Nate’s Mission at the USCCB

On Tuesday, November 16th, representatives of Nate’s Mission joined Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA-USA) and other organizations to denounce a rally planned by Church Militant outside the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) General Meeting. Church Militant, designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has long used the clergy sexual abuse crisis to foment outrage around homosexuality by attributing the crisis to gay priests.

Advertising speakers like Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos, the rally’s promotional material urged Catholics to come to Baltimore to “fight for the Holy Mother Church, face to face.” The rally came after the City of Baltimore, fearing violence, lost a federal appeal to ban Church Militant from hosting the rally at the city-owned pavilion.

Survivors and advocates urged the bishops to speak out against the rally and its message equating homosexuality to pedophilia. The conference, they say, focusing on Eucharistic coherence rather than the ongoing sexual abuse crisis, demonstrates the bishops’ absorption in their own culture wars rather than a commitment to accountability for the harm they have caused to children and communities through their complicity in the perpetuation of the crisis through their enabling of abuse and cover-up of evidence.

The full press conference can be viewed below: