Archdiocese of Washington Tiptoes Around ‘Pride Mass’ at Biden’s Parish
Mary Margaret Olohan / Elise McCue /
An LGBTQ+ “Pride Mass” scheduled to take place Wednesday evening at President Joe Biden’s preferred parish appears to have the support of the Archdiocese of Washington.
Asked if the archdiocese supports the Mass, Paula Gwynn Grant, secretary of communications for the Archdiocese of Washington, pointed The Daily Signal to “our Holy Trinity parish website.” She would not return further requests for comment regarding the “Pride Mass,” which is scheduled to take place Wednesday evening in Georgetown.
This is not the first time that Holy Trinity Catholic Church has made headlines. The parish, which advertises its LGBTQIA+ Ministry on its website, announced in June 2021 it would not deny anyone the Holy Eucharist at Mass as bishops discussed whether Biden, who heads the most pro-abortion administration in U.S. history, should be denied communion. Biden regularly attends the parish.
Now Holy Trinity is hosting a “Pride Mass.”
“This Wednesday at our regularly-scheduled 5:30pm Mass, our parish will celebrate our 3rd annual LGBTQIA+ Pride Mass,” the parish said in a statement on its 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 Catholic Church teaches that abortion is a crime against human life, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that homosexual acts are “contrary to the natural law” and “close the sexual act to the gift of life.” Catholic ministries like Courage International encourage those with same-sex attraction “to strive for chastity.”
“Our LGBTQIA+ ministry is a response to the Holy Father’s call to go out to the margins,” the statement continues. “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. Our parish reaches out to LGBTQIA+ people as it reaches out to all Catholics in our area.”
Lisa Dittmeier, assistant to Pastor C. Kevin Gillespie, S.J., refused to tell The Daily Signal on Wednesday morning if the Mass was condoned by the Archdiocese of Washington. Dittmeier repeatedly said that the statement was all the parish had to say on the matter.
The parish’s reticence to address whether the archdiocese condones the Mass suggests that it is acutely aware of the politics at play.
And the archdiocese has a history of refraining from addressing pivotal questions from the press: in May 2022, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington accidentally told the Washington Examiner that it was ignoring press inquiries about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been banned from receiving Holy Communion by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who leads the Archdiocese of Washington, similarly sparked a backlash in November 2020 when he said in an interview with a leftist Jesuit outlet, America Magazine, that he would not deny Biden communion at Mass.
“The kind of relationship that I hope we will have is a conversational relationship where we can discover areas where we can cooperate that reflect the social teachings of the church, knowing full well that there are some areas where we won’t agree,” Gregory told America Magazine.
In September 2021, however, the cardinal offered a rare rebuke of Biden’s denial that life begins at conception, telling the president: “The Catholic Church teaches, and has taught, that human life begins at conception, so the president is not demonstrating Catholic teaching.”
He added: “Our church has not changed its position on the immorality of abortion. I don’t see how we could because we believe that every human life is sacred.”
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email [email protected] and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.