As Wall Street Journal editor Matthew Hennessey pointed out recently, the sport of baseball is one of the victims of this latest genuflection by corporate America to gender ideology. “Everyone is already welcome at the ballpark,” he wrote. "It feels un-American to force-feed culture-war politics alongside the peanuts and Cracker Jack.” But the truth is that big corporations have become increasingly detached from the common decencies of American life – and especially our national tradition, rooted in the Constitution, of showing respect for religious beliefs.
Catholics are among the groups whom well-connected progressives think it’s all right to trash in public. But Christians in general are targets of corporate sneering.
We can hit back, of course, and sometimes it works. Bud Light ditched its woke partnership with trans-activist Dylan Mulvaney when its sales fell by an astonishing 26 percent. And the major retail chain Target recently dropped a London-based company that sells satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories. A leading advocacy group, Catholic Vote, is coordinating a boycott of the Dodgers’ program, and I imagine it will be effective. Catholic Vote is a heavy-hitter when it comes to influencing public opinion in favor of Christian and pro-life causes.
But I’d also like to propose that our response to Catholic-baiting should go further. The Dodgers are honoring fake nuns; let’s honor real ones. Catholic women make an incredible contribution to society, helping some of the poorest and most desperate Americans lift themselves out of poverty and depression. So we should start with the Sisters of Life.
They are aptly named. In addition to the regular vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Sisters take a fourth vow “to protect and enhance the sacredness of every human life.” That means they help women and children, both born and unborn, and for as long as that family wants them to be a part of their lives, which can sometimes be forever. So, for example, the Sisters become family to brave mothers who might otherwise be alone.
The Sisters of Life are one of America’s most heroic orders, and also one of the newest. They began with just eight women in New York in 1991, under the direction of Cardinal John O’Connor. There are now over 100 Sisters across the globe, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, Spain, El Salvador, and the Philippines. Here in North America the Sisters are active in New York City, Denver, Stamford, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C.
When the Supreme Court handed down Dobbs a year ago, the Sisters of Life issued a statement, promising women who find themselves pregnant that “they do not have to walk alone … Today as we renew our commitment to love, we invite all others to step with us into this new era of greater protection for the unborn with even greater generosity, courage and dedication.”
This past year, the Sisters have been making good on their commitment of love. The Dodgers have chosen to celebrate a gruesome collection of pro-abortion drag queens who vilify them. We must choose to celebrate – to borrow a corporate slogan – the real thing.
But where? It seems only fitting that such an honor take place in New York City, the city of their founding. And what better occasion to do so than during a Yankees game, or a Mets game. I’m not taking sides, so I’m happy with either. Or, better still, both.
