AOC takes pot-shot at conservatives during stop at Catholic parish in New York

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., held a voter-mobilization event Sept. 28 at All Saints Church, a Catholic parish in Syracuse, New York, where she blamed conservatives for turning people against ‘transgender’ people. The stop was part of her “Project Reactivation” campaign to re-engage lapsed Democratic voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.

During her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez said to applause that conservatives have turned Americans “against our immigrant brothers and sisters, our trans brothers and sisters and neighbors and siblings,” according to a video posted on X by theologian and commenter Daniel O’Connor. 

The event, billed as a training session, drew roughly 200 supporters and featured Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens, Democratic Socialist Assembly candidate Maurice Brown, state Sen. Rachel May, and Working Families Party state director Jasmine Gripper, according to local coverage. Project Reactivation, which the event was a part of, is a five-week effort to recontact 6,314 voters in Onondaga County, and roughly 100,000 statewide, who have not voted in the past two federal elections and are at risk of being purged from voter rolls.

“We cannot run away and give up on places because we think they’re too red,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd, part of a three-stop upstate New York tour aimed at helping Democrats retake the U.S. House.

All Saints is pastored by the openly gay priest Father Fred Daley. The parish describes itself in its “radical welcome video” as a safe space for “all women, men, trans-persons … single, married, …divorced, … or … ‘it’s complicated!’” as well as people with physical disabilities, immigrants, and pets. 

According to the Central Current, the parish has been in an extended dispute with the Diocese of Syracuse since Bishop Douglas Lucia approved a chapter of Courage International, an apostolate that encourages chastity for Catholics who experience same-sex attraction, over the objections of an All Saints task force earlier this year.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general counsel advises that parishes may allow candidates to speak, but only if diocesan policy permits it and all candidates are given equal access. The guidance warns parishes not to “make available the use of church facilities, assets, or members for partisan political purposes.” Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance was part of a partisan voter-turnout campaign for Democratic candidates, not a forum including candidates from multiple parties.

Zeale News asked the Diocese of Syracuse whether it has a policy governing political candidates speaking at parishes, and whether All Saints sought the diocese’s permission for Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance. The diocese had not responded as of publication.