EWTN News reports that Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred, in a letter to Senator Josh Hawley, admitted that the San Francisco Giants organization failed to properly communicate to players that wearing gay pride caps during the team’s June 12 “Pride Night” was optional. Three players had inscribed Bible verses on their caps—one referencing Genesis 9:12-16, in which God establishes the rainbow as a covenant sign—prompting the Giants to apologize for causing “pain and anger to many in the LGBTQ+ community” and the MLB to issue warnings. Manfred stated that the warnings were delivered before the league became aware of the communication failure, but confirmed the players “were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be.” The Department of Justice, under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, has opened an investigation, citing a potential “double standard” given past allowances for “Black Lives Matter” messages. This incident follows the Washington Nationals firing an official for allegedly marginalizing a Catholic pitcher due to his faith.
The Rainbow Reclaimed: A Sign of Covenant Co-opted by Revolution
The incident at Oracle Park is not merely a case of poor team communication; it is a microcosm of the spiritual war being waged against the natural law and divine revelation in the public square. The players’ act of inscribing Genesis 9:12-16—where the rainbow is unequivocally declared by God as “the sign of the covenant” promising mercy—onto a symbol hijacked by a movement that celebrates acts condemned in the same Scripture (Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27) is a profound act of witness. It is a reclamation of a divine symbol from its appropriation by a ideology of rebellion against the Creator’s order. The Giants’ subsequent apology for causing “pain and anger” reveals the true nature of the modern “Pride” movement: it demands not mere tolerance, but the active suppression of any dissent from its dogma, especially dissent rooted in divine revelation. This is the odium fidei (hatred of the faith) manifesting in corporate policy.
The “Content-Neutral” Lie and the Double Standard of Apostate Power
Commissioner Manfred’s defense—that the league enforces a “content-neutral prohibition on writing messages on uniforms”—is a transparent falsehood, a bureaucratic fig leaf for targeted persecution. The Department of Justice letter correctly identifies the “double standard”: players were permitted to wear “Black Lives Matter” messages, a political slogan, while biblical verses are censored. This exposes the true hierarchy of values in the post-Christian West: revolutionary political causes are endorsed, while the immutable Word of God is censured. This is not neutrality; it is the enforcement of a secularist orthodoxy that is inherently hostile to the Catholic faith. As Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, the reign of Christ the King encompasses all of human society, including its recreational and commercial spheres. To claim a “content-neutral” rule while applying it only against religious expression is to establish a de facto state religion of secularism, which the Syllabus of Errors condemns as the error that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55).
The Failure of “Optional” Participation and the Cowardice of the Institutional Church
Manfred’s conclusion that the policy “strikes the right balance” by allowing clubs to celebrate segments of their fanbase while not forcing players to participate is a classic modernist compromise, a false peace purchased at the cost of truth. It reduces the faith to a private hobby, acceptable only if it remains invisible and inoffensive to the reigning secular priesthood. This is the very essence of the “religious freedom” condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus: “the false civil liberty of every form of worship” (Proposition 79). The institutional Catholic Church, both pre- and post-conciliar, has largely failed to equip the faithful for this moment. It offers no robust defense of the natural law, no clear condemnation of the “Pride” ideology as intrinsically disordered, and no call for the faithful to resist such coercion. Instead, it often promotes a “dialogue” that, in practice, means the faithful are told to be “pastoral” while their symbols are confiscated and their verses are erased. The silence of the official “bishops” in the face of this persecution is a damning indictment of their apostasy.
The Duty of Resistance and the Primacy of Divine Law
The actions of the three Giants players, however imperfect, represent a natural law response to an unjust order. They witnessed to the truth in a hostile environment. The response of the state (DOJ investigation) and the corporation (MLB warnings) confirms the teaching of St. Robert Bellarmine and the canonical tradition: a manifestly unjust law, one that forces a choice between obedience to God and obedience to man, is no law at all and binds no one in conscience. The players had a duty to resist. The broader lesson is that the faithful cannot seek accommodation with a system that defines their faith as a hateful “message” to be regulated. As the Syllabus declares, “it is not lawful for bishops to publish even letters Apostolic without the permission of Government” (Proposition 28) is an error; so too is it an error to believe that the Church can or should seek permission from the state to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel in the public square. The path forward is not better “communication” with apostate powers, but uncompromising confession, even at the cost of earthly penalties.
Conclusion: The Covenant Endures
The rainbow, as a sign of God’s covenant with Noah, predates and transcends all human political movements. Its co-option is a blasphemy, a attempt to dethrone the Creator and redefine His symbols according to the dictates of a fallen world. The persecution of these players for inscribing God’s Word is a sign of the times, revealing the deep incompatibility between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of this world. The “optional” participation offered by the MLB is a trap, designed to make complicity with sin a matter of personal choice while maintaining the system’s anti-Christian character. The faithful must recognize that in such conflicts, there is no neutral ground. One either confesses Christ the King, whose covenant sign is the rainbow, or one bows to the beast. The Giants players, by their simple act, chose confession. The institutional response—apology, warning, investigation—is the predictable fruit of a society that has rejected its King. The covenant of God endures, and its sign cannot be permanently stolen by those who hate its Author.
Source:
Sen. Hawley says MLB admits error in warning Giants players over Bible verses (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 23.06.2026