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Originally, the plan was a silent protest with a "die-in" during the homily.<ref name="pose" /> When it appeared that the protest was having little effect on O'Connor, who continued on with mass, [[Michael Petrelis]] stood on a pew and shouted, "You bigot O'Connor, you're killing us!"{{sfn|Riemer|Brown|2019|p=275}}{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}}<ref name="ZsIZP" /> The cathedral then descended into "pandemonium."<ref name="pose" />{{sfn|Riemer|Brown|2019|p=275}} A few dozen activists interrupted Mass, chanted slogans, blew whistles, "kept up a banchee screech," chained themselves to pews, threw condoms in the air, waived their fists, and laid down in the aisles to stage a "die-in."<ref name="Wages" />{{sfn|Faderman|2015|pp=433-435}}<ref name="Hunter" /><ref name="pose" /><ref name="plague1" /> O'Connor asked worshipers to "pay no attention to" those disrupting the Mass.{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}} The organist also played in an attempt to drown the protesters out.<ref name="Sindelar" />
Originally, the plan was a silent protest with a "die-in" during the homily.<ref name="pose" /> When it appeared that the protest was having little effect on O'Connor, who continued on with mass, [[Michael Petrelis]] stood on a pew and shouted, "You bigot O'Connor, you're killing us!"{{sfn|Riemer|Brown|2019|p=275}}{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}}<ref name="ZsIZP" /> The cathedral then descended into "pandemonium."<ref name="pose" />{{sfn|Riemer|Brown|2019|p=275}} A few dozen activists interrupted Mass, chanted slogans, blew whistles, "kept up a banchee screech," chained themselves to pews, threw condoms in the air, waived their fists, and laid down in the aisles to stage a "die-in."<ref name="Wages" />{{sfn|Faderman|2015|pp=433-435}}<ref name="Hunter" /><ref name="pose" /><ref name="plague1" /> O'Connor asked worshipers to "pay no attention to" those disrupting the Mass.{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}} The organist also played in an attempt to drown the protesters out.<ref name="Sindelar" />


One protester, Tom Keane, "in a gesture large enough for all to see,"{{sfn|Faderman|2015|pp=434-435}} spat the communion wafer out of his mouth, crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor, an act he expected to be shocking to Catholics as [[host desecration]].<ref name="rude" /><ref name="keane" /><ref name="ACTUPNY" /><ref name="Wages" /><ref name="carroll" /><ref name="plague1" /><ref name="ZsIZP" /> He then laid on the floor of the church in an attempt to prevent others from receiving [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Communion]] and was later arrested.<ref name="pose" /> It was Keane's "act of sacrilege" which became the biggest news story in the days to come.<ref name="plague1" /> Year's later, Keane said he would not have repeated the act if he was in a similar situation.<ref name="plague1" />
One protester, Tom Keane, "in a gesture large enough for all to see,"{{sfn|Faderman|2015|pp=434-435}} spat the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharist]] out of his mouth, crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor, an act he expected to be shocking to Catholics as [[host desecration|desecration]].<ref name="rude" /><ref name="keane" /><ref name="ACTUPNY" /><ref name="Wages" /><ref name="carroll" /><ref name="plague1" /><ref name="ZsIZP" /> He then laid on the floor of the church in an attempt to prevent others from receiving [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Communion]] and was later arrested.<ref name="pose" /> It was Keane's "act of sacrilege" which became the biggest news story in the days to come.<ref name="plague1" /> Year's later, Keane said he would not have repeated the act if he was in a similar situation.<ref name="plague1" />


==Reaction==
==Reaction==

Revision as of 01:55, 19 April 2020

Stop the Church was a demonstration organized by members of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) on December 10, 1989 that disrupted a Mass being said by John Cardinal O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. One-hundred and eleven protesters were arrested, 53 of whom were arrested inside the church. The main objective of the demonstration was to protest O'Connor's opposition to the teaching of safe sex in the public school system, and his opposition to the distribution of condoms to curb the spread of AIDS.[1] During planning, the planned protest was joined by Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!), who opposed the Catholic position on abortion rights.

The protest was widely discussed, including being condemned by media outlets and national figures such as President George H.W. Bush. The protest, and one protester's desecration of the Eucharist, became the pervasive subject in the news throughout the week. It was also headline news in several European countries. The protest changed the way Americans viewed the Catholic Church.[2]

Background

Main articles: Catholic Church and homosexuality and Catholic Church and abortion
See also: Theology of the body and LGBT rights in the United States

ACT UP opposed the public position of the Church on condom use and safe sex education to control the spread of AIDS, and identified pronouncements such as O'Connor's statement that "Good morality is good medicine" as harmful.[3] The protest was organized following a meeting of senior clergy where they had reinforced doctrine opposing the use of condoms.[3] ACT UP nicknamed the cleric "Cardinal O'Condom."[3] They also opposed the Church's anti-abortion position.[4] In the 1980s, O'Connor wielded a great deal of power in both the church and in society at large.[5] WHAM! subsequently joined the protest, swelling its numbers and adding the issue of abortion rights.[3]

Protest

Stop the Church was held on December 10, 1989 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.[6][7][3][7][8] The idea had originated with ACT UP members Vincent Gagliostro and Victor Mendolia.[4] Cardinal John O'Connor was celebrating a Mass attended by Mayor Edward I. Koch and other political leaders.[6] Koch, who was Jewish, and the other dignitaries attended as a sign of support to O'Connor.[6]

The protesters had indicated in advance that they planned to protest. While pretending to be church ushers, some handed out flyers explaining why they would disrupt the service to those entering the catherdral.[3][6][8] The crowd outside grew to 4,500 people.[9][10][6][8][11] The demonstrators stood outside the cathedral shouting and raising placards that read "Eternal life to Cardinal O'Connor now", "Know your scumbags", "Curb your dogma", "Papal Bull", and the like.[12] Some tried to "storm" the church, but police stopped those who were obvious protesters from entering.[8]

At the outset of Mass, O'Connor said he knew there were a number of protesters in attendance but asked for a peaceful service.[8] Plainclothes police officers, who were expecting trouble, were sitting in the pews during Mass.[6]

Originally, the plan was a silent protest with a "die-in" during the homily.[6] When it appeared that the protest was having little effect on O'Connor, who continued on with mass, Michael Petrelis stood on a pew and shouted, "You bigot O'Connor, you're killing us!"[4][3][1] The cathedral then descended into "pandemonium."[6][4] A few dozen activists interrupted Mass, chanted slogans, blew whistles, "kept up a banchee screech," chained themselves to pews, threw condoms in the air, waived their fists, and laid down in the aisles to stage a "die-in."[9][10][12][6][8] O'Connor asked worshipers to "pay no attention to" those disrupting the Mass.[3] The organist also played in an attempt to drown the protesters out.[2]

One protester, Tom Keane, "in a gesture large enough for all to see,"[13] spat the Eucharist out of his mouth, crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor, an act he expected to be shocking to Catholics as desecration.[14][15][16][9][17][8][1] He then laid on the floor of the church in an attempt to prevent others from receiving Communion and was later arrested.[6] It was Keane's "act of sacrilege" which became the biggest news story in the days to come.[8] Year's later, Keane said he would not have repeated the act if he was in a similar situation.[8]

Reaction

One-hundred and eleven protesters were arrested, including 43 inside the church.[2] Some, who refused to move, had to be carried out of the church on stretchers.[6] Only minor charges were filed, punished primarily by community service sentences; some protesters who refused the sentences were tried, but did not serve jail time.[2]

The protests were condemned by politicians and editorials in the major daily newspapers. Some in the gay community also considered that invading the privacy of worship was at odds with the gay community's arguments on sexual privacy.[17] Mayor Edward Koch viewed it as disrespectful and NY Gov. Mario Cuomo "deplored the demonstration." The Cathedral protest was criticized as "stupid and wrong-headed" by Andy Humm, a spokesman for the Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights, while one ACT UP leader, Peter Staley, denounced the protest as an "utter failure" and a "selfish, macho thing."[18] During its planning, members of ACT UP were divided on the wisdom of the protest with some saying that protest should not target worshipers; others said it was more important to gain attention than it was to avoid offending the people attending the mass.[6]

After the protest, in an effort to better understand the needs and concerns of the gay community, O'Connor began ministering to those dying of AIDS.[8] He also supported others who did so.[5][1]

Legacy

Robert Hilferty's documentary about the protest, Stop the Church, was originally scheduled to air on PBS. The film was eventually dropped from national broadcast by PBS, but still aired on public-access television cable TV stations in several major cities including Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.[19]

"ACT UP activists now say the St. Patrick's protest changed the way many Americans viewed the Catholic Church. It was no longer untouchable, and its policies – on everything from condoms and abortion to gay marriage and women priests – were no longer sacrosanct."[2] Filmmaker Jim Hubbard, a member of ACT UP and director of the documentary United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, said, "I wasn't clear about what going inside the church would add at the time. But now I think that the shock of going inside and confronting the cardinal really worked. It helped bring ACT UP to mainstream attention. It brought the crisis to a point where the government and the mainstream media really had to start dealing with it."[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d George J. Marlin, Brad Miner, Sons of Saint Patrick: A History of the Archbishops of New York, p312
  2. ^ a b c d e f Sindelar, Daisy (6 August 2012). "Decades Before Pussy Riot, U.S. Group Protested Catholic Church -- And Got Results". Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Faderman 2015, p. 434.
  4. ^ a b c d Riemer & Brown 2019, p. 275.
  5. ^ a b Michael O'Loughlin (December 20, 2019). "The cost of AIDS ministry to a gay priest". Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS & the Catholic Church (Podcast). America. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l O’Loughlin, Michael J. (June 21, 2019). "'Pose' revisits controversial AIDS protest inside St. Patrick's Cathedral". America. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Crouch, Stanley (10 May 2000). "Mourning the loss of Cardinal O'Connor". Salon. Archived from the original on 2004-09-18. Retrieved 2006-01-01.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Michael O'Loughlin (December 1, 2019). "Surviving the AIDS crisis as a gay Catholic". Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS & the Catholic Church (Podcast). America. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  9. ^ a b c Allen, Peter L. (June 2002), The Wages of Sin: Sex and Disease, Past and Present, University of Chicago Press, p. 143, ISBN 978-0-226-01461-6, retrieved July 27, 2018
  10. ^ a b Faderman 2015, pp. 433–435.
  11. ^ ACT UP. 10 Year Anniversary of "Stop the Church" Accessed July 4, 2007.
  12. ^ a b Hunter, James Davison (1991). Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Basic Books. p. 153. ISBN 978-0975372500.
  13. ^ Faderman 2015, pp. 434–435.
  14. ^ DeParle, Jason (January 3, 1990). "Rude, Rash, Effective, Act-Up Shifts AIDS Policy". New York Times. p. B1. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  15. ^ "ACTUP Oral History Project, Interviewee: Tom Keane, Interview Number: 176" (pdf). The New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival, Inc. February 24, 2015. pp. 20–21. Retrieved August 3, 2018. I put my hands out, and suddenly I have the Communion wafer in my hands, and the priest says, 'This is the body of Christ,' and I say, 'Opposing safe-sex education is murder.' Then I sort of—I didn't really know what to do, and I think in some sense, some part of me was sort of saying, 'Well, fine. You guys think you can tell us that you reject us, that we don't belong, so I'm going to reject you.' So I took it and I crushed it and dropped it.
  16. ^ "ACTUP Capsule History 1989". ACT UP. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  17. ^ a b Carroll, Tamar W. (April 20, 2015). Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-1-4696-1989-7.
  18. ^ Deparle, Jason (January 3, 1990). "Rude, Rash, Effective, Act-Up Shifts AIDS Policy". The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  19. ^ Steinfels, Peter. (September 13, 1991) Channel 13 to Show Film on AIDS Protest New York Times. Accessed July 4, 2007.

Works cited

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