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ju st news
ACT UP stops mass at St.
Patrick's Cathedral
"The church brings it down on its own head. It's like a fascist
state. You cannot claim divine right when you abuse people the
way the Catholic church does."
— Robert Pusillo
President, Dignity/New York
BY
S
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just out ▼ 10 ▼ January 1990
T
REX
W O C K N E R
he most radical segment of the gay/
lesbian movement and the most powerful
sect of Christianity clashed December 10 at
St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
It was a conflict that many observers were
surprised hadn’t happened sooner, given the
increasing strength of the AIDS Coalition To
Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the
increasingly anti-gay posture of the Roman
Catholic Church.
ACT UP was joined in the demonstration
by WHAM!, Women’s Health Action and
Mobilization, a group fighting to keep
abortion legal.
The irreverent protest took place both
inside and outside the massive gothic
cathedral, during a solemn Pontifical mass
celebrated by New York’s John Cardinal
O’Connor.
As some 2,000 demonstrators (police said
4,500) circled outside, chanting “They say
don’t fuck, we say fuck you,” about 100
militants inside brought services to a halt by
heckling and conducting a “die in” in the
cathedral’s aisles.
The AIDS activists said they were
protesting November’s pronouncements by
both the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
and by the Vatican that condoms must never
be used as protection against AIDS — a
position that places the church in conflict with
health authorities throughout the world.
A year ago, American bishops gave their
tentative blessing to safe-sex teaching in
public schools, but that approval was
rescinded in early November following
intense pressure from O’Connor and other
conservative bishops. One week later, the
U. S. positions were adopted by attendees at
the first Vatican conference on AIDS.
The activists inside St. Patrick’s sat quietly
through the first half of the mass, which
included various prayers and readings from
the Bible.
But as O’Connor began his sermon,
heckling erupted from a small section of the
congregation about half-way back in the
church.
News reporters were prevented from
approaching the scene of the protest, but
activists apparently lay down in the aisles and
conducted one of their now commonplace die-
ins.
As the disturbance began, O’Connor
stopped his homily and said, “Let us pray.”
He then led the congregation in some 10-
15 minutes of standard Catholic prayers,
including “The Lord’s Prayer” and the “Hail
Mary.”
As the prayers were repeated over and
over, ushers circulated transcripts of the
aborted homily and police slowly removed 43
demonstrators, carrying some of them out on
orange stretchers.
O’Connor resumed the mass while the
protest continued and some observers were
shocked that demonstrators shouted insults at
the Cardinal during the service’s most solemn
moments.
Catholics believe that priests can change
bread and wine into the actual body and blood
of Jesus Christ. Known as “transubstan-
tiation,” the events occur when a priest says
the words “This is my body” and “This is my
blood.”
As the Cardinal spoke over the bread, one
of the demonstrators shouted, “O’Connor,
you’re a murderer.”
Parishioners near the front of the cathedral
were again scandalized some moments later
when one protestor went forward for
communion and, rather than consuming the
wafer, smashed it between his fingers and
dropped it to the floor. A number of priests
quickly dove to the floor and scooped up the
tiny remains.
After careful scrutiny of the area where the
bread had fallen, one priest reverently carried
the bits away in his cupped hands.
The demonstration outside on Fifth
Avenue continued in the sub-freezing weather
throughout the debacle inside. New York
police said that 68 additional demonstrators
were arrested for blocking the street at various
points during the three-hour protest.
The activists carried signs that read:
“Keep your mass off our ass,” “Eternal life for
Cardinal O’Connor — NOW!” and “Curb
your dogma.”
And they chanted such things as “He’s a
Nazi in a dress, the Cardinal’s morals are a
mess” and “For every ejaculation, a college
education.”
Flyers charged that Catholic bishops have
overstepped the bounds between church and
state by trying to force their morality on all
Americans.
long as they promise to be celibate.
The 1986 letter also demanded that
Catholic groups using Catholic buildings fully
support all church teaching.
As a result, chapters of the gay/lesbian
Catholic group Dignity were evicted from
their parishes throughout the U. S. and
Canada in the past two years.
Dignity’s bylaws contradict church
teaching by stating that gays can express their
sexuality in a manner that is “consonant with
Christ’s teachings.”
Members of Dignity/New York
participated in the ACT UP demonstration,
according to president Robert Pusillo. He said
his group supported the action except for the
disruption of mass.
A Dignity direct-action arm, the Cathedral
Project, has protested monthly at St. Patrick’s
since the group was ousted from its parish two
years ago. Cardinal O’Connor eventually
received a restraining order preventing the
group from standing silently throughout mass.
Since then, the Project has celebrated
“alternative liturgies” across the street.
“We support ACT UP because the church
is dictating how non-Catholics should conduct
their lives,” Pusillo explained.
Catholicism
Pusillo took strong exception to the
he Catholic church opposes condom use
desecration of the “host” [consecrated bread]
by anyone in any circumstances because
by one ACT UP member, but added that the
church teaching demands that every sexual act secular community cannot be expected to
be “open to the possibility of procreation.” respect Catholic dogma.
Since using a condom to prevent the
“The church brings it down on its own
transmission of disease would also prevent
head,” he said. “It’s like a fascist state. You
sperm from contacting an egg, Pope John Paul
cannot claim divine right when you abuse
II had said the devices violate God’s plan for
people the way the Catholic church does.”
the universe and are sinful.
As the demonstration wound down, ACT
For the same reasons, all Catholics are
UP spokesperson. Jay Blotcher said the group
forbidden from having gay sex, masturbating,
plans to attempt dialogue with O’Connor and
engaging in oral sex to orgasm, or doing any
other church officials about the fact that
other non-potentially-procreative sex act
condoms save lives, but he said activists do
The church opposes abortion because it
not harbor any illusions of changing the
believes that at the moment a sperm contacts
Roman Catholic Church.
an egg, God instills a unique and sacred soul
At a press conference following the mass,
into the new creation.
O’Connor said, “the Archbishop of New York
must always preach what the church preaches
New War With Gays
and teach what the church teaches.”
elations between the Catholic Church
He said the ACT UP protest should have
and gays have been on a downslide since
been “peaceful” and he expressed anguish
1986, when Rome’s Sacred Congregation for
about the desecration of Christ’s body when
the Doctrine of the Faith issued a letter
the communion wafer was destroyed.
asserting that a homosexual orientation is
New York Mayor Ed Koch, who is Jewish,
“more or less ordered toward intrinsic moral
attended
both the mass and the press
evil.”
conference. He told reporters he was there to
Previously, Rome had condemned
“defend the cathedral.”
homosexual acts buy maintained that merely
About 200 pro-life demonstrators came for
being gay was “morally neutral” — a position
the same purpose. They peacefully held signs
that has allowed seminaries in recent years to
on
a comer opposite the ACT UP
ordain a high percentage of gay priests, as
demonstration.
_
T