BLUE ASH — Holding signs and praying the rosary, 30 people from a group called Catholics for Traditional Values gathered along Pfeiffer Road on Sunday to protest the national conference of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries.

        The association was wrapping up its three-day meeting at the Clarion Hotel in Blue Ash with a Mass celebrated by the Most Rev. Daniel Pilarczyk, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Sean Murray (right) and Jim Sauve (center) pray the rosary as they hold a sign protesting a meeting of the National Association of the Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Mark Donohoe, spokesman for the group, said the conference was contrary to traditional Catholic teaching.

        “In light of all the scandals occurring in the Catholic Church over the last year, I find it appalling we would bring a conference such as this which condones certain deviant behavior,” said Mr. Donohoe, 45, of Villa Hills. Another protester, 32-year-old Sean Murray of Norwood said, “We just think the archbishop needs to address the sinful nature of what goes on there and not encourage it.”

        About 100 people, mostly diocesan and parish employees from across the country who minister to lesbians and gays, attended the conference hosted by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

        National organizers held the conference outside Cincinnati's city limits because of Issue 3 passed by voters in 1993. Now called Article 12, it's part of the city charter and bars the city from giving protected status or preferential treatment based on sexual orientation.

        The national association was founded in 1994 to minister to lesbian and gay Catholics and their families and friends. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati launched its ministry to lesbians and gays in 1999.

        Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the archdiocese, said the conference did not deviate from church teaching.

        “It's rather ironic that some of the communications that we have are from individuals who think by somehow presiding at Mass for this organization that the archbishop is buying into a so-called gay agenda,” he said. “When we launched our Catholic ministries with gays and lesbians, the archbishop ...was very, very clear about church teaching that homosexual activity is wrong.”

        The Catholic Church has ministries to lesbians and gays, just as it ministers to divorced and separated Catholics, and women who have had abortions, he said, but that doesn't mean the church has changed its position on any of those issues.

        The national association's Web site quotes the U.S. bishops: “Homosexual (persons), like everyone else, should not suffer from prejudice against their basic human rights. They have a right to respect, friendship and justice. They should have an active role in the Christian community.”

        But protester Nicholas Federspiel, 45, of West Chester disagrees.

        . “I'm all for fighting bias, bigotry and racism, and being tolerant of that which is tolerable. When perversity is hidden under the covers of diversity, that is where we ought to draw the line. I don't respect (homosexuals), and I don't condone it.”

        Most protesters were members of Immaculate Conception Church in Norwood and St. Gertrude the Great in Sharonville. The churches do not embrace changes in Catholicism ushered in by Vatican II and are not part of the archdiocese.

        “They are not even affiliated with the pope,” Mr. Andriacco said. “These folks are in schism. They're deliberately rejecting the authority of the current pope. From our perspective, they really aren't part of the church.”

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