Archbishop Niederauer’s Eucharistic Moment

In late September every year for the past 24 years, the city of San Francisco has been host to the Folsom Street Fair. Darryl Flick, the President of Folsom Street Events, calls the Fair “the ‘granddaddy of leather’ extravaganzas” (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 26, 2005). The Folsom Street Fair is essentially the public displaying of some of the most deviant and grotesque aspects of homosexuality, featuring not only “leather-clad minions,” but also “fully nude street revelers,” “dominants and submissives,” and “the usual enthusiasts in San Francisco’s leather-clad S&M [sadomasochist] and gay community….” The Fair “receives the full support of the city.”

The Castro Street Fair takes place in San Fran­cisco’s notorious Castro District (long known as the world’s “gay mecca”), usually within a week or two of the Folsom Street Fair, and features much of the same cast of misfits. The Castro Street Fair, which was founded by “gay” icon Harvey Milk as a political statement for “gay” rights, is also sanctioned by the city. This year, the 34th annual Castro Street Fair took place on Sunday, October 7.

A fixture at both fairs (and virtually every other “gay” event in San Francisco) is the homosexual activist outfit Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Started in 1979, this group of “gay” men dress up in drag in mock nun’s costumes with heavy makeup and wild accessories, and give themselves such handles as Sister May JoyB WithU, Sister Edith Myflesh, Sister Chastity Boner, Sister Constance Craving of the Holey Desire, and Sister Barbi Mitzvah, the group’s “Board Chairnun and Sexytary.” Among the group’s mottos are: “Go and sin some more” and “It is not wise to say no to free drinks, cheap jewelry, discount cosmetics or pretty boys.”

It was on Sunday, October 7, the day of the Castro Street Fair, that San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer decided to pay a “pastoral” visit to Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, in the heart of the Castro, to celebrate Mass. Phil Lawler (Catholic World News, Oct. 12) reports that “Most Holy Redeemer is a notoriously gay-friendly parish, in a hotbed of gay activism. Just a week before the archbishop’s visit, the parish hosted a competition among ‘the Bay Area’s Most Delicious Drag Divas.'”