CatholicVote launches $1M campaign calling for LA Dodgers boycott over anti-Catholic drag queens
CatholicVote President Brian Burch urging Dodgers' admin to dialogue with Catholics before event
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FIRST ON FOX — One of the nation's largest Catholic advocacy organizations has issued a letter to the Los Angeles Dodgers announcing an upcoming ad campaign calling for a boycott of the baseball club.
CatholicVote President Brian Burch addressed the letter to Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter and CEO Stan Kasten.
"I represent the nation’s largest lay Catholic advocacy organization," Burch wrote. "We are supported by millions of devoted Catholics across America who believe that the time-honored values of life, family, and freedom — which the Dodgers used to celebrate — are demonstrably good for America, and worthy of respect, not ridicule."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We wrote to you last week with a reasonable ask: Please do not honor this anti-Catholic hate group," Burch told the Dodgers' administrators. "There is no place for anti-Catholic bigotry, mocking of religious sisters, or celebrating a perverse activist group whose identity is marked by blasphemy and mockery of Catholics."
Three Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence pose for a selfie during the Gay Pride March in Paris. Thousands of LGBT members and their supporters took part in the Gay Pride March in Paris to celebrate Pride Month. (Gregory Herpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In the letter, Burch questioned Kasten's claim to the Los Angeles Times that the Dodgers' administration was "listening to everyone" on the issue of including the anti-Catholic drag queen troupe Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CatholicVote claims that their organization has prepared a $1 million advertising budget to encourage Catholics to boycott the team.
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Fans watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first inning of an opening day baseball game in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
"Prior to the launch of this campaign, we are requesting yet another opportunity to speak by telephone or to meet in person with an appropriate representative so that you can better understand the extraordinary harm and hurt your decision has engendered," wrote Burch.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Los Angeles Dodgers announced earlier this month that they would be honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of "queer and trans nuns," during a June 16 event, but quickly received backlash from religious groups for the decision given the history of anti-Catholic messaging and shocking performances.
After intense backlash, the team said last week it would no longer be honoring the group during the upcoming event.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence attends a Jewish-Christian church service on the occasion of Christopher Street Day at St. Mary's Church in Berlin on June 20, 2014. (Daniel Naupold)
That decision was walked back the next day after LA Pride announced it would no longer be participating in Pride Night in solidarity with the drag queen group.
"After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families," the organization said.
In the letter, Burch provided Dodgers leadership with his personal cellphone number and promised to meet with team leaders "at any time, anywhere."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The voices of Catholics — including clergy and religious sisters, which we would include — need to be heard. We are hopeful you will match your rhetoric of 'listening to everyone' with action," the letter concluded.
Bishop Robert Barron has also encouraged a boycott of the Los Angeles Dodgers over their relationship with the anti-Catholic drag queens.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The bishop said Catholics had no other recourse for showing their disapproval "since the Dodgers are clearly not responding to a decent appeal to reason."
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. (Word on Fire Ministries)
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"The Los Angeles Dodgers have made it clear to Catholics and all people of good will that they think mockery of the sacred beliefs of the Catholic Faith is something that they support and will reward with honors and commendation," Barron told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the nearby Archdiocese of San Francisco accused the Dodgers' administration of "worshiping" alternative "gods."
"Our Catholic sisters devote themselves to serving others selflessly. Decent people would not mock & blaspheme them. So we now know what gods the Dodger admin worships. Open desecration and anti-Catholicism is not disqualifying," tweeted Cordileone. "Disappointing but not surprising. Gird your loins."