CV NEWS FEED // A columnist writing for The Hill this week identified a flag of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as “a symbol associated with the Christian right wing, specifically used to protest Pride.”
The Catholic veneration of the Sacred Heart is in fact a centuries-old devotion associated with the 17th-century visionary St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Nick Robertson’s June 10 Hill article reported on complaints from figures on the political left about the flags flown at the homes of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito.
The Alitos have been the target of attacks from secular news outlets such as The New York Times, which argued that an upside-down American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flown at the Alitos’ private residencies are “provocative symbol[s]” linked to the events of January 6, 2021. Some participants in those events carried these flags.
“Judges are not supposed to give any impression of bias, yet the flag could be seen as telegraphing the Alitos’ views — and at a time when the justices were on the cusp of adopting a new ethics code,” according to a May New York Times piece.
In an article debunking calls for Alito to recuse himself from cases, legal expert Margot Cleveland pointed out that it was Alito’s wife Martha-Ann who raised the upside-down American flag.
Mrs. Alito came under fire this week over an undercover recording of a conversation with her.
On June 3, she attended the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner, where progressive filmmaker Lauren Windsor engaged her in a private conversation and secretly recorded it. Windsor, according to Robertson, “posed as a conservative to elicit answers from Alito and others.”
Windsor recorded Mrs. Alito talking about the flag controversy, and the recordings were later published online and picked up by news outlets.
Robertson wrote about the recording that Martha-Ann said of the flag controversy: “You come after me, I’m gonna give it back to you… There will be a way. It doesn’t have to be now, but there will be a way. They know. Don’t worry about it.”
Robertson later wrote: “In the recording, Martha-Ann Alito also committed to flying a ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus’ flag at her homes this month to protest the display of an LGBTQ pride flag nearby. The Sacred Heart of Jesus flag is a symbol associated with the Christian right wing, specifically used to protest Pride.”
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus during the month of June dates back to 1856.
According to the Catholic News Agency, Pope Pius IX “designated the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the universal Church” in 1856. “Ever since, the month of June has been devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and his immense love for all of humanity.”
June did not become associated with LGBT “Pride” until the 1970’s, and was not formally designated as “Pride” month until 2000.
President Bill Clinton formally “designated June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month” in 2000, according to History.com. President Barack Obama expanded the title of this Pride Month in 2009 to be “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.”
