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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, ] stood on a pew and shouted, "You're killing us!"{{sfn|Riemer|Brown|2019|p=275}}{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}} 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, ] stood on a pew and shouted, "You're killing us!"{{sfn|Riemer|Brown|2019|p=275}}{{sfn|Faderman|2015|p=434}} 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}} ] by spitting it out of his mouth, crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor.<ref name=rude/><ref name=keane/><ref name="ACTUPNY"/><ref name=Wages/><ref name=scalia/><ref name=carroll/><ref name=plague1/> He then laid on the floor of the church in an attempt to prevent others from receiving ] 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 a ] out of his mouth, and crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor.<ref name=rude/><ref name=keane/><ref name="ACTUPNY"/><ref name=Wages/><ref name=scalia/><ref name=carroll/><ref name=plague1/> He then laid on the floor of the church in an attempt to prevent others from receiving ] 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 23:55, 9 April 2020

1989 protest in New York City See also: Dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality

Stop the Church was a demonstration by members of ACT UP and Women's Health Action and Mobilization on December 10, 1989, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. One-hundred and eleven protesters were arrested, 53 of whom were arrested inside the church, after disrupting the Sunday morning mass. One protester damaged a communion wafer, an act that grabbed headlines around the world.

The main objective of the demonstration was to oppose John Cardinal O'Connor's opposition to the teaching of safe sex in the public school system, as well as his opposition to abortion. While the Roman Catholic Church has no jurisdiction over United States public schools, O'Connor held a great deal of power in the church and in society.

The protest was condemned widely, not only by local politicians but also by President George H.W. Bush, Senator Alphonse D'Amato, and other national figures. It became the pervasive subject in the news throughout the week. It was also headline news in several European countries. A short documentary about the protest, titled "Stop the Church", was originally scheduled to air on PBS. The documentary was eventually dropped from national broadcast by PBS, but still aired on public television stations in several major cities including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Background

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

ACTUP and WHAM! opposed the public positions of the Church which they felt were hurtful to people with AIDS, such as O'Connor's statement that "Good morality is good medicine" and its anti-abortion stance. The protest followed a meeting of senior clergy where they had reinforced doctrine opposing the use of condoms. ACT UP nicknamed the cleric "Cardinal O'Condom." In the 1980s, O'Connor wielded a great deal of power in both the church and in society at large.

Protest

Stop the Church protest on December 10, 1989, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Women's Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM). The idea had originated with ACT UP members Vincent Gagliostro and Victor Mendolia. Cardinal John O'Connor was celebrating a Mass attended by Mayor Edward I. Koch and other political leaders. Koch, who was Jewish, and the other dignitaries attended as a sign of support to O'Connor.

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. The crowd outside grew to 4,500 people. 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. Some tried to "storm" the church, but police stopped those who were obvious protesters from entering.

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

Originally, the plan was a silent protest with a "die-in" during the homily. 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're killing us!" The cathedral then descended into "pandemonium." 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." O'Connor asked worshipers to "pay no attention to" those disrupting the Mass. The organist also played in an attempt to drown the protesters out.

One protester, Tom Keane, "in a gesture large enough for all to see," spat a Communion wafer out of his mouth, and crumbling it into pieces, and dropping them to the floor. He then laid on the floor of the church in an attempt to prevent others from receiving Communion and was later arrested. It was Keane's "act of sacrilege" which became the biggest news story in the days to come. Year's later, Keane said he would not have repeated the act if he was in a similar situation.

Reaction

One-hundred and eleven protesters were arrested, including 43 inside the church. Some, who refused to move, had to be carried out of the church on stretchers. 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.

The protests were widely condemned by public and church officials, members of the public, the mainstream media, and some in the gay community. ACT UP was publicly condemned by Mayor Edward Koch and some media for what they viewed as militancy and disrespect. 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." 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.

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. He also supported others who did so.

Legacy

The protest was repeated the following year in "Stop the Church II."

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.

"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." 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."

The incident has been compared to the 2012 trial of Pussy Riot for hooliganism and incitement of religious hatred in Moscow after their protest at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. A Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty article about the Moscow trial described the Stop the Church protest as "seminal", contributing to early 1990s reforms granting Americans with HIV and AIDS federal protection from discrimination, a U.S. government office on AIDS policy, and millions of dollars for biomedical research.

References

  1. ^ Steinfels, Peter. (September 13, 1991) Channel 13 to Show Film on AIDS Protest New York Times. Accessed July 4, 2007.
  2. ^ Faderman 2015, p. 434.
  3. ^ Riemer & Brown 2019, p. 275.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "ACTUP Capsule History 1989". ACT UP. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  6. ^ O’Loughlin, Michael J. (June 21, 2019). "'Pose' revisits controversial AIDS protest inside St. Patrick's Cathedral". America. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
  7. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ Faderman 2015, pp. 433–435.
  11. ACT UP. 10 Year Anniversary of "Stop the Church" Accessed July 4, 2007.
  12. ^ Hunter, James Davison (1991). Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Basic Books. p. 153. ISBN 978-0975372500.
  13. ^ Sindelar, Daisy (6 August 2012). "Decades Before Pussy Riot, U.S. Group Protested Catholic Church -- And Got Results". Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty.
  14. Faderman 2015, pp. 434–435.
  15. DeParle, Jason (January 3, 1990). "Rude, Rash, Effective, Act-Up Shifts AIDS Policy". New York Times. p. B1. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  16. "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.
  17. Scalia, Elizabeth (November 10, 2015). "The Priest, and the Pieces of Christ's Body He Protects". Alteia. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. Deparle, Jason (January 3, 1990). "Rude, Rash, Effective, Act-Up Shifts AIDS Policy". The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2010.

Works cited

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