(RNS) — The discourse persists over the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s participation in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ upcoming Pride Night celebration, with right-wing worship leaders, major league baseball players and bishops joining conservative Catholic groups in opposition to the Sisters’ inclusion in the event.

Meanwhile, at least one Roman Catholic nun has publicly spoken in support of the Sisters “for their financial assistance to those in need.”

“While I am uncomfortable with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence using the nuns’ old garb to draw attention to bigotry, whether Catholic or not, there is a hierarchy of values in this situation,” wrote Sister Jeannine Gramick in a letter to the Dodgers organization.

“The choice of clothing, even if offensive to some, can never trump the works of mercy,” according to the letter published on New Ways Ministry, a Catholic outreach that Gramick co-founded to advocate for LGBTQ people.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — a nonprofit that uses drag, fundraising and religious imagery in its social advocacy — was founded in 1979 in San Francisco after three men went out into the streets on Easter weekend wearing the traditional habits of nuns. The organization, described on its website as a “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns,” emerged as a charity organization when one of its early events at Metropolitan Community Church raised $1,500 for gay Cuban refugees in 1980.

The Sisters noted that they are a charity organization of human rights activists who are “both silly and serious” and whose mission is “to uplift our community and all marginalized groups, especially the ones ignored by larger organizations, spiritually oriented or otherwise.”

Regarded as “nuns for the gay community,” the Sisters are not Catholic nuns, nor officially affiliated with any specific religious organization.

The Dodgers disinvited the Sisters from the team’s June 16 Pride Night celebration  — during which the organization’s LA chapter is receiving a Community Hero Award — after pushback from groups such as Catholic Vote and Catholic League that accused the organization of degrading their faith. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio criticized Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred for allowing the team to honor the group, which Rubio said “mocks Christians through diabolical parodies of our faith.”

That decision sparked its own backlash from several LGBTQ+ groups, with LA Pride and the Los Angeles LGBT Center deciding to pull out of Pride Night.

This Jan. 21, 2013, file photo shows the entrance to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the headquarters for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Soon after, the Dodgers announced the Sisters were once again welcomed to the team’s annual Pride Night. The Sisters accepted the Dodgers’ reinvitation and now are also participating in the nearby Angels’ Pride Night on June 7 in Orange County after Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken invited the Sisters in the wake of the Dodgers’ decision to remove them from their event. It’s a move the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange opposed.

Now, Catholic Vote and Catholic League are calling on Catholics to boycott the Dodgers Pride Night.

Catholic Vote said it’s seeking to raise $1 million to place ads in Dodger radio stations against the Sisters’ participation in Pride Night.

Meanwhile, Catholic League said it has reached out to the more than 300 parishes under the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as well as to its Catholic schools to raise awareness against the Sisters.

The Catholic groups have lambasted the Sisters’ recent Easter event that featured “Foxy Mary and Hunky Jesus” contests. Catholic League has referred to the Sisters as “bigots” and took offense to a “Condom Savior Mass” event.

Catholic bishops have also joined the fray.

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez shared a statement on Twitter from his diocese, calling on Catholics to ”stand against bigotry and hate in any form” and to have “respect for the religious beliefs of our communities of faith.”

“The decision to honor a group that clearly mocks the Catholic faith and makes light of the sincere and holy vocations of our women religious who are an integral part of our Church is what has caused disappointment, concern, anger, and dismay from our Catholic community,” the statement read. 

Bishop Robert Barron, who previously served as an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, told Fox News that the Dodgers “have made it clear to Catholics and all people of good will that they think mockery of the sacred beliefs of the Catholic Faith is something that they support and will reward.”

On Twitter, he referred to the Sisters as an “anti-Catholic hate group.”

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw waves to fans as he leaves the field after being pulled from the mound during the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Glendale, Ariz., March 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Amid this backlash, Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw announced on Friday (May 26) the “relaunch of Christian Faith and Family Day at Dodger Stadium.”

Kershaw said he was grateful “for the opportunity to talk about Jesus and determined to make it bigger and better than it was before COVID.”

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kershaw said he disagreed with the Dodgers’ decision to honor the Sisters and that he approached the organization about expediting his announcement of the event’s relaunch.

“I don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions,” Kershaw told the LA Times on Monday. The news outlet noted “his issue was with the Sisters group specifically, and not the LGBTQ+ community at large.”

A day later, Sean Feucht — a worship leader who came to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic for his opposition to church closures — shared on Twitter that the Dodgers’ Blake Treinen, whom he referred to as his friend, had asked him to share his statement in opposition to the Sisters.

“The debacle with Bud Light and Target should be a warning to companies and professional sports to stay true to their brand and leave the propaganda and politics off the field,” the statement read, referring to backlash against the two brands over their public LGBTQ support.

“I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I believe the word of God is true,” Treinen continued, adding that “God cannot be mocked.”

In the midst of the backlash, Gail DeGeorge, editor of Global Sisters Report, noted in a column published in the National Catholic Reporter that “there sadly seems to be plenty of bigotry on all sides.”

DeGeorge wrote that she was “baffled and dismayed as to why it is somehow OK to so grossly insult and parody women who do so much good in the world.”

She also criticized the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, who, as she noted, “released a statement saying the Dodgers’ decision to honor the group was ‘anti-Catholic hate speech,'” adding that he “has also been quoted as saying homosexuality was unnatural and making ignorant remarks about people dying of AIDS.”

DeGeorge went on to highlight the ministries of Catholic sisters.

She wrote about the “Vietnamese sisters supporting people with mental illness,” noted the “Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima of Pune who minister to the transgender community in India” and wrote of the “Catholic women religious who minister to those with HIV/AIDS in countries around the world.”

She added: “Catholic sisters are not clergy and so they are scarcely ‘representatives’ of the Catholic Church. Moreover, Catholic women religious do more to assist those in marginalized communities than many realize. They do so quietly, and without denigrating others in the process.”