressive Catholics like Kaya Oakes, an LGBTQ advocate, have lauded the Dodgers’ honoring of the so-called sisters. Writing in Sojourners, Oakes claims that “the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have always been a welcome sign of hard work.” (RELATED: Players Dissent From Dodgers Drag Debacle) 

Faithful Catholics can still be grateful for the handful of courageous bishops who have refused to be silent on the Dodgers issue. Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota’s Winona-Rochester diocese labeled the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence an “anti-Catholic hate group,” and Kansas City Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann described the group as “blasphemous.” San Francisco’s archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, appeared on EWTN’s The World Over with Raymond Arroyo to decry the Dodgers’ ceremony.

On May 25, Barron took to Twitter to call for a boycott of the Dodgers. It would seem that the bishop’s focus should be first on the problems within our own Church. Without implicit Catholic support, the Los Angeles Dodgers would never have agreed to honor a group that so denigrates the Church.