NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      SYDNEY (CWNews.com) - The world-famous Sydney Opera House announced on Friday that it will not carry out plans for homosexual men dressed as nuns to give tours of the building during next month's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.

      Last year, the Opera House Trust invited the group calling itself the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to conduct the tours, in order to become more involved in the festival. The group mocks the Catholic Church for declaring the homosexual lifestyle immoral. But trust chief executive Michael Lynch said the tours had been canceled after protests by the Church and he apologized for any offense.

      Archdiocese of Sydney spokesman Father Brian Lucas said the trust's decision was very responsible, adding that the homosexual group thrives on publicity. "We regret that this controversy, of course, gives them the very publicity they seek and they're best ignored," Father Lucas said.

      Organizers of the Mardi Gras Festival called for the tours to be reinstated. "In the spirit of Mardi Gras and in the broader interests of tolerance, Mardi Gras calls on the Opera House to reinstate the Sisters' Opera House tours," president David McLachlan said.