Labor Group Says St. Patrick’s Sells Sweatshop Goods

Nothing is sacred anymore.

A workers’ rights group yesterday accused St. Patrick’s Cathedral of selling religious items made under terrible conditions in sweatshop factories in China.

“It is immoral, it is unjust and it has to change,” he said.

Mr. Kernaghan, a veteran of battles with industries over the treatment of foreign workers, said the six-inch wooden crucifix and other religious articles were frequently made by women who toiled for pennies an hour in an unrelenting grind of assembly work.

Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, said yesterday that the archdiocese would investigate the charges. He said that Mr. Kernaghan’s news conference was the first time he had heard of the claim, adding that the gift shop buys its items from a variety of religious dealers.

“I am sure the cathedral gift shop directors will look into this now that it has been raised,” Mr. Zweilling said. “I don’t know at this point what the facts are.”