Surrounded by rainbow flags and packed shoulder to shoulder with more than 150 worshippers, Christopher Park in New York’s Greenwich Village became an open-air sanctuary at the start of New York’s Pride weekend. Catholics, allies and visitors gathered for the 2026 Annual Pride Mass on June 25 at the Stonewall National Monument, steps away from the Stonewall Inn, where the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement traces its origins to the June 1969 uprising.
Organized annually by Out at St. Paul, the LGBTQ+ ministry of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan, and set against the backdrop of one of the country’s most significant civil rights landmarks, participants celebrated the Eucharist while affirming the ministry’s three pillars of spirituality, community and service.
The small park, transformed by dozens of rainbow flags encircling the gathering, offered a visible sign of both remembrance and hope. As tourists paused to observe and neighborhood sounds drifted into the celebration, the Mass unfolded as an expression of faith rooted in a place synonymous with the struggle for dignity and equal rights.
Presiding over the liturgy, Paulist Fr. Chris Lawton, associate pastor at St. Paul the Apostle, said holding the celebration at Stonewall reflects Jesus’ own way of ministering.
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“If we are a church that reflects that Jesus who goes out to encounter all those who might receive this message of extraordinary love, then of course, praise God, we celebrate the sacraments here in our church,” he told NCR before the Mass. “And we also go out regularly to be present to others, especially those who may not enter the doors of a church.”
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