Procession of 200 American Flags, Knights of Columbus on State Street
Less than one day after continued protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death, about two hundred fifty Madison area Catholics peacefully processed down State Street Sunday afternoon, carrying two hundred American flags. (The number of flags is according to a Facebook post by Reverend Father Richard Heilman, organizer of the procession.)
The unique procession honored both Flag Day and the Feast of Corpus Christi—the latter of which is a Catholic holy day traditionally marked by a Eucharistic procession. It began at three o’clock and lasted for over an hour, making its way from Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on Johnson Street to the steps of the Wisconsin Capitol, and back.
Passing directly in front of artists painting murals in recognition of black lives lost to police brutality, and sometimes temporarily halting their work, the mostly white participants sang hymns and prayed aloud. Few of the participants were seen wearing masks, and they did not adhere to social distancing recommendations. At one point a man from the procession stopped traffic on East Dayton Street for up to a minute so the procession could proceed uninterrupted.
The Knights of Columbus¹ attended the procession “in full force!” according to a Facebook post written by Reverend Heilman shortly before the procession. Knights of Columbus in attendance were photographed in traditional regalia, such as hats and badges.
The appearance of the Knights coincides with statues of Christopher Columbus, their namesake, being toppled and removed in cities across the country.
In an article called “Christopher Columbus and Fake History,” the Knights of Columbus website states: “[Columbus was] a man of faith and courage, not a monster. Many of Columbus’ modern critics rely on a warped and politicized reading of history, and it is not the first time the explorer has endured such attacks. […] Columbus represents the kind of heroic courage and religious faith that inspired the establishment of the United States.”
Columbus, in his letters to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, promises them “slaves as many as they shall order.” He is widely believed by historians to have trafficked in child sex slaves, some as young as nine, as evidenced by his letters to Juana de la Torre. His implementation of a forced labor and torture system upon indigenous people is documented by multiple eyewitnesses, including his son Ferdinand and Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas.
Reverend Father Richard Heilman is the parish priest at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church of Pine Bluff, author of the “Church Militant Field Manual,” and founder of the “United States Grace Force” [USGF], an organization he describes as “a new branch of the United States Armed Forces,” which “adheres to this ancient maxim, which was popularized by President Ronald Reagan: ‘We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.’”
The procession was livestreamed to the USGF Facebook Page.
One member of the procession wore a Make America Great Again hat. Reverend Heilman is known among area Catholics as a supporter of President Donald Trump. In 2017 he sent a letter to Trump along with two blessed rosaries. In the letter he attributes Trump’s success to his prayers and the prayers of his “special forces prayer warriors,” e.g.: “it seemed the polls were not all looking in your favor, Mr. President. We then all prayed a St. Jude Novena. […] On October 28, on the Feast of St. Jude, F.B.I. director James Comey reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. […] We are your special forces prayer warriors, Mr. President”.
In an episode of his “Grace Force Podcast” posted a few days before the procession, Reverend Heilman talks to a former LA County Police officer about “the dangers of defunding the police.” During the podcast, Reverend Heilman lists some of the issues he believes Catholics must “do battle against” as follows:
Abolish police? Are you kidding me? Isn’t it ridiculous — I literally started to laugh. […] Abolish police? Men are allowed in little girls’ bathrooms! Infanticide! […] Green New Deal! You could pick that apart for a day. Boys stealing awards and scholarships from girls. Marriage can mean anything. One person could marry two other people, you have three people in the marriage. Violent criminals released from prisons. 14 trillion dollars to pay for slavery reparations! I said, the democrats should pay for that, because we lost a lot of lives trying to abolish slavery. Relentless efforts to depose the president, and blatant religious discrimination.
Reverend Heilman, whose Facebook profile picture features a white and blue American flag overlayed with the words “Back the Blue,” delivered a sermon hours before the procession in which he quoted his podcasting partner Doug Barry as saying:
There is a spoken and unspoken pressure being put on us to kneel before the mob’s agenda to divide and destroy the country. […] Our loyalty is being tested, as is our resolve. Two of the most intimidating tactics used are fear and guilt. Now is not the time to buckle under this pressure. This is the time to speak loud and clear, that before God alone will we kneel.
Reverend Heilman continued:
Evil has erupted everywhere. It’s manifesting itself in rage and division. […] This afternoon holy souls are going to gather. People of faith who will not kneel before the mob, but only kneel before God. […] We’re going to push out the darkness with this light. Holy souls quietly, peacefully, lovingly in procession. […] My brothers and sisters, there’s a mob trying to push out God from our country. We will not stand for it.
At the capitol, altar boys and priests erected a temporary altar complete with incense and candles, where they celebrated Benediction, a devotional ceremony of the Holy Eucharist. (The Holy Eucharist is a consecrated host of bread believed by traditional Roman Catholics to be the body of Jesus Christ.) The procession then returned down State Street, concluding at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church.
The procession was led at times by about ten girls who had recently made their first Holy Communion, all wearing white dresses and veils. At other times it was led by Reverend Heilman, who bore a “relic of the true cross” and was accompanied by altar boys and men in cassocks carrying a crucifix and candles on staffs. Near the head of the procession a boy carried aloft a large American flag.
The main fixture of the procession was a white and gold canopy shielding the Eucharistic Monstrance, as is the tradition on Corpus Christi Sunday. It was carried by altar boys and men in cassocks. Under it, a priest carried the golden monstrance containing the Holy Eucharist. The featured members of the procession were followed by large banners bearing images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and other religious symbols, a large statue of Holy Mary on a litter, and finally a long trail of participants, almost all of whom carried small American flags. Predominating amount the participants were families with children.
A member of the procession, an older white gentleman who did not provide his name told me the following: “The reason for the flags is that today is Flag Day. […] It’s a statement to say that our country is number one, we have to be together, and the fact that we don’t want our religion taken away from us, or sheltered.”
I asked one of the nearby State Street artists who had seen the procession, a black woman painting a large mural, for her thoughts on the procession and its many flags. She declined to be named, saying: “It’s a religious thing, so I don’t want to be disrespectful. I’ll say this—it was weird.”
¹The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal service order which is active in philanthropy and conservative politics. According to Wikipedia, the Knights of Columbus gave at least fifteen million dollars to organizations lobbying against the legalization of same sex marriage between 2008 and 2012, and have given over one million dollars to anti-abortion and anti-contraception organizations.
