CatholicVoteAction.org

I’m happy to see that the St. Thomas More Society, a pro-life law center based in Chicago, has come to the aid of St. James Church in New York City, which as I have reported on before (here and here) was duped into hosting a late-night grunge concert in the church’s sanctuary.

We can debate (and the Archdiocese should investigate) to what degree the parish staff was negligent in allowing such a grave abuse to happen to a sacred space entrusted to their care, but we should also make very sure that the individuals responsible for a) lying to the parish and b) horrifically disrespecting a house of God make reparations. 

After the jump, what the St. Thomas More Society is doing to make this happen.

Here is what they are doing on behalf of the parish of St. James:

TMS Demands Removal of Videos of Illegal & Offensive Concert in NYC Church

People of faith everywhere are outraged at recent events at St. James Catholic Church in New York City.

The story started when a group sought permission to put on a Christian music event on January 15, 2010, ostensibly to bring young people back to the parish.

What actually happened that night was a sacrilege. The group’s representative, a Roman Catholic, deceived parish staff about the concert that he intended to put on at the Church. Not only was the event not Christian, the group, “Less Artists More Condos,” took over the altar and sanctuary space and put on a hard rock concert, complete with copious amounts of alcohol.

Now, this group, which has deceived other organizations in the past, has now posted videos and pictures of this outrageous event online to brag about its offensive and disgusting abuse of St. James Church, one of the oldest in New York City.

Thomas More Society attorneys were asked to intervene to stop these videos from spreading, and they have issued demands to internet sites to remove these videos. Church officials have not yet decided what further civil or criminal actions should be taken, and TMS will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that, at the very least, these videos won’t provide any further notoriety or motivation for these monsters or others who would to desecrate holy sites.

Case Documents

* Letter to Youtube requesting that videos be removed [PDF]
* Letter to Vimeo requesting that videos be removed [PDF]

These two letters actually are quite helpful in explaining the illegal activities undertaken by the organizers of this “event.”

We Catholics should be thankful for the fine legal minds and selfless individuals who work at the St. Thomas More Society.