Catholics running 'Dodgers Have Lost Their Way' ads during every game this week, protesting team's LGBT ritual honoring anti-Christian group Friday

A Catholic advocacy group is running ads during every Los Angeles Dodgers game this week, calling out the team for its endorsement of anti-Christian bigotry.

In the lead-up to the team's Friday presentation of a "Community Hero Award" to the so-called Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, CatholicVote is also deploying mobile billboards to expose the group's degeneracy and anti-Christian bigotry.

The ad that CatholicVote is running during the games is entitled "The Dodgers Have Lost Their Way." It has already been seen over 1.4 million times on YouTube.

The ad notes the Dodgers weren't always synonymous with bigotry, highlighting a memorable occasion on which the Dodgers took a meaningful stand against prejudice: when the team signed Jackie Robinson, the first black American to play in Major League Baseball. The ad contrasts that bold move in 1947 with the team's recent decision to celebrate an anti-Christian activist group.

"Playing Jackie wasn’t popular. Hate and disrespect were popular, even in law. But the Dodgers were right. They helped power a movement and changed a nation. Their leadership, class, and style of play were the envy of baseball. The Dodger way," says the ad. "But today, the Dodgers are putting it all at risk."

"On June 16, a prominent anti-Catholic hate group will be honored on the field: a group that mocks Catholic nuns with vile sexual perversions, pole dances on crosses, blessings with sex toys, even sexualizing the Virgin Mary and the words of Jesus Christ," continues the narration. "A fringe group like this honored, awarded, celebrated? There is no equality in mocking women religious. No tolerance in hate. No pride in anti-Catholic bigotry. Mocking Christians is not the Dodger way."

The TV ads will run during the Dodgers' pregames, postgames, and the games themselves on the Los Angeles network that carries them.

The Dodgers Have Lost Their Wayyoutu.be

CatholicVote indicated that as part of its $1 million ad campaign, it will run mobile billboard trucks outside the stadium all week displaying "disturbing images of SPI and a quotation from a Christian Dodgers player who publicly disapproved of the team’s decision to honor the group."

There are now two players on the team whom the advocacy group can quote, plus a Nationals player who has been particularly outspoken.

TheBlaze previously reported that Clayton Kershaw, a Methodist, was the first of the Dodgers to speak out, saying, "I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions."

Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen similarly took a stand against his team's decision to honor the SPI, stating, "I am disappointed to see the Sister's [sic] of Perpetual Indulgence being honored as heroes at Dodger Stadium. Many of their performances are blasphemous, and their work only displays hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith."

The 34-year-old from Wichita, Kansas, added, "This group openly mocks Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of my faith, and I want to make it clear that I do not agree with nor support the decision of the Dodger's [sic] to 'honor' the Sister's [sic] of Perpetual Indulgence."

The two were joined in their criticism by pitcher Trevor Williams of the Washington Nationals, who called on his "fellow Catholics to reconsider their support of an organization that allows this type of mockery of its fans to occur."

"Inviting the Sister's [sic] of Perpetual Indulgence to perform disenfranchises a large community and promotes hate of Christians and people of faith. ... People like baseball for its entertainment value and competition. The fans do not want propaganda or politics forced on them," Williams said in a statement.

In addition to confronting Dodgers fans with discomfiting facts about the SPI outside Dodger Stadium, CatholicVote has also deployed billboard trucks outside the league's Manhattan headquarters.

According to Tommy Valentine, director of the Catholic Accountability Project at CatholicVote, the ad agency behind the trucks rejected one display because the SPI's acts depicted thereon were too vile.

"It goes to show the importance CatholicVote’s effort to hold the Dodgers and MLB accountable," said Valentine. "The group they’re honoring is not just hateful and bigoted – they’re so obscene that self-respecting companies don’t even feel comfortable displaying their disgusting behavior."

Valentine noted that as part of the campaign, CatholicVote is "also running a Spanish-language ad on L.A. Spanish radio stations and geotargeted digital ads and text messages to baseball fans in L.A."

While the team celebrates its 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night inside the stadium Friday, outside, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops noted the Catholic Church will instead celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The USCCB said in a statement, "This year, on June 16 — the day of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — a professional baseball team has shockingly chosen to honor a group whose lewdness and vulgarity in mocking our Lord, His Mother, and consecrated women cannot be overstated. This is not just offensive and painful to Christians everywhere; it is blasphemy."

Accordingly, Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the Military Services, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles called on the faithful to "recognize June as the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" and commended efforts by Christians and "others of good will" to take a stand.

Several other American bishops have denounced the team and league over the decision to honor the SPI, including Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, who stated, "There are more than 4 million Catholics in Los Angeles, and the decision by the Dodgers to invite a group that seeks to openly disparage them, and the millions of Catholics around the world, is abhorrent and should be rescinded."

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City said, "I encourage the management of Major League Baseball to not allow baseball to be used to advance ideologies that are offensive to many of their customers. Please allow baseball fans to enjoy America’s past-time [sic] without having to be subjected to blasphemy and the mockery of the deeply held religious beliefs of many of its players and fans."

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco tweeted, "Our Catholic sisters devote themselves to serving others selflessly. Decent people would not mock & blaspheme them. So we now know what gods the Dodger admin worships. Open desecration & anti-Catholicism is not disqualifying. Disappointing but not surprising. Gird your loins."

LifeSiteNews indicated that Christians will be rallying, protesting, and praying at parking lot 13 outside Dodger Stadium at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.