EXCLUSIVE - One of the nation's leading Catholic advocacy organizations will place radio and TV ads ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers game on Saturday night shaming the baseball organization for inviting an anti-Catholic drag queen troupe to the team's annual Pride Night on June 16.
CatholicVote on Saturday will launch an ad titled, "The Dodgers Have Lost Their Way," as part of the organization’s $1 million dollar campaign to raise awareness about the LA Dodgers’ decision to honor the anti-Catholic hate group, the so-called "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence." It will run on television and digital platforms in the Los Angeles area this weekend.
The ad begins by highlighting the Dodgers’ history of being "trailblazers," particularly for the team’s historic decision to sign Jackie Robinson, the first African American man to play in Major League Baseball.
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"Playing Jackie wasn’t popular. Hate and disrespect were popular, even in law. But the Dodgers were right. They helped power a movement and changed nation. Their leadership, class and style of play were the envy of baseball. The Dodger way," the ad says.
"But today, the Dodgers are putting it all at risk," the ad say. "On June 16th, a prominent anti-Catholic hate group will be honored on the field, a group that mocks Catholic nuns with vile sexual perversions, pole dances on crosses, blessings with sex toys, even sexualizing the Virgin Mary and the words of Jesus Christ."
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"A fringe group like this honored, awarded, celebrated? There is no equality in mocking women religious. No tolerance in hate, no pride in anti-Catholic bigotry. Mocking Christians is not the Dodger way," it concludes.
The Dodgers first incurred intense backlash when they invited the group last month, so they rescinded the initial invitation. But, the next day after LA Pride announced it would no longer be participating in Pride Night in solidarity with the drag queen group, the team re-invited the controversial troupe.
"The L.A. Dodgers' choice to honor a group that exists to mock, sexualize and pervert the teachings of the Catholic faith is wildly out of line with their tradition of inclusivity, love and their history of fighting bigotry," said Tommy Valentine, director of the Catholic Accountability Project at CatholicVote.
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"The ad contrasts the Dodgers’ history of championing human rights with their current embrace of those who openly mock Catholics, and in particular the women religious who offer their lives in service to the most vulnerable," he said.
The Dodgers have made clear that the very "hate and disrespect" that they once denounced has now found a home in Dodgers’ stadium. The Dodgers owe all Catholics, especially those in their fan base, an apology and should immediately rescind the invitation to honor this hate group," he added.
CatholicVote will be running TV ads during the Dodgers' pregame, postgame and during the game tomorrow night on the LA network that carries Dodgers' games. They are also running Spanish radio ads on Christian radio in LA, in addition to mobile billboards that will be running around Dodgers' stadium every home game next week, targeted digital ads of the Dodgers' ad, and text messages.
