On the first Saturday of Lent, an LGBT Hate Group will stage a provocative and deliberately insulting concert entitled ‘Heaps Gay'.
The event has been given backing by the Sydney City Council, who own the foreground in front of the historic St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.
In response to the hate rally, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has released the following statement:
Friends, it has been brought to my attention that, as part of the Sunset Piazza performance series, a concert titled ‘Heaps Gay’ will be held on the Cathedral forecourt this weekend, and that an image of the Cathedral façade has been used in its promotion.
As the Cathedral Forecourt is council land and not church property, the decision about the content of the concert and its advertising is unfortunately not ours to make. We have asked City of Sydney that the Cathedral image be removed from the advertising. It is frustrating and upsetting that St Mary’s Cathedral, the mother church of Australia, has been used so provocatively to promote this event and such little sensitivity shown to people of faith.
In this great season of Lent, we need to pray to ask the Lord that in our great and ‘tolerant’ city of Sydney, that religious belief will be respected and protected and that we will all rediscover an appreciation for what is sacred. This Lent, I’d encourage you all to make a pilgrimage to St Mary’s Cathedral for Mass, Confession, or private prayer. I look forward to welcoming you there.
The Archbishop rightfully points out that the use of the image of St. Mary's is designed to attract LGBT extremists who wish to insult Catholics during Lent.
It is up to Catholics to make sure that they are present on the steps of the church at this event and to make sure that no harm comes to what is inside. This hate rally stirs up memories of the 1989 ‘Stop the Church’ even in New York, when used condoms were flung at Catholics by LGBT people and one activist took the Host and broke it in to pieces and threw it onto the floor. Australians have a duty to stop this from happening, the church is God's house, it's not ours to turn the other cheek and to allow it to be desecrated.