Officials at Transfiguration Catholic Church in Oakdale are apologizing for a message posted on the church’s electronic sign last week.
The message read: “Drag Queen-Free Since 1953!”
Parish officials said the sign’s message was removed on Friday evening after parish leadership learned of its existence.
The message “made reference to a specific demographic of people in a way that fails to adequately account for the Catholic Church’s teachings on the dignity of the human person,” parish officials wrote in a Facebook post on Monday morning. “Upon learning of this message, leadership removed it immediately and regret the controversy that this has caused as it distracts from the parish’s mission to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The post continued: “We firmly hold all people are made in the image of God, and this innate dignity is to be respected at all times, even when serious disagreements emerge. Transfiguration is resolved to ensure such an incident does not occur in the future so that nobody ever feels again that our parish and schools are unavailable for their spiritual and pastoral care.”
Father Nate Meyers, the church’s pastor, told the Pioneer Press that the sign was posted “briefly” on Friday.
In an email to a former parishioner, Meyers said the sign was posted without his knowledge and that he learned about it when someone called to complain.
“I came into the office right away to remove it,” Meyers wrote in the email. “I promise that such a message will never be posted on the sign again. I do strongly believe that all people are made in the image of God and even when serious moral disagreements occur, the dignity of a person is always to be upheld.”