Religious-Liberty-Annual-Report

VI – National Trends in Politics, Culture, and Law 31

on a referendum to enshrine a right to abortion in the Ohio state constitution. 45 The general failure, with two exceptions, of the federal government to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of such attacks, in contrast with the numerous charges brought against pro-life protestors outside abortion clinics, received signif icant attention in Congress. 46 In hearings in both the House and the Senate, Republicans accused the Department of Justice and the FBI of bias against Catholics and Christians. 3. Pride Month In recent years, the celebration of June as “Pride Month” has become an annual flashpoint for con flicts over issues of “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The year 2023 was notable for featuring perhaps the first two successful boycotts of brands that embraced Pride Month messaging — Target, which featured children’s clothing with pro-LGBT slogans and designs, and Bud Light, which ran endorsements from an activist who identifies as transgender. One of the most significant contro versies, and the one that implicated religious liber ty concerns most directly, was the decision by the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team to honor an anti-Catholic group. The “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” is a group of men who dress as nuns and put on blasphemous and deeply offensive displays mocking Jesus, Mary, and the Catholic Church. On May 4, Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers announced that, as part of the team’s annual “pride night,” the team would award the Los Angeles chapter of the Sis ters of Perpetual Indulgence a “Community Hero Award.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Catholic League president Bill Donohue each sent letters to the MLB expressing their concern that the Dodgers were honoring an anti-Catholic group. In response, the Dodgers rescinded the invitation for the group to receive the award. That decision was met with fierce backlash from the LGBT community and Los Angeles-area politicians, and the Dodgers then reversed course again, reinviting the group. The controversy quickly gained national atten

The year 2023 was notable for featuring perhaps the first two successful boycotts of brands that embraced Pride Month messaging.

tion in mainstream media and among politicians. Former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, tweeted a statement calling on MLB to apologize to Catholics. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles issued a statement, as did the Diocese of Orange (where the Dodgers’ stadium is located) and several bish ops of other dioceses. Three MLB players, two of whom are Dodgers, issued statements critical of the Dodgers for their decision to honor the group. One of the Dodgers players announced that the team had agreed to reinstitute a “Christian Faith and Family Day.” Others rallied to the group’s support. The Cal ifornia State Senate honored a prominent member of the group at a Pride Month ceremony, where he received a standing ovation. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, sometimes called confession or the Sacrament of Penance, brings healing to relationships damaged by sin. The ba sic parts of the sacrament are simple and relatively well-known. The penitent searches his conscience to consider how he has sinned. He confesses his sins to a priest, and the priest tells the penitent what he must do as his penance. He makes an act of contrition — essentially expressing his sorrow for his sins, promising to do penance, and with the resolution to try not to sin again — and then the priest absolves him of his sin, acting in the person of Christ and in the name of the Church. For Catholic priests, breaking the confidenti ality of statements made during the Sacrament of Reconciliation — that is, breaking the seal of the confessional — is a grave offense, resulting in au tomatic excommunication from the Church. The clergy–penitent privilege is a legal recognition of 4. State Bills Violating the Seal of the Confes sional