Catholic Charity Cancels Hooters Event

St. Patrick Center, a Catholic charity that provides assistance to homeless
people, has canceled a Thursday fundraising "Dine and Donate" event with a
downtown Hooters restaurant after drawing complaints that such a collaboration
wasn’t in keeping with the Christian faith.

Some opponents felt the Hooters image of scantily clad waitresses serving food
clashed with a charity that bills itself as ascribing to "traditional social
teaching of the Catholic Church."

Kelly Peach, a spokeswoman for St. Patrick Center, said Wednesday the charity
decided to cancel the event after receiving "a few dozen" complaints.

"I would say the complaints were ... would you call them religious-based
complaints? Essentially the people who complained did not think St. Patrick
Center should be associated with Hooters restaurant," she told msnbc.com.

St. Patrick Center, a member of a federation of Catholic charities that fall
under the umbrella of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, serves about 9,000 people a
year, providing food, clothing, shelter, job training and other services to
people in need.

For years, "Hooters Girls," as they are known, have helped out with the charity,
volunteering to serve meals (in proper attire) to the homeless and donating food
to the charity's sports championship trivia fundraising event.

But the idea of St. Patrick Center holding a fundraising event at the
restaurant, with waitresses clad in their revealing uniforms, rankled more than
a few Catholics. See Chick's ARE ROMAN CATHOLICS CHRISTIAN?