Ballyfermot Assumption Parish Church in Dublin erected both an Irish Tricolour and an LGBT+ Pride flag last week.

The flags were flown last week by decision of the parish pastoral council and parish priest Fr Adrian Egan to show that everyone is welcome in their church.

On 17 June, a spokesperson for the church shared a photograph of the flags along with a message which read:

"Just an effort by a parish pastoral council to say to our gay brothers and sisters, ‘God loves you, your parish loves you, and you are welcome here'.

"Applies to all of you too! That's all it is folks, but conspiracy theories abound these days!"

But, within days, the church was ordered by the Dublin diocese to remove the flag.

The diocese claimed the church could not fly any flag on the grounds apart from national or Papal flags on appropriate occasions.

The church received many messages of support following the initial photo and announcement.

One man wrote that he "never thought I would see" an LGBT flag flying on Church property, writing: "As a religious person and a person who is gay, this is a lovely sight."

But, Ballyfermot also received others fuming that the message was 'anti-Catholic'. One person wrote that the church was "not following Christ's teaching."

"This is not truth. It is not love. This is false teaching and causing huge suffering," they wrote.

Fr Egan told the congregation on Sunday Mass that the Church had "received a lot of messages in various forms. Many were aggressive, hostile, nasty, loud, accusatory and condemnatory. They were also claiming we were up to all kinds of things."

"Because I'm the parish priest, some of it came directed at me. I was the anti-Christ, the heathen, I should be ashamed, I should be removed, I should be dismissed."

"Somebody said to me, ‘enjoy the next time it snows because you won't see it where you're going to'. It did get to me, I will admit," he said.

The Ballyfermot Anti-Racism Network and the Ballyfermot Youth Service have organised a vigil at the roundabout near the church. They want to show they are "in solidarity with all the Pride community and young people in Ballyfermot".

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin said that the hateful responses about the Catholic church flying a Pride flag sent by some were "not a true reflection of the people of Ballyfermot."

The local community will come together "to show we will not be tolerating that sort of behaviour" and to support "those in the area who would have been affected by this."

Sources

Irish Post

Irish Times

"The US Embassy to the Holy See celebrates #PrideMonth with the Pride flag on display during the month of June," the embassy tweeted from its official account.

"The United States respects the dignity and equality of LGBTQI+ people. LGBTQI+ rights are human rights."

Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that US embassies and consulates around the world could fly the "Pride" flag on the same flagpole as the American flag during "Pride season."

Under the Trump administration, US diplomatic outposts were reportedly prohibited from flying the rainbow flag from embassy flagpoles. They had to obtain special permission to do so and were only allowed to display the flag inside buildings.

The announcement has met with some resistance.

Representative Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South Carolina, said he "saw this coming."

Duncan called the US embassy's Vatican move "disrespectful" and "inappropriate".

It represents "exactly why I filed the Old Glory Only Act. The only flag flying at our embassies should be the flag of the United States of America," Duncan concluded.

Others who objected to the announcement noted that the flag's celebration of certain sexual activities would fly in the face of many local cultures where US Embassies ought to take a respectful, diplomatic posture.

Heritage Foundation foreign policy analyst Daniel Kochis, for instance, said that such "pushing" of "‘progressive' narratives often runs afoul of local religious or cultural sensitivities and will besmirch the US as an impartial interlocutor in many countries."

But Antony Blinken's cable on "Pride" flags advised that diplomatic posts in certain countries should avoid flying the rainbow flag if doing so would create a backlash.

President Joe Biden issued a statement on June 1 for "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month, 2021."

"Pride is both a jubilant communal celebration of visibility and a personal celebration of self-worth and dignity," Biden stated.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Catholic Vote