On Monday, March 29, the Catholic League is taking out a half-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle asking all Catholic organizations nationwide to boycott San Francisco: they are being urged to take their convention money to a city that truly believes in tolerance.
This decision comes after a unanimous ruling by the San Francisco Supervisors to allow an anti-Catholic group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, to hold a public celebration on Easter Sunday; the Supervisors reversed the position of the Department of Parking and Traffic.
“San Francisco: City of Tolerance?” is the title of the ad. The league argues that the First Amendment is conditioned on time, place and manner, and therefore there was no need for the Supervisors to overturn the decision by the Department of Parking and Traffic. The ad explicitly says that if the event is moved to a day after Easter, there will be no boycott. The Supervisors are expected to address this issue on Monday.
The league’s objections to the Sisters do not center on the group’s practice of men dressing as nuns. What the league finds most offensive about the group is its history of attacks on the Eucharist, the very nucleus of Catholicism. We make it clear that we are unimpressed by the charitable contributions that the Sisters make: “Does this mean that if the Klan decides to ‘Adopt a Highway,’” the ad says, “we should ignore their conduct?”
Catholic League president William Donohue commented further:
“We are grateful to Mayor Willie Brown that he listened to our grievances and has asked the Supervisors to reschedule the event. That his latest appointee to the Supervisors, Alicia Becerril, has reversed her position, siding with the mayor, is also appreciated, as is the new position of another Supervisor, Pastor Amos Brown. It is too bad that the other Supervisors don’t do the decent thing and join with them.”
