Archbishop Niederauer's questionable apology

Just one short year after concerned laity forced cancellation of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s lewd “Bare Chested Bingo” at Most Holy Redeemer (MHR) parish in San Francisco, another scandal has erupted there.  A videotape circulating on the internet shows Archbishop George Niederauer giving Communion to two of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the 10:00 a.m. Mass on October 7, 2007.  (The sisters are a group of cross-dressers whose members ridicule the Church wearing mock religious garb and sporting names like Sr. Porn Again and Sr. Roz Erection.)

As the flamboyantly-garbed, white-faced sisters approached him, the archbishop started to give a blessing to the first, exchanged a few words with him, and then gave him Communion in the hand. The second received Communion without comment. Later outside the church, also shown in the video, a young man approached a clergyman standing to the left of bishop. The two exchanged a kiss on the lips and embraced. Whether the bishop noticed is unclear from the video. What is clear, however, is that Most Holy Redeemer is well-known in the diocese as a gay parish where just about anything goes. On September 27, MHR allowed the “Desperate Diva 2008” competition to take place in its church hall. The event featured twelve drag queens in a contest to see who would grace the cover of the 2008 Desperate Diva Calendar.

Following several days of increasingly escalating public outrage over the Communion incident, Archbishop Niederauer issued an apology to parishioners of his diocese on October 12. Stating that he did not recognize the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the archbishop also said he didn’t see any mock religious garb and described the congregation at the Mass as devout.  Interestingly, he has never used the term men or women to describe the sisters who approached him, but has repeatedly used the word persons.

It is hard to imagine that, after living for over two years in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Archbishop Niederauer was completely unaware of a notorious dissent group that frequently blasphemes the Catholic Church. Only a week earlier at the depraved Folsom Street Fair the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence engaged in outrageous behavior, including attacking the Church. Also, how could the archbishop miss the mustache on one of the cross-dressing men to whom he gave Holy Communion? 

Clearly they were transvestites, and anyone who has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than a few weeks knows exactly who they are.  The Archbishop had already dealt with another scandal involving the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at Most Holy Redeemer.  By claiming he did not recognize the weird sisters he demonstrated his failure to familiarize